California Sea Otter Hijacking Surfers in Santa Cruz

The biggest threat to surfers in Santa Cruz, California, may not be a shark taking a bite out of their board, but a lone sea otter commandeering it to ride those gnarly waves. 

Local officials have been made aware of this issue since 2021, the New York Times reported. The culprit is a five-year-old female which officials are calling Otter 841.

Just this past Monday, Otter 841 stole the surfboard belonging to Joon Lee while he was out surfing at Steamer Lane. Lee tried to escape from the otter, but it bit off the leash. He abandoned his board after the sea otter climbed aboard, biting and tearing at his board.

“I tried to get it off by flipping the board over and pushing it away, but it was so fixated on my surfboard for whatever reason, it just kept attacking,” he said.

Another teenage surfer found his encounter with Otter 841 to be pretty amusing. Noah Wormhoudt, 16, jumped off his board and watched as the sea otter climbed aboard and “caught a couple of nice waves.”

However, authorities are now working to capture and rehome Otter 841 due to the increased public safety risk, according to a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Gena Bentall, director and senior scientist with Sea Otter Savvy, said interactions with sea otters and humans are not safe, as the sea mammals “have sharp teeth and jaws strong enough to crush clams.”

Sea otter encounters with humans are rare, as they have an innate fear of humans, Tim Tinker, an ecologist at the University of California, said.

However, Otter 841 was born in captivity and moved to Monterey Bay Aquarium after being weaned. Her caretakers wore masks and ponchos to prevent her from creating positive associations with humans.

But after being released, Otter 841 failed to have any inhibitions toward humans.

“After one year of being in the wild without issue, we started receiving reports of her interactions with surfers, kayakers and paddle boarders,” Jessica Fujii, sea otter program manager at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, said. “We do not know why this started. We have no evidence that she was fed. But it has persisted in the summers for the last couple of years.”