Curious sea lion has a tug-of-war with diver after taking a fancy to his flippers and nibbling them from every angle
- Pall Sigurdsson was swimming among a sea lion colony in La Paz, Mexico
- Sea lion starts biting front of flippers before moving around to diver’s heel area
- The Google employee from Switzerland called the clip he shot ‘RIP fins’
A diver had a playful encounter with a sea lion after it started biting on his fins.
Pall Sigurdsson, a Google employee from Switzerland, was swimming among a sea lion colony in La Paz, Mexico when the tug-of-war started.
In the clip, entitled, ‘RIP fins’, the animal makes several attempts at chomping through the rubbery gear.
Each time it loses its grip, the curious creature tries again, experimenting with different parts of the aquatic footwear. It even turns upside down at one point.
The cheeky sea lion bites on diver Pall Sigurdsson’s fins as he swims with the colony in La Paz, Mexico
The Google employee, from Switzerland, can only watch as the animal continues to nibble on his footwear in the clip he calls ‘RIP fins’
At one point, the sea lion turns upside down in an attempt to nibble on the rubber. The animals are playful by nature and use their mouths to investigate foreign objects
Towards the end of the footage, it focuses its attention on Mr Sigurdsson’ heel before swimming away.
The diver reckons the sea lion didn’t want to actually eat the fin – rather, it was the animal’s version of playing.
He said: ‘They behave similarly to each other. Also, they probably love the awkwardness of a diver when the fin comes off.’
A separate video of Mr Sigurdsson with sea lions that day links through to the footage seen here, with the message, ‘A pair of fins died during the making of this video’.
Sea lions, which are playful by nature, use their mouths to investigate – and do have a fondness for nibbling flippers and other items of snorkelling gear.
Towards the end of the clip, the curious creature explores the diver’s heel and ankle area before swimming away