Did a seal assault a triathlete off Malibu? Online video captures come across with animal

A 22-year-old Portuguese triathlete training for an approaching race off Malibu this week was bitten by an animal considered to be a seal, race organizers explained.

The athlete, Vasco Vilaca, was not severely injured in the encounter off Zuma Beach front, in accordance to a publish Friday by Super League Triathlon.

The incident occurred late morning on Thursday, according to the triathlon.

“So the wounds are not much too poor,” Vilaca explained in a movie posted by race organizers. “It little bit my arm. Thankfully I had the wetsuit and it type of protected me pretty nicely, just one of the teeth that actually punctured through the wetsuit.”

Vilaca claimed he also received cuts on his hand though grabbing the animal’s mouth to check out to pry himself loose following it wouldn’t enable go.

At very first, he reported, he discovered the animal relocating toward him but was not guaranteed what to do.

“It variety of felt like a pet dog smelling me and I sort of just tried out to gradually, with no accomplishing everything aggressive, like drive it little by little absent,” Vilaca reported.

At some issue a wave pushed the animal in opposition to him, Vilaca claimed, so he pushed the animal away extra aggressively, which he thinks fearful the creature and prompted it to chunk.

“You do not imagine about dying,” Vilaca said. “I was more pondering about surviving. When it little bit me I was additional like … how do I get out of this circumstance?”

Vilaca was able to go away and get back again to the seashore without having additional significant incident.

He is scheduled to race in Tremendous League Triathlon Malibu at 1 p.m. Saturday at Zuma Beach front, according to race organizers.

Though the animal is considered to be a seal, the specific species could not be verified.