Cape Town surfer Nick Woodward had a terrifying encounter with what he believes was a rabid Cape fur seal at Big Bay last Thursday.
According to the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, rabies has now become endemic in Cape fur seals.
Woodward is one of the latest victims in a string of unprecedented seal attacks on humans along the Cape coast.
‘Just’ a seal
Woodward was surfing at Big Bay around midday last Thursday when he heard another surfer screaming for help.
“I paddled across to him and, initially to my relief, saw that it was a just seal,” Woodward told The South African.
“I proceeded to hit the animal with my hard surfboard; the other guy was on a bodyboard and mostly submerged in the water.”
However, the large seal quickly changed tack and turned on Woodward. What followed was a five-minute ordeal. The surfer described how he fought off the animal as it continued to lunge at him.
“I punched it and even poked my thumb into its eye when it got ahold of my board. At one stage it went for my face – I could smell its breath,” he said.
“Fortunately, I pulled back in time. The encounter lasted about five minutes and I actually got very lucky.”
“I’ve got stitches in my hands and wounds down the back of my leg – mainly puncture wounds.”
Unusually aggressive
Adult Cape fur seals can weigh up to 400 kilograms, and Woodward said this one definitely “wanted him.” Even after he thought the animal had retreated, it came “streaking back” at him.
The Cape Town local said he felt “knackered” after fending off the mammal, and was left shaken at how things could’ve ended a lot worse.
“What scared me most was how tired I was getting fighting it,” Woodward exclaimed.
“I boxed for a long time and it’s tiring enough fighting on land, let alone 300 metres off shore against a large seal. It was like punching a hippo.”
“If the animal had hit an artery, I could’ve bled out in the water and become the first person to be killed by a seal in Cape Town!”
Pandemonium in Big Bay
Once Woodward finally got back to shore, chaos had broken out.
The bodyboarder he paddled over to assist had managed to get out of the water relatively quickly.
“By the time I got in, the Big Bay shark siren was going and people were getting out of the water,” he added.
“Lifeguards there are a good bunch – one was about to swim out to the only surfer left, but I stopped him. Thank God the guy got out.”
Rabies can be fatal
After the ordeal, Woodward called a surfer friend, who urged him to go straight to the emergency room.
He eventually received medical care at Kingsbury Hospital. “They cleaned all the wounds – it was bloody sore,” he said. “The punctures were quite deep.”
The surfer has since started the four-part rabies vaccination course. “What’s disconcerting is that rabies can lay dormant in your system for years, and once symptoms appear, it can be fatal,” Woodward noted. “So I took the treatment very seriously.”
Nick Woodward is an experienced surfer who has shared the ocean with countless seals before.
“We usually ignore them, but this one was definitely rabid – big, aggressive, and set on me.”
