A 19-year-old crewman sitting on the railing of a fishing vessel in Sitka received minor injuries Sunday after a sea lion bit him from behind, according to Alaska State Troopers. In a Monday AST dispatch, Alaska Wildlife Troopers say they received a report that the vessel was at the pier of the Seafood Producers Cooperative in Sitka when the incident occurred. “The man was sitting on the railing of the fishing vessel with his back to the water,” troopers wrote. “A sea lion, described as a larger bull, jumped from the water and attempted to grab the man in the buttocks, causing the man to fall forward into the vessel. The man received minor injuries that did not require medical attention.” AST spokesperson Megan Peters says the bitten man was a crew member of the F/V Confidence, which was offloading bait herring at the time. “He received several large scratch marks on his buttocks as a result of the sea lion jumping from the water and biting him,” Peters wrote. “Thankfully he was wearing rain gear or it would likely have been worse.” While Peters says troopers don’t believe that the crew of the Confidence was feeding sea lions, feedings by others likely played a factor in the attack. “We believe this attack occurred as a result of the sea lion being habituated to humans and associating them with food,” Peters wrote. “This is the result of people either feeding sea lions, or improperly disposing of fish waste.” Julie Speegle, a spokesperson with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in Alaska, says the crewman is fishing Monday and officials haven’t yet had a chance to take a statement from him. “He was basically just offloading fish,” Speegle said. “There were no puncture wounds -- it was just abrasions.” According to Speegle, while previous attacks by sea lions have taken place, there’s no indication that a single sea lion has been repeatedly targeting humans. She asks that people both inform authorities of attacks and take steps to avoid their recurrence. “It happens occasionally, and we certainly encourage people to report incidents,” Speegle said. “Definitely exercise caution -- don’t feed them, because we don’t want them to associate humans with food.”
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