Sea lions 'are not pets'

Photo: The Canadian Press

Tourists stop to take photos on the dock at Steveston Harbour.

Jocelyne Dramisino says she made her little cousin watch a hair-raising online video before taking her to a Vancouver-area wharf on Tuesday where days earlier a sea lion yanked a young girl off the dock and into the water.

"I wanted ... to make sure that she was a little bit smarter than other people have been in the past so that that would not happen to her," Dramisino said during a visit to Steveston Harbour in Richmond.

The video shows a young girl leaning over the edge of a dock, giggling at an adult male California sea lion swimming less than a metre away. The girl sits down on the guard rail before the animal grabs her dress and pulls her backwards into the water. A man jumps in and lifts her to safety.

A spokeswoman for the Vancouver Aquarium said in an email that the girl's family contacted the facility and is getting the appropriate medical treatment after she received a superficial injury.

Dramisino said she would still bring visiting friends and family to the harbour, but it's important to keep a distance from wild animals.

"They are not our cats and dogs that we have at home," said Dramisino, who lives in North Vancouver. "Although they do seem friendly and they look cute, they are wild animals, and they are more vicious than you probably would tend to think."

The sea lion appears to have been drawn to the dock on Saturday by adults who were reportedly throwing bread crumbs into the water.

In an interview with the CBC, the father of the girl pulled into the water denied that anyone in the family was feeding the animal. Identified only by the family's surname, he said his daughter was too close to the sea lion and that she learned her lesson the hard way.

Since the incident, the Steveston Harbour Authority has plastered the dock with warning signs telling people not to feed the wildlife and to be careful around the water's edge.

A Fisheries and Oceans Canada note warns that people found disturbing a marine mammal can faces fines of up to $100,000.