'I just saw this torpedo come at me' — US actress describes Clifton seal attack

Loulou Taylor couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

She could see crowds of people were waving and shouting from Clifton beach but her swim seemed to be going fine.

Then something hit her like a torpedo.

“It bit my arm and elbow first and then it kept biting me,” the South African-born US actress told the Sunday Times this week from a private hospital where she was having her wounds treated.

“Whatever it was did not want to let go.”

What Taylor did not know was that she was being attacked by a small seal — the latest in a series of unusual seal attacks that has prompted widespread concern.

The speed and ferocity of the attack was such that she thought she was fending off a shark.

All she could see was a blur of motion from something that appeared to be the size of a dog.

“I remember thinking: ‘Thank God it’s not a great white shark — it has to be some kind of small aggressive shark.’

“I am quite good under pressure but I think I may have panicked a bit,” said Taylor, who now lives in Cape Town and is well-known for her role in the US TV series, Raised by Wolves.

Her bites may have been more severe had she not been rescued by several bathers, one of whom carried her to safety. “I remember being lifted and carried to the shore. This guy said: ‘You were attacked by a seal.’ I was in a state of absolute shock.”

News of the unusual attack on a sunny Tuesday morning has raced around the world, fuelled partly by a graphic video that captured the panicked mood on the beach — with many onlookers unsure of what was attacking swimmers.

Two other people, including a child, were bitten, though fortunately the wounds were not serious.

Other attacks late last year, including multiple attacks on Fish Hoek beach by a larger seal, resulted in more serious injuries and a diver had to receive a skin graft after an earlier incident near Hout Bay.

In the wake of the Clifton incident, government authorities have warned bathers to be wary of marine wildlife.

Late last year, several residents were also bitten by an otter, which added to the debate about wildlife management techniques.

But the recent incidents are of particular concern to scientists who believe the aggressive behaviour — unusual for seals, which normally prefer “flight” to “fight” — is linked to brain damage caused by a harmful neurotoxin called domoic acid.

The theory appears to be gaining currency in light of the continuing attacks.

One Cape Town stakeholder said he had seen more seal bites in the past six months than in the past 20 years.

Domoic acid is found in red tides — algal blooms that occur regularly along the coast. Seals may be eating seafood contaminated by the red tide, thereby exposing themselves to the neurotoxin. Domoic acid has been shown to cause neurological damage that previous studies have linked to aggressive behaviour.

It was found in one or more individuals from 13 different locations — from Lamberts Bay on the West coast to Muizenberg in Cape Town — in a study conducted by Cape Town-based research group Sea Search.

“It is one potential explanation for this sudden change in behaviour,” Sea Search founding director Tess Gridley told the Sunday Times last year.

“We obviously want to check this line of inquiry,” she said, as some of the recent seal behaviour “is very, very unusual and doesn’t make sense”.

Gridley said changes in seal behaviour had been documented in sea lions in California — also linked to domoic acid.

The waters around southern California have seen an increase in naturally occurring algal blooms and domoic acid, with the world’s highest measurement of the neurotoxin recorded near San Pedro.

The increasing frequency of algal blooms is a cause for concern due to possible links with ocean warming or increased nutrient runoff from land.

Cape Town has had several recent reported sewage spills, some of them linked to infrastructure challenges caused by load-shedding.

Brett Glasby, wildlife management programme co-ordinator at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, said the domoic acid theory was also consistent with the recent mass seal die-offs along the coast, when many seals were seen “fitting” before death.

“If we look at what has happened internationally, seals have been seen behaving outside the norm about 18 months after a die-off event. The consensus is that they display heightened aggression,” Glasby said, adding that the behaviour could be triggered by stressful situations such as a crowded beach or approach by divers.  

He said the recent incidents of aggressive seals was unprecedented: “I’ve been rescuing seals off beaches for 14 years now and have had one seal charging me — a big one.”

“We don’t really have records of this level of aggression,” Glasby said.

He said more research was needed to investigate the unusual behaviour.

Some seal experts believe seals are also increasingly stressed due to a decline in fish stocks or due to human encroachment on their habitat.

Taylor said she feels no animosity towards the seal, which she believes was a victim of human impact on the ocean environment.

“People are quick to dismiss global warming and human impact but now all of a sudden it’s becoming very real,” she said.