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Video captures sea lion dragging girl into water from pier

By Ed Adamczyk

May 22 (UPI) -- Onlookers in British Columbia, Canada, captured dramatic footage of a sea lion as it dragged a young girl from a dock into the water before she was rescued.

The unidentified girl survived after a family member jumped into the water to save her.

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The girl and her family were visiting Richmond's Steveston Fisherman's Wharf, a waterfront promenade and tourist area near Vancouver, on Saturday. In a cellphone video shot by onlooker Michael Fujiwara, the sea lion's head can be seen emerging from the water as a crowd urges it to swim closer to the dock. The crowd applauds as the animal comes closer, but as the girl approaches the edge of the dock, the sea lion leaps from the water, grabbing her dress and pulling her into the water.

A family member immediately jumped into the water to pull the girl to safety. She was unharmed in the incident.

Andrew Trites of the Marine mammal Unit of the University of British Columbia later said that "as a rule, sea lions don't attack, but was in search of food."

"People don't understand that this is not a tamed animal you might see at a circus or in a movie, these are wild animals who are hungry, and if they are habitually trained to get food, they will come close and want it. All I saw was an animal that was calm, curious and hungry. Even after it all happened, the sea lion stayed in the same spot, still waiting to be fed," Trites told NBC News.

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