A drone photographer at a California beach captured video of an orphaned seal pup that swam up to multiple surfers and climbed onto their boards.
Hartel had no problem locating the animal, as it was spending some quality time with the gathered surfers.
"Basically, he swims from board to board jumping on different surfers' boards. He'll sit there for five to 10 minutes and then paddle to another surfer's board and he does it all morning long," Hartel told KFMB-TV.
He said surfers did the right thing by not touching the seal.
"None of the surfers are touching him, they're very respectful, they're letting him do his thing. It's just quite odd it keeps jumping up on surfboards," he said.Beach visitors said they believe a seal killed by a great white shark in the area a few days earlier was the pup's mother.
SeaWorld said a crew was sent to the beach to evaluate the pup after reports came in from surfers. The crew found the seal in the water and determined it appeared healthy and was not in need of rescuing.
