Seal Slaps Kayaker In The Face With Octopus [Video]

Kyle Mulinder was kayaking off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand with a group of friends when he had a rather fishy experience.

As reported by Cnet, the group was just off the coast of the town of Kaikoura when they noticed something incredible taking place just beneath the surface of the water. A seal and an octopus appeared to be having some kind of argument, with the seal thrashing the octopus about in his mouth.

For some time, the group watched as the seal and the octopus fought, dipping beneath the water and coming back up to the surface.

It was then that Mulinder seemed to inadvertently end up in the exact wrong place at the wrong time. The seal breached the water with the octopus in its mouth, and whipped the unsuspecting mollusk right into Mulinder’s face!

Fortunately for the rest of us, Mulinder’s friend Taiyo Masuda had his GoPro rolling all the while, and caught the unfortunate face full of octopus on camera. Masuda later shared the clip to his Instagram account, and the video has gone viral.

“@barekiwi getting octopus smashed into his face by a seal?? I’ve never had such an amazing kayak everrrrr!!” Masuda captioned the clip.

Unfortunately for the octopus, being unceremoniously slapped into a surprised kayaker’s face would not quite spell the end of the fight, and he and the seal continued their rampage just beneath the surface of the water, with Masuda capturing some more of their argument. The kayakers banded all their vessels together as the seal stayed near Masuda and Mulinder’s kayak to continue his disagreement.

Mulinder had a few choice words for the pair afterward.

“I’m not sure who got more of a surprise, the seal, the octopus or me. Either way, the octopus held onto the bottom of [the] kayak for some time before our guide was able to get it off with his paddle, then it swam away to fight another day. True story.”

While some on social media have questioned the authenticity of the clip, with some even suggesting they staged it (how even?) Masuda pointed out there is no way such a perfect moment could possibly have been scripted.

“Such a raw moment,” Masuda said, noting that the event had the men laughing for the rest of the trip. “What a day to remember.”