Surprise Guest Visits A Dumpster For Fish Du Jour In Argentina

Featured Image Credit: Daily Mail
By: Kira Krall

Southern sea lions can usually be seen tailing fishing boats for scraps or resting on beaches. A man in the fishing town of Puerto Rawson, Argentina found a sea lion in a very surprising place. Watch the video!

The sea lion first rose up onto its rigid back flippers to investigate the alluring scents radiating from the dumpster like the smell of fresh bread at a bakery. Apparently, the fish and shrimp scraps passed the test, because the pinniped decided to hurl itself onto the dumpster to get bigger mouthfuls. He was relatively unbothered by the human with a smartphone and seemed to enjoy the distraction from his gorging himself.

A male southern sea lion behind a female. We know the sea lion in the video is a male due to the large size and lion-like mane. Image Credit: Flickr/ Vince Smith

As fishing boats come back to port, fishermen clean their catch and discard fish parts overboard. Marine mammals all over the world know the sights and sounds of a fishing boat, and dolphins like these killer whales have been caught stalking boats and stealing catches. This Argentinian pinniped decided against exerting all that energy and instead followed his nose to a massive (and free!) meal.

A species of sea lion eating a fish. The pinniped in the video likely kept eating long after filming, as male sea lions can eat up to 8% of their body weight in a single sitting. Image Credit: reddit.com

Southern, or South American, sea lions are members of the family Otariidae. They’re closely related to other eared seals like fur seals and their northern sea lion counterparts. Southern sea lions were hunted aggressively in the 19th and 20th centuries for their meat, oil, bone, whiskers, and blubber. They are a protected species but fishermen have been calling for sea lion culls since the 90s in order to protect their catch from the notorious thieves.