Sea Lion Swings Octopus Into Unsuspecting Kayaker’s Face

A sea lion is making the rounds online after he slapped an unsuspecting kakyker in the face with an octopus.

New Zealander Kyle Mulinder got a little too close to nature during a recent kayaking excursion in the waters around Kaikoura, New Zealand, his filmmaker and surfer friend Taiyo Masuda’s GoPro ANZ capturing the moment that a mischievous sea lion brought him another sea creature.

“Right around lunchtime, several seals started to swim around, we just thought they were refreshing their bodies — yet, apparently, they were seeking more food,” Masuda told PEOPLE of the encounter.

According to Masuda, the sea lion popped up beside his kayak and was attempting to eat the octopus it had caught, but his attempt to shift the meal in his mouth caused the eight-legged creature to slap Masuda’s friend directly in the face.

“Such a raw moment, brought so much laughter to all of us all day long,” Masuda said, and it quickly became apparent that Masuda and his friends were not the only ones getting a laugh from the octopus slap. The video soon began to make its rounds on social media, with hundreds of people getting a kick out of it.

“He received a seal of disapproval,” one person joked.

“I can’t stop watching this,” another person wrote. “Like what did you do to make that seal go out fight an octopus kill him then bring it to slap you with it.”

“It’s right there in the seal guide handbook, chapter 8, page 42, paragraph 3….’don’t screw [with] a seal or they’ll hit you [with] an octopus.’ Read the manual guys,” another person commented.

Thankfully, neither Mulinder nor the sea lion were injured during their brief run in. The fate of the octopus may be a bit grimmer.