An Olympic-scale problem?
The surfing apocalypse is indeed thriving Swarms of soft-top surfers are dominating the lineups, pro surfers are struggling under the reign of OnlyFans, and now aggressive seals are terrorizing South African surfers with abandon. Sure, fit and healthy surfers out in the cold Atlantic have had to contend with the threat of great white sharks for ages, but the threat of seals is far more worrying.
“I was surfing the other day and this seal showed up in the lineup. [of surfers] Greg Oelofse, coastal management officer at Cape Town Council, Guardian“Usually the surfers would enjoy the interaction, but now everyone was paddling as fast as they could to get away.”
Scientists are not sure when or where the seals first became infected with the virus, but it is causing great fear and damage: Last month, a seal bit several surfers within minutes, leaving one with “horrific facial wounds that could only have been inflicted by a very aggressive animal.”
There are an estimated two million Cape fur seals in South Africa and it’s unclear how many of them are infected with foamy influenza. “We want to know the infection rate,” he said. [of the disease]”We’re concerned that rabies could become endemic among seals, or spread to other coastal mammals such as Cape clawless otters, Oelofs continued. “We’re very concerned about the impact on seals,” he said. “And we definitely don’t want to have humans get rabies.”
To be honest, I’m not that scared of clawless otters, but to be honest, I’m not scared of coronavirus either.
I think the real concern is the threat to professional surfers who have experience with foreign diseases. Tyler Wright is the first one that comes to mind. Together Filipe Toledo from Brazil. He will be heading to Tschopo in a few days’ time after taking a year off to recuperate mentally and, of course, the whole world will be cheering him on, hoping that one of the greatest stories in the history of sport will come to life before our eyes.
I’m with them, if a violent seal gets in the way…
…Hmm.
I will, of course, be covering all the action from Paris and am really looking forward to entertaining all the passionate athletes here. I see foie gras as a kind of antidote to the dark times.
More details will be revealed as the story progresses.
