A TikTok video captures the moment a sea captain was forced to send a sea lion to its death at the fins of hungry orcas after the animal scrambled onto her boat to avoid the pod near Vancouver Island in Canada's Pacific coast.
'An orca looks right up at me,' @nutabull captioned the video. 'Where's my lunch, b****? Give it up now!'
Taken down since it was posted on Sunday, hundreds of commenters on Twitter have put themselves in the woman's shoes, discussing how they would have reacted to the trying situation.
'What the f***,' the woman said, panicked, as the equally-panicked sea mammal clambered up onto the her vessel . 'No, no, no, no - do you see what just came up on my boat?'
'You gotta go!' she begs the sea lion over and over
'What the f***,' the woman said, panicked, as the equally-panicked sea mammal clambered up onto the her vessel . 'No, no, no, no - do you see what just came up on my boat?'
Some users wondered why the woman didn't simply speed away, whisking herself and the doomed sea lion to safety. But things aren't that simple - in many coves and harbors, it is illegal to turn on engines within a certain distance of endangered animals like orcas
The animal looks back at her beseechingly as the woman frantically pans her camera at at least three orca whales circling
The animal looks back at her beseechingly as the woman frantically pans her camera at at least three orca whales circling.
As she tells the animal over and over that it has 'gotta go' and 'get in the water' it looks challengingly back at her, as if imploring her to hit the gas and get out of there.
'Oh my God, I don't know what to do,' the woman says, her voice wavering.
Some users wondered why the woman didn't simply speed away, whisking herself and the doomed sea lion to safety. But things aren't that simple - in many coves and harbors, it is illegal to turn on engines within a certain distance of endangered animals like orcas.
'I can't,' the woman said of the belated suggestion in a TikTok comment on the now-deleted video. 'Can you imagine starting the boat and taking off and the propeller hits one of the 250 only orcas alive - to the 2 million sea lions?'
'I can't,' the woman said of the belated suggestion in a TikTok comment on the now-deleted video. 'Can you imagine starting the boat and taking off and the propeller hits one of the 250 only orcas alive - to the 2 million sea lions?'
The woman audibly gasps and gulps as the orcas weave around and under the boat
The woman audibly gasps and gulps as the orcas weave around and under the boat - and with good reason.
Although an orca has never killed a human in recorded history, they have been seen working together to tip huge ice floes to catch escaping prey. Last year, the New York Post reported, a group of orcas systematically rammed the rudders of small boats to tip them over off the coast of Spain, terrorizing 33 seafarers.
Unimaginably strong, orcas often use their tails to punt seals up to 80 feet in the air, according to Newsweek, and they can launch their bodies - weighing between 3,000 and 12,000 pounds - up to 15 feet in the air.
!['Someone like me would have fought the orcas to save the sea lion, but [I get] we're all different,' wrote @Br3ADB0Y](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/09/27/20/48464047-10034337-image-a-38_1632772663405.jpg)
'Someone like me would have fought the orcas to save the sea lion, but [I get] we're all different,' wrote @Br3ADB0Y
