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A 13-year-old girl lost three teeth and had her jaw broken when a 300kg sealion attacked her north of Perth.
Ella Murphy was being towed on a surfboard behind a boat near the fishing town of Lancelin when the sealion lunged at her on Saturday and seized her head in its mouth.
Family friend Chris Thomas, who was piloting the boat, managed to put it between Ella and the sealion as it came back a second time. He said later that she would have died if he had not done so.
Ella was in a stable condition last night after surgery at Princess Margaret Hospital.
Her mother, Michelle Forbes, said the damage was close to her carotid artery. "We could have lost her."
Mr Thomas said: "You can only describe it as like a white pointer jumping out of the water. It was really sort of movie-like.
"This thing just exploded in a full-on, frontal attack.
"It actually lined her up. It jumped out of the water and hit her head-on. It must have been travelling at enormous speed. It opened its mouth and grabbed her head. It latched on."
Mr Thomas, a surfer, said he had seen the sealion in the area often.
The Department of Conservation and Environment has started a search for the animal with the intention of moving it from the area. Sealions are protected in Australia.
Otago University associate professor of zoology Liz Slooten said she was not aware of any sealion attacks in New Zealand. A sea lion mouthed the hood of a diver at the Auckland Islands about 10 years ago but it was possibly an act of curiosity or being territorial and "wasn't what you would call an attack".
She said people should treat sealions like a big dog and keep a sensible distance of about 10m away.
- AGENCIES AND STAFF REPORTER
