Adorable baby sea lion jumps on to UCLA rowers' boat and affectionately nuzzles them for heartbreaking reason

A gregarious baby sea lion jumped into a UCLA rower's boat, delighting the crew as it nuzzled up against some of the athletes. 

But experts revealed that the young sea lion did so for a heart-breaking reason: it was severely malnourished. 

Logan Hibbard, a sophomore at UCLA, was practicing her rowing early in the morning on the Marina del Ray when the sea lion sprang from the water and into her boat.

'A sea lion hopped onto the bow deck of one of our boats and just swam around to the boat that I was in,' Hibbard told KTVU.

Despite the surprise, the sophomore athlete wasn't frightened. 

'Honestly, I tried to be really calm,' she said. 'It was just a baby sea lion. He was really, really friendly.'

Hibbard continued: 'I figured if I stayed calm, that would make him more calm. And so, we just sort of had an understanding with each other.'

While the sea lion was in the boat, Hibbard's teammates were quick to take a few pictures. 

In the photographs, the sea lion can be seen pressing against Hibbard in the boat.

In another picture, the creature appeared to be drowsy and on the verge of falling asleep. 

Drawing inspiration from the UCLA Bruins, the crew team dubbed the creature 'Bru.'

At one point during her encounter with 'Bru,' Hibbard tried to pet the sea lion. 

'It didn't really like it,' she observed. 'So, I stopped.'

Soon the crew team realized something was the matter with 'Bru,' who was now resting in Hibbard's lap.  

The coaches swathed the sea lion in towels and then took it to the shore. 

Hibbard and the other rowers contacted the Marine Mammal Care Center in Los Angeles, where authorities rushed 'Bru,' so that the creature could recover.

According to the center's CEO, John Warner, who spoke with McClatchy News, the baby sea lion was 'desperate.'

He explained that he would have huddled against Hibbard for warmth; the cold water had made its skeletal body hypothermic.  

'An animal coming onto a platform that people are present on is not natural. They don’t seek out people.'

'I want to commend the rowers for not pushing it back into the water- that probably would have been a death sentence for the animal,' he continued. 

Warner put the sea lion's age as being somewhere between nine and eleven months old. He said that the animal appeared to be roughly the same size it was at birth.

'That's the alarming part of his health condition,' the sea-lion expert said. 'He should be about three or four times the size he is now.'

Hibbard told KCBS that she would like 'Bru' to rehabilitate entirely. 

'I just hope that he’s able to fully recover eventually and, hopefully, go back where he belongs and keep swimming and practicing with us in Marina Del Rey.'