Deer seen swimming in San Francisco Bay far from shore

A video from a passenger on a San Francisco Ferry showed an unusual sight on the water this week: a deer swimming through the cold waters of the bay.

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In a video posted by Congressman Jared Huffman, the deer paddles close to the ferry and seemingly very far from the shoreline.

Huffman said in the post that his daughter captured the unusual video this week, writing, “Look closely, it’s not a whale that caused the boat to suddenly slow down, and it’s not AI, it’s something ‘deer’ to all of us!”

The video comes months after a coyote was spotted swimming out to Alcatraz in January, marking the first time that species was seen making the dangerous trek. Initially, experts believed that the coyote made the relatively short swim from San Francisco but later discovered the animal had actually made an arduous 2-mile swim from Angel Island. The animal has yet to be captured and removed from the island.

However, unlike coyotes, deer are actually known to be good swimmers and have been spotted in California waters before. In 2024, a deer was caught “body surfing” at Seacliff State Beach in Santa Cruz County, according to KSBW-TV. Last year, a deer was spotted swimming in Inverness. On Angel Island, deer and raccoons are the only large land animals present since they “excellent swimmers,” California State Parks says.

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It’s not clear from the video where the swimming deer was heading or how far they were from shore. Emails to Huffman’s office were not been returned by the time of publication.

A spokesperson for San Francisco Bay Ferry said he had not heard of the incident and could not recall a deer swimming in San Francisco Bay previously.