Okay, I grew up near the beach, and I have never seen this.
A video that is going viral on X shows a lifeguard saving a deer that was swept out to sea.
In the video, the deer is seen attempting to stay above the choppy waves and is soon rescued by a lifeguard.
People dove deeper into the story and gave some context:
Lifeguards rescued a deer that was struggling to stay above the waves at Flagler Beach in Florida on Sunday, July 6, according to photos and videos obtained by WOFL-TV, WKMG-TV, and UPI.
ADVERTISEMENTIn one clip shared with WOFL-TV, lifeguard Chase Hunter paddles out on a board and grabs the struggling deer from the waves. He then places the deer onto the board before swimming back toward the beach.
“We have a job to do. We save lives, whether it’s a human life or in this case, a deer,” Hunter told WOFL-TV. “It was a good rescue, a unique one.”
According to WKMG-TV, the first responders who assisted with the rescue were unsure how the deer had entered the water or how long it had been struggling in the ocean.
Hunter noted to WOFL-TV that the deer had been struggling against him throughout the rescue, but he tried to calm the animal down by “talking to it.” He said he told the deer, “I’m here to help, calm down.”
Watch the moment it happened here:
Lifeguards rescued a deer that got swept out to sea off the coast of Flagler Beach, Florida, on Sunday, with a witness telling ABC News the incident coincided with a possible shark sighting.
The unusual rescue took the lifeguards almost two hours to complete. pic.twitter.com/yudKiGWYb8
— ABC News (@ABC) July 10, 2025
Another video from witnesses:
Lifeguards in Flagler Beach rescued a distressed deer caught in rough surf on Sunday. The animal was safely returned to land despite dangerous waves and shark sightings. pic.twitter.com/wsqyotF7SQ
— Alan Hume (@alanocu) July 9, 2025
The Daytona Beach News Journal reported that a shark was nearby the deer at the time of his rescue:
Ocean Rescue and the Flagler Beach Fire Department were responding to a call of a deer spotted in the water on the south end of the beach July 6.
“At first, I didn’t really believe there was a deer out there,” Hunter said.
He soon witnessed the four-legged animal struggling in the surf. And the deer wasn’t the only thing in the water: A large shark was taking an interest in the situation.
ADVERTISEMENTBut Hunter got on his board that afternoon and paddled out to the deer anyway.
“So I pretty much go over there and grab it and throw it onto the board and just sit there, talking to it, letting it calm down, telling it it’s OK,” Hunter said in an interview on July 8. “It gets spooked, jumps out, starts swimming away again.
