INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. – A routine swim in Lake Tahoe turned into a frightening fight for survival for Reno woman Lynnette Bellin, who was attacked by an otter near Hidden Beach in Incline Village. The attack was a “humbling reminder” that knowing how to swim and respond to an emergency are essential life skills, she said.
Bellin, a swim instructor who has spent more than two decades swimming in Lake Tahoe, said the attack happened Aug. 30.
She said she fought off the otter in the water before climbing onto the rocks to escape. But the animal followed her out of the water and continued attacking. She eventually managed to get away and make her way to the East Shore Bike Trail, where she encountered first responders. She was taken to the emergency room, where she received 38 stitches for her injuries and rabies shots following the attack.
Bellin later shared video of her injuries and experience on social media, where the story quickly went viral.
“If you had asked me two days ago, I would have felt like I got struck by lightning. I’m like, it’s not going to happen twice. I’ll go back in that water,” Bellin said.
However, her perspective shifted after she was contacted by another man who said he was also attacked by an otter in Lake Tahoe earlier in August. The two encounters prompted Bellin to look beyond the frightening nature of the attacks and toward a lesson she has spent her career teaching: the importance of being prepared for the unexpected in the water.
As an Infant Swimming Resource self-rescue instructor, Bellin teaches children as young as six months old how to respond when they unexpectedly find themselves in the water. Now, she says her own experience was a powerful reminder that those skills aren’t just for children, they’re life skills everyone should have.
“It was a humbling reminder that everybody needs to know how to react to unexpected situations in the water,” Bellin said. “Being a strong swimmer is a life skill that everyone should have, because you absolutely never know when you’re going to need it.”
“So often paddleboarders are not wearing their life vests,” she said. “They have them attached to their boards, which is legal. But it just made me think, if an otter attacked someone that was on a paddle board without a life vest who wasn’t a strong swimmer, the outcome could have been very different.”
Bellin said the calm conditions that day were a reminder that an emergency doesn’t have to come with a warning.
“I was out on a clear, calm day. There were no people, no boats, it was glass water. I didn’t think I was going to have to use my self-rescue and survival skills,” she said. “Things can change in an instant.”
For someone who has spent decades swimming in Lake Tahoe, the attack was a reminder that experience does not eliminate the unexpected. But preparation, she said, can make a critical difference when the unexpected happens.
“As I was fighting this otter off, I didn’t have to think about my breath control or how to maneuver the water,” she said. “That was all automatic so that I could just flee as quickly as I could.”
