Ella Murphy was attacked by the creature, thought to weigh about 300kg, as she stood on a surfboard being towed behind a boat on Saturday.
The animal was close to charging the 13-year-old girl a second time as she floundered in the water off the coast of the small town of Lancelin in Western Australia when she was rescued by the driver of the boat, Chris Thomas."You can only describe it as like a white pointer (shark) jumping out of the water," he told News Limited newspapers.
"It actually lined her up. It jumped out of the water at her and hit her head-on. It must have been travelling at an enormous speed. It opened its mouth and grabbed her head. It latched on."
Thomas manoeuvred his boat between the sea lion and the girl to prevent a second mauling."It was going back for her, it was looking for her and it spotted her," he said. "I had this horrible feeling I was not going to make it back in time."
Ella, who suffered a broken jaw and lost three teeth in the attack, was in a stable condition at Princess Margaret Hospital late Saturday.
Her mother, Michelle Forbes, said her daughter had a gash under her chin which was "quite close to her carotid artery.""We could have lost her," she said.
Sea lions are a protected species and it is thought that environmental officers will attempt to move it into another area rather than kill it.
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