20 miles off Santa Cruz!

Barry Rietz · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 6:29 pm Post subject: 20 miles off Santa Cruz!

http://videos.komando.com/watch/5097/kims-picks-a-fisherman-set-up-an-underwater-camera-and-what-he-caught-was-magical

JamesTXSD · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 6:46 pm Post subject:

Very cool!

Thumbs Up

MikeR · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 7:26 pm Post subject:

Wow, that was cool!! Just last November I too encountered some Pacific White Sided Dolphins, just off of Lime Kiln Point on San Juan Island. Had never seen anything like it. It's nowhere near as good of video, but if you like dolphins there is a short video in my album. Really neat to see them up close under water like that!

-Mike

JamesTXSD · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 8:11 pm Post subject:

The Pacific White Sided Dolphins have shown up in the San Juans a few times this past year. Like other sea mammals, you are supposed to stay 100 yards from them... kinda hard to do when they want to play by the boat! Cool

Another great video! Thumbs Up

MikeR · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 8:30 pm Post subject:

SEA3PO · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 8:55 pm Post subject:

Last year while coming back from Catalina we had a whale come up next to our boat (we stopped) and just 10' in back of us....it was thrilling, from a distance it they don't look that big and powerful...it was thrilling...we felt very special and were thrilled... we happily would have stayed 100 yards away if we had known...it just appeared...so neat.. it was special to us...it was like a message to us...

"When your going through Hell...Just keep going" (Winston Churchill)

Joel
SEA3PO

JamesTXSD · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 9:56 pm Post subject:

I sure understand the dilemma, Mike. For the record, I am not aware of anyone getting cited in the San Juans regarding these animals (PWS Dolphins). I just had to chuckle - you were surrounded by them, and it was pretty obvious that they wanted to play.

To paraphrase the philosopher Cindy Lauper: sometimes, dolphins just wanna have fun.

Out on the water today (in the Tropical Tip)...

Coming right at us. On both sides.

Sometimes they're on the hunt for food, other times they just want to play.

hardee · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 10:39 pm Post subject:

I got to see the PWsD's quite often up north. They spooked me at one point where I was in the dingy and they came at me from a mile away, in a broad line, up to almost 25 yards then in unison, they all turned 90 degrees to their right and went off across the bay, only to repeat the exercise several times after I was out of the way. They were driving fish down the bay, along the steep shore into a small nook at the end of the bay, and then having a feeding frenzy.

Nice pictures Jim. Enjoy not being in 37 degrees and 40 knot winds, (SJI weather today.

Harvey
SleepyC Moon

rogerbum · Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 11:10 pm Post subject:

When tuna fishing, we frequently see large groups of pacific white sided dolphins. A couple of years ago we came across a group that was probably 1/2 mile in diameter and literally contained 1000's of animals. We watched for 30-40 minutes and many came to "visit". They are special animals for sure.

rjmcnabb · Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 10:35 am Post subject:

Unfortunately, I have no pictures but an encounter with Orca still gives me goose pimples of delight.
In Summer 2015, I motored out of Thieves' Bay on Pender Island; I was still in the large bay at the exit when I saw Orcas and a small flotilla of whale watching boats well offshore. Where I was is an area with common Orca sightings, close inshore (so close I have been splashed by them as they pass the stone breakwater.) I shut down the engine and waited a little. Around the corner of the island where the breakwater starts, seven Orca abreast came along, straight off my port beam and headed my way. As they got closer, two separated astern and two others separated off the bow; the other three (including a large bull with a tall dorsal fluke, in the middle of the trio) just simply sounded under my boat. I jumped across the cockpit to watch them come out under the starboard side. The male obviously knew how tall his fluke was, because nobody bumped the boat.
As you could imagine, I was speechless; however, people at houses on the cliff top clapped and hailed me. Those folks know their whales and will hail to,
and report, any watch boats that get too close or pursue the whales.
Another, and funny story, maybe 2014 or 2015: Close offshore from the breakwater is a large rock, submerged at all times, with a large batch of kelp growing on the top. A group of Orca came around the bend, rising often and breathing fast as they frequently do. One must have been inattentive, because it rose to breathe, started to dive again, and made a panic turn to port. I guess that partway out of the water s/he lost sonar for a sec and submerged again aimed at the rock. I assume that it was a youngster.
Sailing a small boat in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Florida panhandle, regularly would bring Dolphins alongside to have a look at me; a real treat, once, was when a momma brought her baby alongside — I had a chance to talk to both of them, and managed to resist trying to pet the calf.
Lovely times.
Rod