The recent Florida capture of a Burmese python measuring a state-record 18 feet, 8 inches, made headlines around the country.
A story I posted on GrindTv Outdoor was featured on the Yahoo homepage Monday and Tuesday and garnered 4 million views.
There were photos of scientists posing with the dead snake, courtesy of the University of Florida, but the missing element was video footage showing Jason Leon pulling the massive reptile from the brush and stabbing it to death.
That's where TomoNews US comes in. Its staff put together the accompanying animated video portraying what happened, based on reports, late at night on a highway in southeast Miami-Dade County.
The video is somewhat informative and viewers who are not angry with Leon for killing the snake probably will find the footage to be amusing.
It should be stressed that Burmese pythons are an invasive species and a threat to Florida's native wildlife. Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hopes to contain or control their numbers as effectively as possible, and praised Leon for removing this particular predator.
The powerful amberjack was so massive it might have been a world record.
But the fisherman who battled the monstrous fish, and the Mexican crew that helped deliver it from the Sea of Cortez to a remote Baja California beach, were not thinking about records.
They marveled at the size of the fish and hefted their great prize as if to see if it could, indeed, be hefted—then carved it up for fish tacos and fillets for the grill.
(Note: This is a reprint from a Pete Thomas story on GrindTv Outdoor.)
The International Game Fish Association lists a 156-pound amberjack caught off Japan in 2010 as the all-tackle world record. The fish caught last week by Kevin Shiotani was conservatively estimated to weigh at least 135 pounds.
As anyone who has done a lot of weight-guessing knows, however, estimates can be wildly inaccurate.
Regardless of a possible record lost, Shiotani's amberjack is one of the largest ever caught, although it's likely that larger specimens have been hooked and lost in the rocks.
The catch was made after a 25-minute struggle near Cerralvo Island, the southern-most island in the Sea of Cortez.
Shiotani is a regular customer of Tailhunter International Sportfishing, a La Paz-based charter business that trucks clients to a remote beach to fish Cerralvo and offshore waters out of pangas, or large skiffs.
"Kevin fought the fish for 25 minutes to a half-hour and got it to the boat and, of course, blew everyone away," he said. "They stuck a gaff in it, got it back to the beach, and started taking pictures. It's a magnificent fish."
Roldan said there was no scale on the beach and that he was not present when the fish was brought ashore. Had he been, he would have been sure to get the behemoth weighed on a certified scale.
He said that because amberjacks are so powerful and always lurk near structure, the larger fish are incredibly difficult to land.
"The largest we've put on a scale is 110 pounds, and 60- to 70-pounders have taken an hour or two hours to put on the boat, so this is just a fish that [Shiotani] happened to turn and put the wood to it, and got it back out of the rocks and got it to the boat.
"Like [with] a lot of world records, there was a lot of good luck and good angling."
There is one world record out of La Paz that seems as though it might last forever: a 114-pound roosterfish, a cousin of the amberjack, that was caught in 1960.
--Pete Thomas
--Photos of Kevin Shiotani's amberjack, being lifted by captains Mundo (top) and Nando are courtesy of Esteban Romero
"We have seen what I thought were false killer whales but they looked different," Rayor said. "At first that is what we thought they were but then we had doubts. They just hung around and played with our panga until we left."
False killer whales were named because they share feeding habits of some killer whales, or orcas--notably because they also attack and kill other cetaceans. (Both are actually dolphins.)
They're smaller than killer whales, however, measuring to about 20 feet (females to about 15 feet) and weighing to about 1,500 pounds.
Like killer whales, false killer whales establish strong social bonds and typically travel in groups of 10 to 20.
“False killer whales are typically found in deep, offshore, tropical to semi-tropical oceans and they feed on large game fish,” said Annie Douglas, a researcher with Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Wash. “However, they occasionally come into more coastal waters or stray into colder climates.
“They are very gregarious and are one of the few cetaceans that share there food with their group, and there have been numerous accounts of individual false killer whales offering food to divers and swimmers as well!”
Falkse killer whales are also known to strand on beaches, sometimes in much larger groups, in some parts of the world.
They're studied extensively in Hawaiian waters, where one of three distinct populations--a tiny population associated with the main islands--was recently listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
As rescue crews continue to search for survivors of Monday's devastating tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, and as what's left of the community struggles to cope, footage has emerged that helps to illustrate the magnitude of a twister that at one point was two miles wide.
The accompanying video, a stunning time-lapse, is one such example, minus the bodies and gore. The footage was captured by a photo crew aboard an OKC TV helicopter that was flying adjacent to the tornado.
At least 24 people, including children, were confirmed dead at the time of this post.
Emerging details, especially those regarding children at Plaza Towers Elementary School, are especially heart-wrenching. We'll leave the reporting of those grisly facts to news crews, but wanted to show people the scope and speed of a tornado that leveled virtually everything in its path.
Best wishes to Moore, and to other communities in tornado country.
As Gov. Mary Fallin said to reporters, "It's a terrible, terrible day for Oklahoma."
A YoVenice blogger on Saturday posted two photographs showing what he identified as a baby great white shark, which he helped rescue after the shark had stranded itself on the shore in Venice Beach, Calif.
However, shark expert Chris Lowe says the fearsome-looking junior predator, which sort of resembles a white shark, is a salmon shark.
Asked how he could tell the difference, Lowe replied via email: "Really dark back, sometimes splotchy. White above the pectoral fins (key ID characteristic). Short, pointy nose. Large eyes. Double caudal fin keel."
The blogger, Robert DM, stated that he encountered the shark near the breakwater during an early-morning walk, and that he managed to "throw" the shark back into the water.
A surfer then "took it on his board past the rocks and let it swim away."
Salmon sharks prey largely on salmon, but also eat squid and other fishes. They typically range in Alaskan waters from spring through fall, but there have been sporadic sightings recently off Southern California.
They can measure to about 10 feet and weigh nearly 1,000 pounds, and though they boast a fearsome appearance salmon sharks have never been positively identified in attacks on humans.
Lowe, who runs the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach, said salmon sharks that strand themselves on beaches typically suffer from brain ailments caused by bacteria.
The biologist added that the shark rescued in Venice "probably won't survive."
If you ever wondered what it would look like to be mouthed by a grizzly bear, here's proof that it would not be a pleasant experience.
Brad Josephs, a wildlife biologist and expedition leader for Natural Habitat Adventures, got the footage while in Alaska filming "Great Bear Stakeout" which was shown on BBC One and Discovery Channel.
Josephs said that the above video was "filmed with a GoPro camera that I strapped to a rock with a rubber band! The first bear to appear is an older mother, and the second is her 3-year-old cub. The bear only gently mouthed the camera, and didn't even put a dent in it!"
Josephs also shares some other behind-the-scenes footage on his website that was obtained during the making of the documentary.
In support of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
and its effort to keep hunters and anglers informed, Pete Thomas
Outdoors, on Thursday or Friday, posts marine biologist Carrie Wilson's
weekly California Outdoors Q&A column:
Question: I would like a definition of "stowed" in regard to fishing gear while transiting a state marine reserve. The reason I ask is that a sport fisherman reported he was stopped by a patrol boat at the Channel Islands and told he could have been cited for having his rods in the rod holders. He was told he should have had them in his small cuddy.
It does not seem reasonable to require my buddies and I "stow" all our rods and reels in my cabin every time we need to make a move across a state marine reserve. Or when we are at an island, we should not be required to drive six miles out, then whatever distance across, and then back in another six miles … at $4 or more a gallon. All of this would be quite a hardship for those of us fishing from private sport boats just to stow our fishing gear when maneuvering around state marine reserves. (Fred H., Anaheim)
Answer: There is no requirement for equipment to be stowed under the Marine Life Protection Act laws covered in section 632 of the California Code of Regulations Title 14. CCR Title 14, section 632(8) covers the law you are referring to as follows:
Transit or Drifting. Vessels shall be allowed to transit through marine protected areas and marine managed areas with catch onboard. Fishing gear shall not be deployed in the water while transiting through a state marine reserve. Fishing gear, except legal fishing gear used to take species identified as allowed for take in subsection 632(b), shall not be deployed in the water while transiting through a state marine recreational management area, state marine park or state marine conservation area.
Q: My Italian grandmother asked my brother and me to bring home some fresh octopus so that she can make her favorite pasta dish. The only problem is we don’t know how to catch them. Can you help us out? (Joe K.)
Bramlett's striper, caught after his ailing wife had persuaded him to go fishing, measured 44.1 inches long and boasted a girth of 37.75 inches.
Songer's photo is an eye-catcher and when we posted the story of Bramlett's catch on March 6, several people commented that the photo looked fake because there's no way Bramlett could have held up so large a fish so easily.
If you look closely, though, the fish is hanging on a stringer.
Bramlett landed the behemoth after a 25-minute struggle while several witnesses watched from boats and shore.
"I was exploring the wildlife refuge and heard the screech of a red-tailed hawk, loud and repeated. I scanned the sky but didn’t see anything at first. Then, in the distance, I saw a young red-tailed hawk sitting on a telephone pole and the red-winged blackbirds were jumping on and off its back and head, apparently to drive it away from a nesting area.
"I immediately stopped, changed to my long lens and set up my camera in anticipation for the show. As I walked closer, I anticipated that the hawk would take flight and the blackbirds would pursue it, to drive it out of their territory. I raised the camera and the blackbird actually landed on the hawk multiple times.
"The small bird was so far more maneuverable in flight that all the hawk could do was tolerate it and fly away."
Dugan explained via email that the photos "are 100% legit" and that his only edits were exposure- and shadow-related because lighting was harsh at certain points because of the bright sunshine.
"I went back to the same spot a few days later hoping lightning would strike twice," he said. "But the red-tailed hawks were hunting way off in the distance."
Photographs of a gray whale spotted off this past week off Namibia represent the first-ever documentation of the species (Eschrichtius robustus) in the Southern Hemisphere.
Additionally, the mammal is only the second-known gray whale to have been documented in the Atlantic Ocean in modern times. The other was was spotted in 2010 off Spain and Israel.
"I think it's really exciting; it's amazing, actually," said Amiee Lang, a spokeswoman for NOAA Fisheries. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the photos."
(Note: A similar post appears on the GrindTv Outdoor blog.)
The 2010 sighting was described by one scientist as "the most amazing sighting in the history of whales," so imagine the buzz this latest sighting--in an area that has no history of gray whales--will create among marine mammal enthusiasts once it's widely reported.
It's prpbable that both animals entered the Atlantic via the Northwest Passage, which has been partially free of ice for brief periods during the past four years.
Gray whales used to inhabit the North Atlantic, but that population became extinct in the 1700s.
"It's tantalizing because its a mystery," said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a researcher with the American Cetacean Society. "We don't know how this whale got so far from where gray whales are supposed to be."
Said Lang: "I'm curious what the whale has been able to eat or what it's finding for food. It looks a little skinny in the photos."
There are only two existing gray whale populations. There's a recovered population of about 22,000 in the eastern Pacific; those mammals range from Arctic waters (Alaska region) to Baja California.
There's also a critically endangered population of about 130 animals in the western Pacific. They range from Russia to the Korean Peninsula.
The gray whale off Namibia was first spotted May 4 by crews aboard dolphin tour boats in the Pelican Point area in Walvis Bay. They were not sure what type of whale it was until a week later, on Sunday (May 12), when a member of the stranding network confirmed that it was a gray whale.
"The question is now, What is the origin of this whale," John Paterson wrote on the Namibia Dolphin Project website. "Is it another individual that has traversed the Northwest Passage, or perhaps traveled around the southern tip of South America and across the Atlantic?"
Schulman-Janiger, who runs the ACS-LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project in Southern California, said it's more likely that the whale traversed the Northwest Passage.
"It just makes more sense because there are so many gray whales up in that area during the summer, and that if the ice was clear it'd just swim right through into the Atlantic," she said.
"It makes less sense that a whale that's supposed to stop off Baja would just keep going and swim all the way down to the tip of South America near the Antarctic and enter the Atlantic that way."
Said Wayne Perryman, a gray whale expert with NOAA Fisheries: "I think it's just blind luck for a whale to get through. It's like a maze up there. My guess is that it was feeding and looking for food, and when ice formed behind it the whale probably just kept going. These animals are ranging farther north and east to find food so that makes the most sense."
Schulman-Janiger said that this sighting and the 2010 sighting could be a sign of the times in this era of climate change, and that if gray whales can make it into the Atlantic, other species in the Atlantic can make it into the Pacific.
Meanwhile the Walvis Bay Stranding Network is trying to keep tabs on the lost and lonely gray whale, and is asking locals to share sightings information.
--Photos showing the gray whale off Namibia are courtesy of John Paterson/Namibia Dolphin Project. Graphic showing possible routes taken by the whale, and another that showed off Israel in 2010, is courtesy of artist Uko Gorter
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