Outdoors, action and adventure

New Zealand diver plunges in to rescue entangled orca (video)

A New Zealand orca that had become entangled in the rope of a crayfish pot was saved Tuesday by a diver who jumped in with a knife and cut the mammal loose.

 The incident occurred a few hundred yards off the Coromandel Peninsula.

The orca, whose tail had become ensnared by the rope, had been crying out to nearby family members.  But Rhys Cochrane, a veteran diver, managed to cut the rope and allow the orca to rejoin its companions.

"He didn't seem to mind or maybe even knew that I was trying to help him," Cochrane told 3 News.

The accompanying video is from Good Morning America. The 3 News report, which does not offer an embed code, contains more footage and detail (click on the 3 News link to watch).

Said Cochrane: "The whole time he was calling; I could hear vivid calls from the orca and just at the end there were five or six orcas including the bull."

Serial sea lion killer on the loose in Western Washington?

The death toll among sea lions that have been shot to death recently in Western Washington officially stands at nine, and authorities are searching for clues and asking for tips that might lead to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the killings.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has confirmed that two bullets were found in the head of the latest carcass found on the Nisqually Delta.

Seven other sea lions were found with bullet wounds in the same area during the past few weeks, while one carcass was found on a beach in West Seattle.

One of the carcasses was identified as a federally-endangered Stellar sea lion.

NOAA is asking that people who might have information about the killings call the agency's enforcement hotline at (800) 853-1964.

King 5 News in Seattle is reporting that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who provides information leading to an arrest and conviction.

"This is a violation of U.S. Federal law and the person or persons responsible for these shootings must be apprehended and brought to justice," Sea Shepherd Capt. Paul Watson stated on the group's website.

Sea lions are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. 

-- Sea lion image is courtesy of Pete Thomas

Ralph Mikkelsen, 80, shows he can still land the giant tuna

Ralph Mikkelsen of Northridge, Calif., is one tough angler, who on Thursday posed in San Diego alongside a 306-pound yellowfin tuna he landed during a 15-day excursion into Mexican waters.

The catch, made aboard the American Angler, gives Mikkelsen, who will be 81 next month, six yellowfin weighing 300 pounds or more—a feat that is unrivaled.

"I’ve been waiting for the next 300-pounder to come for 24 years," he said of his latest catch, made after a 30-minute battle that included several runs up and down the rail.

Mikkelsen caught his first "super cow" in 1980, a 321-pound yellowfin. His last, before the recent catch was, a 308-pounder boated in 1988.

As veteran long-range anglers are aware, these are specialized trips and not for the queasy or faint of hard. Giant yellowfin tuna are incredibly powerful and landing them requires strength and stamina.

Of course it helps to have high-tech fishing gear and multiple-speed reels, which were not available back in Mikkelsen's heyday.

"He made several runs up high, so I had to keep changing gears," Mikkelsen said.

The top catch aboard the American angler was a 320-pound tuna by Dennis Saylors.  It was Saylors' first super cow in 20 years of fishing on longe-range boats.

The American Angler was skippered by Brian Kiyohara, whose passengers landed 27 yellowfin weighing 200 pounds and three topping 300 pounds.

That's a lot of sashimi.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo: Ralph Mikkelsen (above right), poses with 306-pound tuna caught aboard the American Angler. Skipper Brian Kiyohara (in orange) is to the left of the fish. Credit: Bill Roecker / Fishingvideos.com

Zoo visitors 'horrified' as lions kill, devour popular barn owl

Cats often attack birds, but it's not often that people are witness to very large cats — in this case lions — attacking and killing a cute and very popular owl.

The bizarre incident occurred over the weekend at Colchester Zoo in Essex, England, as visitors watched in alarm.

The barn owl, named Ash, was being used in a falconry display outside the lions' enclosure.

Ash somehow became spooked and struck the window of another enclosure, then flew in a daze to the roof of yet another enclosure, before making a low flight across the lions' pen.

Ash landed to the side of the pen, but slipped and fell inside, whereupon nature took its course.

"Families were horrified when a female lion 'clubbed' the bird out of the air before a male pounced and devoured it in front of them," wrote Kiran Randhawa for the London Evening Standard.

Gavin Duthie was visiting with his 2-year-old son, Daniel, who burst into tears at the sight.

"Daniel was in tears along with most of the people who were there," Duthie told the newspaper. "Women and children were screaming but it was all over in seconds.

"It's in the lion's nature — I have taught Daniel that lions are not fluffy animals. He was very upset.

Zoo officials also were upset. A spokesman explained that "in 25 years of falconry displays nothing like this has occurred as the birds do normally instinctively know that this isn't a safe place to go."

It remains unclear what initially spooked the unfortunate bird of prey.

-- Image shows Ash the barn owl before the bizarre mishap claimed the popular zoo resident's life

Alaska Airlines to stop distributing prayer cards to passengers

Frequent travelers who either appreciated or were offended by Alaska Airlines' practice of distributing prayer cards to passengers will be displeased, or happy, to learn that the 30-year practice will end on Feb. 1.

For the last six years, only first-class passengers were presented with the paper cards, usually at meal time.

A Seattle Times story states that Alaska Air Group CEO Bill Ayer, and Alaska Airlines President Brad Tilden, delivered this email Wednesday to regular customers:

"This difficult decision was not made lightly. Some of you enjoy the cards and associate them with our service. At the same time, we've heard from many of you who believe religion is inappropriate on an airplane, and some are offended when we hand out the cards."

The email also contained this passage: "Our priority at Alaska is to fly our passengers to their destinations safely, on time and with their bags."

The airline began passing out prayer cards in the 1970s in an effort, an Alaska spokesman once told the Christian Post, to "fancy up the meal service since many folks like to give thanks before a meal."

Offshore killer whales make rare appearance off Southland

As the southbound parade of gray whales continues off Southern California, killer whales keep stealing the limelight. About 40 "offshore" killer whales were seen Thursday off Orange County and, later in the day, beyond the Long Beach area.

This comes after several sightings earlier this month of a pod of 10 "transient" killer whales. Offshore killer whales, unlike transients, do not prey on sea lions and other marine mammals. They eat sharks and fish.

Offshore killer whales, or orcas, are most commonly seen in the Queen Charlotte Islands area off British Columbia, but they tend to disappear for long periods. They are rarely seen off California, and more rarely spotted off Southern California.

Killer whale researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger recalled sightings of much larger pods of offshore orcas on Feb. 11, 1995, and on Feb. 14, 2005.

There are believed to be between 300-400 offshore killer whales along the West Coast.

The accompanying video, with footage captured Thursday, is courtesy of Capt. Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari. Note the upside-down orca at the beginning of the clip, and amazing underwater footage captured from within a small viewing pod that enables passengers to see how marine mammals act beneath the surface.

Yellowstone visitation tops 3 million for fifth consecutive year

The natural beauty of Yellowstone National Park continues to draw visitors in record numbers, with almost 3.4 million people spending time in Yellowstone in 2011.

Last year was the fifth consecutive calendar year visitation topped the 3 million mark and the second highest annual numbers on record, bested only by the year prior when a record 3.6 million people visited the park.

In fact, the last time Yellowstone recorded fewer than 3 million annual recreational visits was 2006, with 2.87 million visits.

Overall, more than a quarter of the park's total 2011 visitation was during the month of July, with 906,934 recreational visits recorded.

December visitation was down 5% compared to year-ago levels, with 16,509 visitors recorded in 2011 compared to 17,386 during the same period in 2010.

Detailed park visitation information is available online at http://www.nature.nps.gov/stats/.

Yellowstone National Park - Annual Recreational Visitors:

Rank	Year	Visitation
1	2010	3,640,184
2	2011	3,394,321
3	2009	3,295,187
4	2007	3,151,343
5	1992	3,144,405
6	1999	3,131,381
7	1995	3,125,285
8	1998	3,120,830
9	2008	3,066,570
10	1994	3,046,145

Image of Old Faithful geyser in the winter and attendance chart courtesy of National Park Service

Southland radio show host trying to boost Baja tourism

I tuned to AM 830 Thursday night and heard something I hadn't heard in years: positive talk about Baja California.

Not Cabo San Lucas and other sun-baked and idyllic Baja California Sur destinations, but northern Baja and once-popular tourism spots such as Rosarito Beach, Ensenada and Tijuana.

The weekly Fish Talk Radio show is hosted by Philip Friedman, a friend and longtime acquaintance. He had organized, through the show and the Philip Friedman Outdoors Facebook page, a Thanksgiving weekend trip that headquartered at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, and included fishing out of Ensenada and day trips elsewhere in the region.

Eighteen people had signed up, including a mother with two young children, who was sharply criticized by her neighbors for taking her kids to what they perceive to be a dangerous environment.

Surely, everyone who pays attention to the news has heard about the warring drug gangs and the many killings between drug henchmen and police during the past few years. Those headlines and reports, many of them unfairly sensational, were responsible for killing tourism in northern Baja.

What wasn't always reported, however, was that tourists were not targeted in the killings, or that about 14,000 ex-patriots from the U.S. reside in the Rosarito Beach area and that they feel safe at their homes and walking city streets.

They watched sadly as several businesses closed and others became deserted. I made a few trips across the border during the past couple of years and saw very few U.S. tourists. But the few I did encounter seemed to be enjoying themselves.

More recently, the killings between drug gangs appear to have subsided, or they simply no longer warrant screaming headlines. Tourists are trickling back, thanks to Baja travel clubs and people like Friedman, who has a soft spot for Baja and its people.

But it's a very slow trickle. Friedman is trying to get northern Baja tourism folks and/or businesses, mainly the bigger hotels, to help sponsor a weekly spot on his radio show devoted to Baja.

He's under the belief, like many Baja travel veterans, that tourist destinations are safe as long as tourists exercise the same common sense they use during travels to other countries and even to other U.S. cities, some of which have alarmingly high murder and crime rates.

If Friedman gets the sponsorship for at least 15- or 30-minute radio spot, he'll call it Baja Now and organize sporadic trips not just to Rosarito Beach, but destinations such as San Quintin, historic Meling Ranch, the wine country above Ensenada, San Felipe and Tijuana.

The most recent trip included a van ride from the border to and from the Rosarito Beach Hotel, eliminating concerns among those who were afraid to drive in Baja.

His group rode horses on the beach, visited taco stands, went fishing and caught an array of colorful rockfish. Some merely stayed at the hotel, which has security and is a resort complete with bar, restaurant, surfing beach and fishing pier.

The Baja California tourism agency, which apparently is considering spending money on a campaign to place ads on taxicabs in San Diego and L.A., would be smart to give this a try. It seems a far wiser use of funds to have people chatting up Baja on the radio each week, and sharing stories about their trips on Facebook and other social media platforms.

It's probably a complicated process, given the bureaucracy in Baja government and among business leaders, and it may not happen.

But Friedman deserves credit for trying, and a big vote of thanks from the tourism folks for doing what he has done already, and what they've had trouble accomplishing: getting people talking positively about Baja again.

I've already told him to sign me up for the next trip, as I suddenly have a craving for authentic Mexican street tacos.

-- Top Image shows Luna Kayamori riding a horse south of the Rosarito Beach pier on a recent trip to northern Baja California, organized by Philip Friedman. Bottom image shows view from Rosarito Beach Hotel

Surfers hit the waves at Lake Tahoe, thanks to high winds

Southern California isn't the only region in the state enduring high winds. At Lake Tahoe it was so windy today that surfers ditched their snowboards in favor of surfboards and rode fair-sized waves generated by the ferocious gusts.

The scene represented a drastic departure from the famously blue and placid freshwater lake on the California-Nevada border, at 6,225 feet. The waves were far from perfect but, being so far from the ocean, any surfers in the region were not complaining.

The accompanying image was captured by Tim Rantz of Homeward Mountain Ski Resort, via the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Gordo Banks near Cabo San Lucas yield 378-pound tuna

A monstrous yellowfin tuna was caught Wednesday in the Sea of Cortez north of Cabo San Lucas, and to nobody's surprise, Capt. Hugo Pino was involved.

Pino, a legendary captain from the La Playita fleet near San Jose del Cabo, was with longtime client Apostolo Poulos, a Greek angler who hauled up the 378-pound tuna after a 90-minute battle at the Gordo Banks.

It's believed to be the second-largest yellowfin ever caught on rod and reel in the Los Cabos area, and one of the largest yellowfin tuna ever landed.

The area record, according to Eric Brictson of Gordo Banks Pangas, is a 383-pound yellowfin caught by Pino & Co. three years ago aboard the boat "Fisherman."

 The all-tackle world record is a 405.2-pound yellowfin caught last December on a San Diego-based long-range trip in Mexican waters. That struck from the book a 388-pound, 12-ounce specimen that had held the record for more than 30 years.

The 378-pounder caught Wednesday aboard the 22-foot panga Alicia hit on a trolled live bait fish called a chuhuil, rigged to 100-pound-test line.

Said Brictson: "Hugo Pino is perhaps the most legendary of all local La Playita pangeros, at least from this generation. He seems to consistently catch more and larger fish than others do. Hugo guided panga sportfishing charters for close to 25 years, now he and his sons are mainly commercial fishermen, though they still do fish all of the big tournament, as members of the famed "Fisherman" team."
 
-- Image shows angler Apostolo Poulos (red shirt) and legendary Los Cabos captain Hugo Pino (back right) posing with 378-pound yellowfin tuna caught Wednesday at the Gordo Banks. Credit: Gordo Banks Pangas