Pete Thomas Outdoors

Laird Hamilton surfs through Malibu Pier on giant wave

By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

Laird Hamilton, a legendary big-wave surfer, made headlines Wednesday by helping to rescue a surfer in distress in enormous surf at Surfrider State Beach in Malibu.

But it's what Hamilton did on Tuesday evening that has captured the attention of surfers  monitoring highlights during a powerful swell generated by Hurricane Marie, off Mexico about 1,000 miles away.

Hamilton shot the pier on one of the larger set waves, and the dangerous feat was captured on video.

Hamilton, who owns homes in Hawaii and Malibu, was on  the beach when he spotted a surfer who had lost his board and was in distress. Hamilton swam out and helped pull the man to shore, with the assistance of others.

“Oh, he was happy, he was thankful,” Hamilton told ABC News. “His eyes were big and he was appreciative that he was back on the land.”

As for shooting the pier, a feat that involves surfing between dense wooden pylons at wave speed, it's danger is obvious. But not so dangerous, perhaps, for someone of Hamilton’s stature (most people refer to him simply as Laird).

The footage shows Laird, who was on a standup-paddleboard, catching one of the larger set waves and riding it toward the pier. The wave was so large that it almost scraped the bottom of the pier.

“The guy’s nuts,” says the person videotaping, a moment before Laird shoots through the pylons without incident, drawing applause from the beach.

Hurricane Marie is weakening rapidly, but the largest swell to hit Southland beaches in years is expected to last into the weekend.

335-pound yellowfin tuna landed off Cabo San Lucas, before Hurricane Marie closes ports

Miguel Angel Castro poses with 335-pound yellowfin tuna; photo by Eric Brictson

As Hurricane Marie was beginning to send huge swells to the Cabo San Lucas area on Saturday,  local panga fishermen landed one of the largest yellowfin tuna ever caught in the region.

The tuna weighed 335 pounds on a Gordo Banks Pangas scale.

Gordo Banks Pangas runs out of La Playita in San Jose del Cabo, north of Cabo San Lucas on the Sea of Cortez.

The tuna bit a trolled live skipjack tuna at Outer Gordo Bank. It was landed after a two-hour fight, involving three fishermen, on 80-pound-test line.

Eric Brictson, who owns Gordo Banks Pangas, weighed the fish at 7 p.m. Saturday.

The local marina and the Cabo San Lucas port were closed Monday and Tuesday because of storm surges generated by Hurricane Marie, which was at Category 5 strength on Sunday.

By Tuesday afternoon Hurricane Marie, located 675 miles west of Baja’s tip and traveling away from land, had weakened to a Category  2 storm.

Large ocean swells generated by Marie began arriving on Southern California beaches on Tuesday.

–Pete Thomas

Hurricane Marie sending massive surf to Southern California

Massive swells generated by Hurricane Marie off Mexico are predicted to reach Southern California beginning Tuesday.

Wave heights in some areas, notably north Orange County, are expected to exceed 20 feet on Wednesday, when the swell is expected to peak. Wave heights at the world-famous Wedge in Newport Beach could exceed 25 feet, according to a media alert issued Monday by Surfline.com.

Hurricane Marie, located about 490 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas and churning in a northwesterly direction, reached Category 5 strength on Sunday. On Monday, Marie was at Category 4 strength, still a major storm, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph.

Storm swell hits Baja California Sur north of Cabo San Lucas; photo via Pisces Sportfishing

Enormous swells began slamming the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur late Sunday, prompting officials to close the port at Cabo San Lucas, at Baja California's tip.

Southern California regions that will receive the largest waves, according to Surfline, include North Orange County, Southern Ventura County, and portions of North Los Angeles County.

But the swell should produce large surf at all south-facing areas.

Strong rip currents will be generated by the large surf, and coastal flooding is possible in low-lying areas during high tides on Wednesday and Thursday.

Hurricane Marie is expected to remain at hurricane strength until late Wednesday. It’s predicted to become a tropical storm by 5 a.m. Thursday, as it continues to weaken.

 –Pete Thomas

Stranding of by-the-wind sailors, a truly epic event

By-the-wind sailors strand by thousands in La Push, Washington; photo via NOAA Olympic Peninsula National Marine Sanctuary

By Pete Thomas, GrindTv

They ride the wind and currents, traveling in whatever direction nature intends, and every so often the mysterious blue sea creatures end up stranded on beaches throughout the west coast of North America.

This is one of those years.

By-the-wind sailors, as the gelatinous, oval-shaped critters are sometimes called, began washing ashore in Washington and Oregon more than a month ago. Since then the mass stranding has taken on the form of an alien-like invasion, with the critters showing as far south as Southern California, and as far north as British Columbia.

By-the-wind sailor glides atop glassy waters off Monterey, California; photo by ©Jodi Frediani

Naturally, they’re stirring curiosity among beachgoers, who step around them with care, poke at their jellylike bodies, and marvel at the sight of an animal that actually boasts a tall clear sail (fin) atop its body.

Scientific name: Velella velella. They’re sort of like jellyfish, but not actual jellyfish. They sting to stun their prey, but are not considered harmful to humans.

The photo below, captured this week in the Washington community of La Push, reveals the epic nature of the stranding, involving perhaps hundreds of thousands of by-the-wind sailors.

The other images, captured by naturalist Jodi Frediani in Monterey, California, show what the creatures look like up-close.

By-the-wind sailors stranded on a Monterey beach; photo by ©Jodi Frediani

Michael Ellis, in a blog post for Bay Nature, writes: “The limp, soggy pieces of blue protoplasm elicit more curiosity than any other bit of flotsam along the California coast.”

Frediani this week wrote on Facebook:

“I’m afraid I’ve fallen in love! With these magical, ethereal little sailing creatures. Their delicacy belies the thousands of miles they travel at the mercy of the winds and currents. Feeding on plankton just below the water’s surface, they drift and spin until eaten or stranded upon a distant shore. They have a small platform which rests on the sea and travel with the aid of a gossamer sail.”

David Bader, director of education at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, told CNN: “Every now and then, the currents and winds will change and these guys will, instead of being pushed out to sea, they actually wind up on the beach.”

By-the-wind sailors feed mostly on plankton and fish eggs, which they catch with their tentacles.

Three by-the-wind sailors floating in a bucket; photo by ©Jodi Frediani

Bay Nature offers some interesting details about the life history of Velella velella: “The reproductive polyps apparently bud off small medusae (miniature jellyfish-like structures) somewhere in the middle of the ocean. The medusae sink to depths of over 7,000 feet and grow gonads which produce sperm or eggs.

“Fertilization occurs in the dark abyss. The small young develop a float, secrete gas into it and rise slowly thousands of feet to the surface. Here they glide along feeding on animal plankton that they sting with specialized cells (located on the tentacles) called nematocysts.

“Drifting and growing, drifting and growing, Velella floats along without a care in the world. Well, not quite. There are two predators. A ocean-going sea slug and a bubble-crafting snail also cruise the ocean eating all the By-the-Wind Sailors they accidentally encounter.”

Unfortunately, the creatures do not live very long on shore, and basically fade and all-but evaporate over time.

Said Bader: “A lot of people probably never knew an organism like this existed in the world. And you know the winds change, and all of a sudden they wash up on shore and we get to see what the ocean is really made of.”

Tiny gray whale spotted in Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor

Gray whale swims inside Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor; photo by ©Erik Combs/Harbor Breeze Cruises

A young gray whale–believed to be the same whale spotted Wednesday in San Diego’s Mission Bay–was spotted Friday inside Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor.

The accompanying image, showing a barnacle-covered 16-foot gray whale, was captured early Friday afternoon by Eric Combs for Harbor Breeze Cruises.

The tiny whale–16 feet is about the same size as newborns–probably has been scouring the sandy harbor bottom for possible prey items.

Most of the 22,000 gray whales have already reached their Arctic feeding grounds, having spent the winter in Baja California nursing and mating grounds.

This calf, or very small juvenile, is not with its mother but it appears reasonably healthy.

Perhaps it will show up next in King Harbor in Redondo Beach or, more likely, Marina del Rey, as it slowly travels north.

It’s at least the second small gray whale to be spotted off Southern California during the past few weeks.

In late July, a juvenile gray whale tangled in rope was spotted off San Diego. The rope was removed by good Samaritans off Orange County, and the whale was later spotted inside Cabrillo Marina, within Los Angeles Harbor.

Gray whales feed along the bottom on small crustaceans, such as amphipods, during the Arctic feeding season. But the mammals are highly opportunistic–they prey on more items than any other species of whale–and will even feed on small fish and shrimp-like krill.

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a whale researcher, posted this statement Friday afternoon on Facebook:

"NOAA is asking for vessels to please keep give this whale some breathing space. It may decide to linger in our harbor for a time, possibly feeding on benthic (bottom) fauna; in the 1980's, a young gray whale stayed and fed in Long Beach Harbor for four months!"

–Pete Thomas

Joe Ludlow's 181-pound opah could be a world record

Joe Ludlow poses with 181-pound opah caught aboard the Excel

Three anglers recently completed a rare and perhaps unprecedented feat when each landed an opah on the same day aboard a San Diego-based boat fishing in Mexican waters.

Opah, also referred to as moonfish, are rarely caught by sport fishermen, and for three people to catch one on the same vessel was considered extraordinary.

But lost amid the hype swirling in fishing circles when the photo of this opah trifecta surfaced on the Excel Sportfishing Facebook page was that one of the moonfish, a 181-pounder caught by Joe Ludlow, is 18 pounds heavier than the existing world record.

The International Game Fish Association lists as the all-tackle world record a 163-pound opah caught in October 1998 off San Luis Obispo in Central California.

That was an El Niño year and El Niño-like conditions (un usually warm water) are prevalent this summer off California. Opah catches tend to be associated with warm-water events.

Justin Fleck, captain of the Excel, said Ludlow was one of five anglers that hooked an opah at about the same time, soon after the boat had stopped over a school of yellowtail.

Most people were fishing near the surface with bait but the five anglers dropped heavy lures into deeper waters, and suddenly all five were hooked into large fish that fought much differently than yellowtail.

“The fish were pulling the guys up the rail toward the bow, and back toward the stern, then back to the bow, but they weren’t really taking any line,” Fleck said.

Opah are oval-shaped with silvery-red bodies and vermillion-colored fins. When the first opah was spotted and identified, many customers stopped fishing and started following the five anglers around the boat.

“It became a sideshow,” Fleck said.

Ludlow’s fish was the first to be brought over the rail, after a 30-minute fight.

Armando Castillo, Joe Ludlow and Travis Savala (left to right) pose with opah aboard the Excel; photos courtesy of Excel Sportfishing

Two others were gaffed minutes later, while two became unhooked and swam off.

The Excel was fishing in 190 feet of water near San Martin Island. Fleck said that a school of opah must have been swimming through the area.

That in itself is somewhat unusual, since opah are not schooling fish, except during spawning periods. (There’s not a directed fishery for opah because they’re so solitary, but enough are caught indiscriminately by long-line fishermen to provide a market for consumers.)

“We must have just been in the right place at the right time,” Fleck said, adding that the paperwork this week was submitted to the IGFA for world-record consideration. “And we were following IGFA rules.”

The IGFA can take several weeks to approve or deny world-record applications.

–Pete Thomas

New York City becomes a humpback whale hotspot

Humpback whale surfaces for a view of the Empire State Building; photo by ©Artie Raslich/Gotham Whale

By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

Two weeks ago, we profiled the stunning humpback whale feeding display occurring close to shore off Monterey, California. Enthusiasts are still watching in awe as the giant mammals lunge upward through vast shoals of anchovies to ingest thousands of the small fish in a single gulp.

But humpback whales are putting on a spectacular exhibition in nearshore waters off New York and New Jersey, too, gorging on schooling menhaden.

 The East Coast phenomenon is unique in that more whales are showing up, and staying longer than in previous years, according to the research group Gotham Whale, because water flowing into the Atlantic from New York Harbor is much cleaner than it used to be.

The cleaner water is believed responsible for luring more bait fish to the area, and as a result humpback whales are no longer compelled to migrate farther north to feeding grounds off Cape Cod or Maine.

“The river used to bring nothing but pollution, but in the last five years or so there is cleaner water, more nutrients, and less garbage,” Paul Sieswerda, director of Gotham Whale, told the Guardian. “My boat captain says New York is the new Cape Cod.”

Gotham Whale, which runs public whale-watching trips aboard American Princess Cruises from Breezy Point, photo-cataloged 29 individual humpback whales feeding in New York waters from the beginning of the spring/summer feeding season through the end of July 2014.

That’s compared to 43 whales for all of the 2013 season, 25 in 2013, and only five in 2011.

Mendy Garron, a marine mammal specialist with NOAA, told the New York Post: “Humpback whales are in the North Atlantic this time of year for feeding. Increase or longer presence in certain areas usually mean that there is an abundant food source.”

Menhaden, referred to by many local fishermen as bunker, average 6 to 8 inches long, about the same size as large sardines.

Artie Raslich, Gotham Whale’s staff photographer, said the increased abundance of menhaden and has lured other predators such as blue fish, striped bass, and thresher sharks.

More great white sharks are being spotted, too, and this could be the result of an increase in seal populations.

A harbor seal colony off Staten Island, for example, has increased from 10 in 2006 to about 66 this year.

But the humpback whales, which can often be seen lunging upward and sending thousands of menhaden scattering to avoid capture, have claimed the spotlight.

“Every day there’s a show out there,” Raslich said.

San Diego anglers hit opah jackpot; three 'moonfish' landed

Armando Castillo, Joe Ludlow and Travis Savala (left to right) pose with opah aboard the Excel

By Pete Thomas, GrindTv

Anglers aboard the San Diego-based Excel have spent the past several days loading up on tuna and yellowtail, during what many are describing as the most phenomenal bite in regional waters in decades.

But standing out among the yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, and yellowtail are three enormous fish shaped like the moon and nearly as radiant.

They're opah, weighing in at 151, 180, and 124 pounds, caught respectively by Armando Castillo, Joe Ludlow, and Travis Savala (see photo).

To catch one opah on a Southern California-based sportfishing boat (or any sportfishing boat) is rare. To catch three on the same vessel, on the same day, is extraordinary.

This is because the brightly colored fish do not typically swim in large schools. They're more commonly found in tropical and sub-tropical seas, and their appearance in local waters is often associated with warm-water events such as El Niño. (El Niño-like conditions are what lured the tuna and yellowtail into Southern California waters.)

The Excel has been posting photos of its multi-day trip to its Facebook page. The opah photo is by far the most popular, having been “liked” more than 6,000 times, and shared more than 1,500 times since the fish were caught on Friday.

The opah's flesh is delectable and served in many restaurants, but there isn't a direct commercial fishery for opah because the fish aren't found in large schools. Catches by commercial long-liners, and anglers, are almost always incidental.

Because the species is not believed to be overfished, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Food Watch program rates opah as a “good alternative” to several other fish species.

The Excel stated that five opah were hooked at about the same time Friday, but only the three were landed.