Pete Thomas Outdoors

Killer whales from Mexico spotted off San Diego, Oceanside

Killer whales from Mexico are spotted off Oceanside; photos via ©Jonathan Hoover

Earlier this month, beachgoers in Tijuana enjoyed a rare sighting of killer whales just beyond the surf.

They were believed to be Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales, or orcas, which rarely travel that far north.

Now, however, it seems as though the ETP killer whales are taking a liking to U.S. waters.

Eight killer whales were spotted Sunday off San Diego, and at least that many were spotted Monday and Tuesday off Oceanside, near the pier.

On Tuesday afternoon, killer whale researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger matched two of the killer whales photographed Monday with killer whales photographed Sunday off San Diego.

“I just looked at additional images from the San Diego sighting Sunday, and from [Monday’s] Oceanside sighting; 2 of the 8 San Diego orcas match two of the Oceanside orcas!” the researcher stated on Facebook. “Hopefully the orcas seen off Oceanside this morning will continue to head up the coast!”

Orcas can be matched based on distinctive markings on their dorsal fins or saddle areas.

The images accompanying this post were captured Monday by Jonathan Hoover. The Oceanside pier is visible in the second image.

Not a lot is known about ETPs, versus transient orcas that occasionally visit Southern California waters from the Central California region. Schulman-Janiger said the ETPs are opportunistic feeders that will sometimes prey on other marine mammals. (The killer whales spotted off Tijuana killed a dolphin.)

The ETPs, which are more common off Central America and mainland Mexico, have been documented in U.S. waters, as far north as Catalina Island. But very few sightings have been documented over the past several decades.

NOAA has identified about 240 individual ETPs.

Their presence off Southern California comes toward the end of a summer-fall season that has been unlike any in recent history, in terms of rare visits by marine critters.

Wahoo, yellowfin tuna, mahi-mahi, and blue marlin are among species of fish that have been caught off Southern California, far north of their typical range.

False killer whales, Bryde’s whales, and pilot whales are among marine mammals that have been spotted in the region.

The odd catches and sightings were attributed to a band of unusually warm water that extended from southern Baja California to Southern California.

 

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Humpback whale photographed with pelican in its mouth

By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

It’s an interesting dynamic when humpback whales begin to lunge feed on anchovies they’ve herded close to the surface, because as they’re charging upward, with their massive mouths agape, gulls and pelicans are diving on the same bait fish.

Sometimes, for the much smaller birds, a teachable moment occurs: They’ve either mistimed their dives or failed to get out of the way while resting on the water.

Rarely, however, is this event captured so perfectly by a photographer.

The accompanying image was captured over the weekend by Kate Cummings, who runs Blue Ocean Whale Watch in Monterey, California. It shows the moment a feeding pelican became stuck in the jaws of a feeding humpback, with only its head and right wing protruding from the cetacean’s mouth.

Also visible is baleen, which whales use to sift small fish from sea water. The baleen would have prevented the pelican from actually being swallowed.

Cummings stated on Facebook: “Find the unhappy pelican! (who was happy again a few moments later when the humpback whale let it go).”

There were seven humpbacks feeding in a small area at the time. “We clearly saw the pelican get gobbled up, but then quickly released before the humpback submerged," Cummings said. "The pelican looked perfectly fine–no evidence of wing damage or anything.”

We’ve circled the bird in red for added effect (top image) and perused some of dozens of comments Cummings’ post received.

Perhaps the best was from Efren Bauer Adalem, who wrote: "Great capture. Let this be a warning to those kayakers and paddleboarders who get too close. Accidents can happen!”

–Note: Photos are courtesy of ©Kate Cummings and are protected by copyright laws

Scientists capture rare footage of deep-sea anglerfish

 

By Pete Thomas

Scientists exploring the depths of Monterey Bay off California have captured rare footage of a deep-sea anglerfish, and even managed to collect the live specimen for study.

The encounter occurred 2,000 feet beneath the surface and the peculiar-looking fish was observed and captured via the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s remotely operated vehicle, the ROV Doc Ricketts.

Dr. Bruce Robison of MBARI described the anglerfish as being “among the most rarely seen of all deep-sea fishes,” and said the accompanying video contains what's believed to be the first-ever footage of a live anglerfish in its deep-sea habitat.

The small but ominous-looking fish is named because of the manner by which it feeds: by dangling the luminescent tip at the end of a “fishing pole” projecting from its head, and using the “glowing lure” to attract unsuspecting prey.

It then snatches that prey, usually a small fish or squid, with its long, sharp teeth.

Females are much larger than males, which lack the ferocious-looking appearance. The male's sole purpose in life is to find a mate.

While these fish are mysterious and rarely observed, many will find them to look familiar based on a scene in the popular animated movie “Finding Nemo,” in which Marlin and Dory are entranced by the glowing light and narrowly escape capture.

The anglerfish captured by MBARI is also called a black seadevil, and measures only 3.5 inches. A spokeswoman for the facility said the fish is being kept in a dark tank with near-freezing water—similar to its ocean habitat—but it's not expected to live.

MBARI scientists have observed only three anglerfish in their years of deep-sea exploration. They’re hoping the footage will help them learn more about how the species' movements and habits.

–Images are video screen grabs

Lake Erie surfers hit the waves during N.Y. blizzard

 

By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

A blizzard that has buried much of western New York in snow is keeping most residents hunkered down indoors.

But two adventurous surfers saw in the stormy weather an opportunity to ride a few waves, with a guarantee of not having to deal with crowds.

Meet Kevin and Christian, who live along the shore of Lake Erie and like document their adventures around and beyond, and apparently in, Lake Erie.

Video screen grab

As the mother of all snow storms swept over Buffalo and the surrounding area, Kevin and Christian took note of conditions—26 degrees, 35-mph wind and a wind chill of 13 degrees—and donned very thick wetsuits before heading to Sunset Bay for what was presumably a very short surf session.

They looked to be having a great time, though, while so many New Yorkers were struggling to cope with the weather.

But then, Kevin and Christian are the hardy, outdoorsy types, so this should not be too surprising.

States a passage on their WNY Expeditioners Facebook page: “Every day we’re blown away by the quality and variety of experiences our land, water, and weather create. Where else can you ice climb in the morning, run whitewater at lunch, and surf at sunset all in the same day?”

Where else, indeed?

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Eva Shockey responds to criticism after killing 510-pound bear

Eva Shockey with 510-pound bear; photo via Facebook

By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

Eva Shockey knew she was placing herself in the crosshairs of anti-hunters before she posted a photo of herself posing with a 510-pound black bear she killed last week to her Facebook page.

The famous co-host of “Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures” told Field and Stream:

“My dad warned me before I even got involved with the show that I was going to have to deal with anti-hunters. I'm a huge target for them because I'm a smiley young woman, and I'm different than who they're used to dealing with."

But Shockey, 26, had no idea the flood of venomous comments would be so extensive, or that the story of her hunt and its aftermath would generate headlines in the mainstream.

She killed the bear, the largest she had ever harvested, on the fifth day of a hunt with her father in Hyde County, North Carolina. Bears are responsible for extensive crop damage in the region, and hunting helps control the bear population.

But this was such an impressive animal; critics found their way onto Shockey's fan page by the hundreds and opened with both barrels.

She spent much of the day removing the harshest comments "so other people don't have to read them."

Shockey told The Blaze that one commenter, in reference to a photo of her posing with her dog, stated that she “should kill that worthless dog you have instead.”

The hunter's response: “Apparently hunting a bear, eating/donating all of the meat and putting money towards conservation is a bad thing, but killing my puppy is ok. If this logic isn’t totally insane, I don’t know what is.”

The story–the dog comment in particular–caught the attention of mainstream news networks, such as ABC and Fox News. During an interview with Fox News on Monday, the anchor described the dog comment as “pretty sick stuff.”

Said Shockey: “It is sick, I agree with you, but unfortunately we actually have to deal with that quite a lot…. I’ve never had someone tell me to kill my puppy before, but comments like this… they definitely happen to us.”

Shockey has been posting the news reports to her fan page, which has more than 657,000 likes.

Part of the bio on her page reads: “With a combined passion for conservation and adventure, I try to balance hunting, femininity and family into what I consider to be the best lifestyle in the world.”

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Rare opah catch results in stunning underwater photos

By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

Catching an opah off Southern California is rare, although a dozen or so catches were logged during an unusually warm summer-fall season that also produced other odd catches.

Finally, however, somebody went overboard and photographed an opah underwater, and most people will agree that the images are spectacular.

Ralph Pace, a conservation photographer and Scripps Institution of Oceanography graduate, was part of a research team conducting studies recently near San Clemente Island. The group had snagged an opah with experimental fishing gear, and Pace dove in with his camera before the opah was cut free.

“We found this guy off San Clemente and he [weighed] about 120 pounds,” Pace said, via email. “I was able to jump in the water with my underwater camera and enjoy a few moments with the opah before he dove back down.”

Pace said he barely had time to capture the images he sent for use with this story before the fish disappeared.

Opah, or moonfish, are mostly solitary inhabitants of tropical and temperate zones. They typically roam at depths between 300 and 1,200 feet.
That’s why catching them is so rare.

There's no direct commercial fishery for opah, because they're not a schooling fish, but enough are caught incidentally by longline fishermen–primarily off Hawaii–to make them available on some restaurant menus.

The opah’s flesh is prized as table fare, either cooked or raw, as sushi and sashimi.

U.K. rental property adorned with 25-foot fiberglass shark

Photo by Amily

By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

A shark lover’s dream house?

A residence in Headington, England, is making news this week in part because it’s being advertised for rent, but mostly because of the 25-foot fiberglass shark protruding, tail-toward-the-sky, from its roof.

This iconic landmark home could be yours for about $3,500 per month, or $800 per week.

Headington shark
Shark sculpture being installed by crane in 1986; photo via Headington, Oxford

That’s more than what most homes are renting for in the east Oxford suburb. But this three-bedroom house is newly remodeled, and anyone who moves in will automatically become the center of attention.

States part of the advertisement, from realtor Scott Fraser:

“Suitable for a family who are passionate about being involved with the local community and who will enjoy not only living in, but living with the famous Headington shark.”

Naturally, the British press has seized the opportunity to place this house back in the spotlight, and to generate witty headlines.

From the Guardian, playing on the famous line in the 1970s thriller, “Jaws”: “Oxford shark house put up for rent–they’re going to need a bigger ad.”

But to outsiders, the real story might be the shark itself: how it ended up as part of the roof at 2 New High Street, and how the imposing sculpture has survived for more than four decades.

The shark, which is headless, first made headlines when it was installed overnight on August 9, 1986, on the 41st anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

It was American owner Bill Heine’s way of protesting the nuclear threat.

Of Heine’s sentiments, the Guardian wrote: “As in ‘Jaws,’ nowhere is safe.”

Oxford city council members tried several times to have the shark removed–in once instance claiming that it posed a threat to public safety–but their efforts have been unsuccessful.

The shark has its own page on the Headington website. A passage sums: “And so it has survived. No one living in Headington notices it much anymore, but it has caused a tremendous stir both locally and nationally on the day it appeared. It had been winched up by a crane overnight, and although the police were aware of what was going on they were powerless to do anything, as there is no law to prevent a man from putting a shark on his own roof.”

There is, however, the tricky matter of renting a property with such a menacing apex predator depicted as diving head-first through the roof.

One sales pitch on Fraser’s website, from a past tenant, raves about the home’s spaciousness and decor, adding:

“You quickly get used to people taking photographs outside and it does not really impact living there. On the rare occasions that we are asked about the shark the people have always been very polite and are genuinely interested in the story. It has been a lot of fun living in such a local landmark.”

There was no reason given for why the home is suddenly vacant.

Killer whales hunt dolphins in Tijuana surf zone (photos)

Orca tosses dolphin with Coronado Islands in the distance; photos by ©Carlos Bravo

 By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

Surfers and beachgoers in the Mexican Border city of Tijuana were witness to a rare spectacle Monday, involving killer whales that appeared just outside the surf zone and began to harass dolphins.

Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales, which are found off Mexico and Central America, are not commonly seen off the northern Baja California coast–especially so close to shore.

Carlos Bravo, a photographer who captured the images for use with this story, said lifeguards and locals said they “have never seen anything like it.”

A report from Alan Williams on the Orca Network Facebook page quoted locals as saying, “This has never happened.”

The killer whales are not believed to be “transient” orcas from California. Those mammals, which prey on dolphins and other marine mammals, have never been documented in Mexican waters.

Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales, which have not been separated into distinct ecotypes, also are known to prey on marine mammals. They've been documented in U.S. waters, as far north as Catalina Island, according to killer whale researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger.

The killer whales were traveling in two groups of between four and seven, and were spotted less than 100 yards off Playas de Tijuana, just south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Williams stated: “A surfer and some others reported that they ‘ate a dolphin’ and described them holding it in their mouth and ‘throwing it about,’ which sounds [like] typical behavior. I didn't see it, but the gulls and scavenger birds were swarming to feed on some leftovers of something, and there are or were plenty of dolphins here.”

Bravo said he received a call at 9 a.m., and arrived at 9:20. He saw only one of the two groups and said he watched them tossing a dolphin, presumably teaching younger members of the pod how to hunt and kill, until about 9:45.

Both reports said the killer whales traveled west, toward the Coronado Islands, before disappearing from view.

Williams wrote: “A surfer in black wetsuit was in the water, and 3 large Orcas approached him in a semicircle to about 30 yards/meters, and each in turn did a ‘spyhop’ maneuver, wherein they surface in a high vertical posture and hover high up for a few seconds–perhaps threatening?

“Or perhaps just to look, or to announce their presence or claim territory. It was quite beautiful, and he got out quickly.”

Researchers are hoping that by looking closely at photos they’ll be able to match at least one individual with others in a photo-identification catalog of Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales. 


NOAA has identified about 240 individuals.

Baby elephant earns 'Hercules' nickname after lion attack

By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

It would seem that a 1-year-old elephant would have no chance after becoming surrounded by 14 hungry lions.

But not all baby elephants are of the same mettle, perhaps, and at least one young pachyderm is deserving of its valiant new nickname: Hercules.

That would be the elephant in the accompanying footage. According to the New York Post, it had strayed from its mother but was able to fend off the lions and ultimately reunite with its herd.

The Post uploaded the video Tuesday and viewers might find parts of the footage difficult to watch, as lions can be seen using their sharp claws to climb onto the back of the elephant.

But the footage, captured by a team journalists at the Norman Carr Safaris Chinzombo Camp in Zambia, also shows the elephant turning the tide periodically by false-charging the lions to keep them at bay.

The elephant, which probably learned some valuable lessons during the harrowing encounter, can be seen using the water to its advantage. But it makes at least one painful mistake by becoming emboldened and exiting the water, only to be attacked anew.

“In the 30-plus years that I have been a safari guide in Zambia at the Luangwe Park, never have I seen anything like this,” said a guide named Innocent, who was with the group. “We were all so worried the baby elephant would be killed right before us.”

Instead, the feisty mammal attained at least a small measure of fame, and a new moniker befitting only the brave and strong.

“We’ve named the little fella Hercules,” Innocent said. “What a fighter.”

Florida surfer, 18, bit by shark after completing SAT

Video screen grab

By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

Ryan Shapiro had just finished taking his SAT exam on Saturday and was hoping that a surf session at Fort Pierce Inlet, Florida, would be the perfect stress reliever.

That plan backfired, however, when a four-foot shark attacked Shapiro in waist-deep water moments after he had begun to paddle out.

“I just felt the shark completely ... just hit me so hard in the arm,” Shapiro, who is from Boca Raton, says in the accompanying WPTV video news report. “It was just so scary and so real. I was just screaming, and everyone got the idea that I got bit.”

In a WPBF report, the 18-year-old was more descriptive of the attack by what was believed to be a spinner shark hunting fish in the surf zone: “It just hit me, right there, it just hit me so hard, and I remember … the shark literally jumped on top of me.”

Shapiro was with his sister and friends, and had noticed bait fish boiling near the surface before paddling out. The shark or several sharks might have been what scared the smaller fish.

The surfer received lots of help on the beach, before being transported to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center.

Generic spinner shark image, via NMFS

He suffered damage to seven tendons in his right arm and his recovery, doctors said, would last about six weeks.

But like many surfers who survive shark bites, Shapiro vowed to go surfing again, as soon as he’s able. “I just want to go back into the water, honestly, even though the shark bit me,” he said. “Like, I had my fight with it and everything. I just want to go back and surf with my mates and everything.”

According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, spinner sharks reach about 9 feet in length. They’re highly migratory and often travel in schools. They’re fast swimmers and will sometimes leap and spin, hence their name.