The 65-year-old Kihei woman had become separated from two friends.
She was pulled from the water by snorkelers but was unresponsive, and efforts by paramedics to revive the victim were unsuccessful. The incident occurred sometime before 9 a.m.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources banned water access in the area and launched an investigation.
It has been a tough year for California sea lion pups, which have struggled to find food and have been delivered to care facilities by the hundreds.
But only one that we know of has ended up in the back of a police car, having been picked up recently for its own safety after being discovered a quarter-mile from shore on Highway 1 near Forth Bragg, in Northern California.
“Due to the darkness and the dense fog the animal was very difficult to see and would have certainly been struck by a vehicle if the deputies had not stopped,” reads an incident report from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department.
The sea lion was just a baby, measuring 30-plus inches and weighing about 20 pounds, according to the report.
But it was no stranger to humans, the officers realized, when it began to snuggle against their legs like a kitten craving affection.
It turned out that the sea lion, which wears an orange tag on its front flipper, had recently received care at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, near San Francisco. It had been fattened up and set free, but apparently decided to take its chances by wandering inland.
(The sea lions’ plight this year has been well chronicled. Unusually warm water has displaced bait fish populations, leaving younger animals that can’t travel long distances at risk of starvation. More than 1,500 malnourished pups have come ashore, and many have died.)
The officers contacted the Marine Mammal Center, which assessed that the pup was healthy and belongs in the ocean. (Care centers statewide have been filled beyond capacity with starving pups, and cannot accept healthy animals.)
So the deputies complied, as the report concluded:
“The sea lion pup was grateful to receive a ride from Sheriff’s Deputies and climbed into the rear of the patrol vehicle. The sea lion pup was transported by the Sheriff’s deputies and successfully released back into its natural habitat.”
Whether the tiny pinniped will remain in its natural habitat remains to be seen.
The surfing lineup will become far more distinguished-looking if a new wetsuit developed by Quiksilver becomes the latest fashion craze–because the new wetsuit is an actual suit.
Or, depending on one’s taste, a tuxedo.
Quiksilver is testing the market for these stylish “True Wetsuits,” which are made of thin neoprene but resemble fashionable business and party attire, in Japan.
The reasoning is obvious. Surfers hitting their favorite spots after work often miss out on dozens of waves in the time it takes to change from their clothes into their wetsuits.
Reads part of a translated press release: “It is possible to traverse the office and beaches without changing clothes in this high-performance wetsuit.”
The suits come in three styles, black and navy suits for “business & surfing,” and a black tuxedo for “party & surfing, according to the company website.
While stylish, these suits will not fit into the vast majority of surfers’ budgets: Cost for one unit is 300,000 yen, or just over $2,500.
But we have to admit, they add a new level of cool to a sport in which most rubber wetsuits are drab black or garish garments with the rudimentary task of keeping a surfer warm.
As a longtime angler, Dennis Tilden knows that the quicker a fish is prepared after it’s caught, the fresher it will taste.
But Tilden, who reeled in a 32-pound Mexican barracuda recently while fishing off Costa Rica, did not know until dinner was being served that he'd be eating a potential world-record catch.
Tilden’s barracuda, caught during a tournament out of Crocodile Bay Resort on the Osa Peninsula, was weighed briefly before its head was removed for a soup.
It’s flesh was filleted and later prepared as a ceviche.
A proper certified weight had not been obtained, and measurements and other details for the paperwork were not collected, nullifying any chance for a record.
Tilden could only recall the captain telling him that the barracuda was the largest he had ever seen.
Daniel Joline said his recent encounter with a mother and baby gray whale in the kelp off the Palos Verdes Peninsula was so bizarre and surprising that it almost seemed unreal.
Joline was spearfishing with a friend when he peered down and spotted the whales swimming slowly through the amber forest. The moment Joline realized what they were, he forgot all about the hunt and swam down and gently stroked the whale calf.
"Out of the corner of my eye I see this big mass moving towards me,” he told KPCC. “At first, my brain was like, 'OK, it's a seal,' but then it just kept getting bigger and bigger, so I went, 'Oh, it's a shark.' And it kept getting bigger, and I was like, 'OK. This is a whale!"
The once-in-a-lifetime encounter occurred Friday and footage is being widely shared this week.
Many on whale-themed social media pages were harshly critical of Joline for touching the baby whale, implying that it was illegal harassment.
Joline countered that in no way did his actions harass or alter the behavior of either whale.
“There are some people who don't quite read the regulations, but decide to become white knights on the internet,” Joline stated via email.
Gray whale mothers and calves are bringing up the rear of the annual northbound migration from Baja California nursing grounds to Arctic feeding grounds.
In Baja's lagoons, whale watchers on small boats often caress newborn gray whales, but in those cases the whales initiate the contact. It's also worth noting that there have been cases in the past where divers have been injured after getting between whales and calves.
As cow-calf pairs migrate past California, they often stay close to shore, where there is less danger of being attacked by killer whales.
Said Joline in the KPCC story: “You almost don’t believe it’s real, because just out of nowhere these whales appear, and a minute later they’re gone.”
Amanda Curtis is hoping to find not one, but four pots of gold after spotting and photographing a rare quadruple rainbow Tuesday morning in Glen Cove, New York.
Curtis tweeted the image, captured at the Long Island Rail Road Station, after a storm had passed through the area.
The tweet reads: "Quadruple #Rainbow at #glencove ny @LIRR station. Today will be 4 pots of #gold #lucky #chasetherainbow #aprilshowers."
As of Tuesday afternoon, the tweet was retweeted nearly 500 times, and the image was being widely shared by mainstream news outlets.
New species of glass frog; photos are courtesy of Brian Kubicki
A new species of glass frog–a tiny green critter so translucent that its organs are visible from its underside–has been discovered in the forested mountains of eastern Costa Rica.
The recent discovery, a surprise given the extensive research conducted in the region during the past century, was announced recently in the taxonomy journal Zootaxa.
Hyalinobatrachium dianae was named by its discoverer, Brian Kubicki, after his mother, Janet Diana Kubicki, because of her support of her son’s interest in science and nature.
The name also is in reference to the Roman goddess of hunting, Diana.
According to Costa Rica’s Tico Times, there are 149 species of glass frogs residing in Central and South America. The new discovery brings to 14 the number of glass frogs that reside in Costa Rica, which is in Central America north of Panama.
The nocturnal frog boasts a distinct call, and also stands out from other glass frogs because of its long, thin feet and black-and-white eyes.
“It’s advertisement call is quite unique,” Kubicki, the research paper’s lead author, said, in reference to calls make frogs make to attract females. “It’s different than any other species that has been discovered.”
Kubicki explained that the frog’s call—a long, tinny whistle–is similar to that of an insect’s call, which helps to explain why the frog went undiscovered for so long.
Six frogs were collected during the discovery mission in the upper reaches of the eastern provinces of Limon and Heredia. The frogs measure about 2.5 centimeters.
Marlin fishing is picking up in the East Cape region of the Sea of Cortez, but the big news is a phenomenal thresher shark bite occurring at the marlin grounds.
Thresher sharks are not new to the area, especially in the spring, but catches typically are very sporadic.
John Ireland, who owns Rancho Leonero Resort, said the sharks are concentrated off the town of La Ribera and being caught consistently by anglers fishing for marlin.
“The best thresher fishing ever on the East Cape,” Ireland stated Sunday in his weekly report, adding that the ratio for hookups is about one thresher for every two marlin. The marlin and sharks are being hooked mostly on deep-trolled ballyhoo.
“The fleet is boating fish under 200 pounds. The larger sharks with those huge tails are giving anglers a long, long fight and breaking off,” Ireland said.
Owner Mark Rayor said he could not explain why there's so large a concentration of thresher sharks, but said they most likely are feeding on squid in deep water.
The image shows Tori Hester hovering just above the sea floor, slightly beneath the fish tornado, mesmerized by the phenomenon.
“We were swimming along and saw a small band of jacks heading away from us, so we followed them,” Jeff described to GrindTv. “That small band slowly grew bigger and bigger until just off in the distance, this massive fish tornado appeared.
“I was awestruck. I had never seen anything like that before in my life.”
As a photographer, Jeff’s reaction was swift. He motioned for Tori to swim toward the tornado, so he could use her to provide a sense of scale for the image.
“I want to bring the viewer into the frame and imagine themselves as the human subject looking at this remarkable scene,” he explained.
Cabo Pulmo National Marine Park, beyond a remote section of Baja’s coast, is a vast system of reefs that has been protected from fishing since 1995, allowing sea life to thrive.
Several species of jacks breeze through the area, and sometimes swim in schools so large that they can blot out the sun for divers exploring the reefs or rocky bottom.
Another famous fish tornado image was captured at Cabo Pulmo in 2012 by Octavio Aburto, showing another diver, David Castro, in a “David and Goliath” pose next to the swirling mass of fish.
Aburto, a scientist, described the tornado phenomenon as a spawning event.
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