Pete Thomas Outdoors

Humpback whales join surfers off Sydney, and yes, whales sometimes ride waves

Humpback whales off Sydney. Photo via Cronulla-National Surfing Reserve

By Pete Thomas

Surfers are accustomed to dolphins appearing in the lineup, but much larger whales?

The top image shows the dauntingly close proximity of two humpback whales to surfers off Cronulla Beach on Saturday in Sydney, Australia.

“A few whales sliding past the crew this morning,” reads a post on the Cronulla-National Surfing Reserve Facebook page.

Humpback ehale off Sydney. Photo via Cronulla-National Surfing Reserve

The surfers, although tightly grouped and gazing mostly in the direction of the whales, don’t seem overly concerned.

The image has been shared widely in media reports this week.

The Illawarra Mercury News stated that it’s peak whale-watching season in the area, and that a viewing platform is situated on a nearby headland.

Humpback whale mom and calf at Pipeline. Photo: ©J.T. Gray/North Shore Surf Photos

Whales sharing the lineup with surfers is a rare phenomenon, but not unprecedented.

The most impressive instance that comes to mind occurred in 2014 off the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. J.T. Gray of North Shore Surf Photos captured an image showing a humpback whale mother and calf surfing a wave at the world-famous Banzai Pipeline.

Gray explained that the whales appeared just east of the main break and rode the second wave of a set. The bodyboarder shown riding the first wave was oblivious to the presence of the whales.

Orca surfing off New Zealand. Photo: ©Ingrid Visser/Orca Research Trust

In 2016 off South Africa’s Western Cape, photographer Dave de Beer captured an image showing a surfer nearly colliding with a southern right whale, which surfaced in the face of a large wave.

The whale seemed to merely be enjoying the sensation of riding waves.

There have been several cases of orcas riding waves off New Zealand.

–Top two images are courtesy of Cronulla-National Surfing Reserve; third photo is courtesy of J.T. Gray/North Shore Surf Photos; bottom image is courtesy of ©Ingrid Visser/Orca Research Trust

 

Enormous great white shark feeds on whale carcass off San Clemente; video

By Pete Thomas 

Fishing became secondary for a group of Southern California anglers Thursday after they encountered a massive great white shark feeding on a gray whale carcass.

The accompanying footage, captured near the San Clemente Pier, shows the scarred predator swimming just off the stern of the 23-foot fishing boat, and moments later sinking its teeth into the whale.

 (It’s not known how the whale died, but whale carcasses often attract sharks.)

The anglers were part of an AllWater Charters expedition out of Dana Point. Allwater posted the video on Instagram and Marc Levine, the company’s owner, shared the footage on Facebook. The shark was estimated to have measured 17 to 19 feet, according to the Orange County Register.

“So awesome and crazy to see a massive great white like this around here,” Marc Girardeau, an Orange County photographer, wrote in the Facebook comments section.

A red lifeguard boat also appears in the footage. Lifeguards planned to tow the whale carcass farther offshore, so it does not wash onto the beach.

The encounter occurred less than a mile from shore. By towing the carcass out to sea, it was hoped that the shark would be drawn farther from swimmers and surfers along the coast.

–Images showing the great white shark near the boat and feeding on the whale carcass are video screen grabs

1,000-pound tiger shark caught by same captain twice in five years–what are the odds?

By Pete Thomas

Five years ago, Chip Michalove and his angling clients reeled in a tiger shark that measured 12-plus feet and weighed an estimated 1,000 pounds.

On Tuesday, the Outcast Sport Fishing captain caught and released the same shark in the same area off Hilton Head, S.C., despite improbable odds of this ever happening.

In fact, this is at least the third time the same tiger shark has been caught.

In 2013, Michalove attached a small tag to the shark. Last year, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources attached a larger satellite tag to the same shark. (Second image shows dorsal fin damage likely caused by the satellite tag.)

On Tuesday, after a 45-minute fight one mile off Hilton Head, as Michalove maneuvered the boat and three clients took turns at the rod and reel, they had the shark alongside the boat.

“It was like hooking a tug boat,” Michalove told USA Today, explaining that the shark went where it wanted for most of the fight, as he pursued with the boat. “A tiger shark this size pulls like a dump truck.”

Tiger sharks, named because of faint vertical stripes on their bodies, are found in tropical and subtropical waters around the world. They can measure 15-plus feet and weigh more than 1,700 pounds. (The International Game Fish Assn. lists a 1,785-pound tiger shark caught off Australia in 2004 as the all-tackle world record.)

Michalove said his clients, a father and two teenage sons, had asked for a challenge before setting out, “and it took everything they had to land that shark.”

–Images of 1,000-pound tiger shark are courtesy of Chip Michalove/Outcast Sport Fishing

 

Harsh criticism as Icelandic whalers appear to have killed endangered blue whale

Blue whale at processing plant. Photo: Arne Feuerhahn/Hard to Port

By Pete Thomas

Iceland’s controversial whaling program fell under harsh attack this week when it was revealed that whalers had likely killed an endangered blue whale.

Environmental groups have shared photos of the dead whale at a processing facility. Some experts are unsure whether the mammal is a blue whale or a blue whale-fin whale mix.

Blue whales and fin whales are endangered species, and hunting them commercially is a flaunt of international law.

Icelandic whalers have spent the past several weeks hunting fin whales, under national permits, for the first time in three years. The whalers are not authorized to kill blue whales.

Photo: Hard to Port

The meat of fin whales is sold to Japan, which also has a controversial whaling program.

Sea Shepherd, which has been monitoring activity at Iceland’s whaling station in Hvalfjordur, reported Wednesday that the blue whale was killed July 7. (Sea Shepherd did not mention the possibility of a hybrid whale.)

Sea Shepherd claims that the blue whale kill is in addition to the slaughter by Icelandic whalers of 21 fin whales by the company Hvalur hf.

“No other nation – not even Japan or Norway – slaughters fin whales, and there has not been a blue whale harpooned by anyone for the last 50 years until this one was harpooned by the [vessel] Hvalur 8,” Sea Shepherd stated.

The group Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) reported the blue whale kill under a headline, “Icelandic Whalers Breach International Law and Kill Iconic, Protected Blue Whale By Mistake.”

The WDC report stated that the whale was first spotted as it was positioned on a ramp by Arne Feuerhahn, a German conservationist, who noted that the massive mammal “was strikingly different in appearance to a fin whale.”

Marianne Rasmussen, a scientist with Project Blue Whale, told the WDC: “Based on the physical appearance and coloration of the lower jaw and baleen plates, it cannot be a fin whale. The mottled-grey coloration of the body points toward a blue whale, so the whale in question is either a blue whale or a blue/fin hybrid, genetics can confirm this.”

The nonprofit Hard to Port, headed By Feuerhahn, has been following the whaling effort on its Facebook page, and has shared links to a handful of reports by Iceland-based news sites.

Blue whales are the largest creatures on the planet; they can measure 100 feet and weigh nearly 200 tons. Fin whales are the second largest whale species. Both species were hunted to the brink of extinction during the whaling era.

The International Whaling Commission adopted a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982, but a handful of countries oppose the ban and still conduct limited whaling operations.

–Whale images courtesy of Hard to Port