Pete Thomas Outdoors

Shark helps create ghostly image in school of salmon

By Pete Thomas

Ghost or Grinch? These are just two observations regarding an image captured via drone Friday off Australia’s Bondi Beach, just in time for Halloween.

The image, captured by Drone Shark App and shared via social media, shows two swimmers and what’s described as a grey nurse shark swimming through an immense school of salmon just yards from shore.

The swimmers parted the salmon in the form of two circular clearings, which appear as eyes in a ghost-like face, while the shark cleared an area that might be perceived as a mouth.

The salmon school was so dense that the swimmers and shark seemed oblivious to each other’s presence. The spooky image, therefore, was purely coincidental.

 “Do you see what I see?” Drone Shark App wrote on Facebook. “Tell me what you see?” “Ooooh, it looks like a ghost. Just in time for Halloween,” one commenter wrote. “Grinch,” stated another.

Nurse shark swims through salmon with swimmers nearby. Credit: Drone Shark App

But some comments pertained purely to the subjects. “I see two people who want to be eaten,” a follower chimed in.

Reads another comment: “More reasons to fearfully admire the beautiful ocean and only go in a few feet from shore.”

Schooling salmon are common off Sydney at this time of year, and the fish attract both swimmers and apex predators. In another Facebook post,

Drone Shark App shared the video footage from which the accompanying screen shot was pulled. It shows several swimmers near or within the salmon school, oblivious to two nurse sharks also swimming through the school.

The drone operator, when contacted by Pete Thomas Outdoors, asked only to be identified as Drone Shark App. The group’s social media pages are filled with photos of video clips showing sea life off Australia’s beaches.

San Diego whale watchers encounter giant Mola mola

By Pete Thomas

For a group of San Diego whale watchers on Tuesday, the highlight did not involve whales or dolphins, but a bizarre-looking Mola mola.

The surprise encounter occurred 10 miles southwest of Mission Bay as Capt. Domenic Biagini, of Gone Whale Watching San Diego, was searching for cetaceans.

The Mola mola, or ocean sunfish, stood out because of its immense size and pale coloration as it lolled beneath the surface.

“It was really neat because most of the people on the boat specialized in diving, so this whole trip was something different for them,” Biagini said. “Right as they got on the boat they asked about molas, and I explained how we haven’t seen that many this year. So for this to have happened on this specific trip made it that much more special.”

Mola molas are the world’s largest bony fishes (these do not include sharks or rays) and can measure up to 14 feet and weigh 5,000 pounds. They inhabit tropical and temperate seas and feed primarily on sea jellies, squid, small fish, and crustaceans.

Because of their truncated bodies, the position of their fins, and their odd-shaped mouths, their appearance is otherworldly. Or, as the Monterey Bay Aquarium states on its website, “Ocean sunfish, or molas, look like the invention of a mad scientist.”

Biagini said most Mola molas encountered off Southern California measure 2 to 3 feet, but the sunfish that swam around his boat for 10 minutes on Tuesday measured at least 7 feet.

“It was by far the largest I’ve ever seen,” he said.

The divers on the boat were so impressed that some were tempted to jump in for a swim with the docile critter. “It was hard keeping them in the boat,” Biagini joked. “But everyone behaved.”

–Images courtesy of Gone Whale Watching San Diego

Popular Bali dive spot fills with plastic pollution; disturbing scene captiured on video

By Pete Thomas

Video showing a scuba diver’s eerie swim through a sea of garbage off Bali this week vividly illustrates the alarming extent of plastic in our oceans.

Rich Horner used a pole-cam off Manta Point to show the extent to which non-biodegradable plastic and other garbage flows the currents around Bali and other Indonesian islands.

Manta Bay is a renowned diving and snorkeling destination. Giant mantas utilize the bay as a cleaning station – where tiny fish remove their parasites – and represent the primary allure for divers. But on this day it seemed best for humans and mantas to avoid the area or risk becoming ill.

“The ocean currents brought us in a lovely gift of a slick of jellyfish, plankton, leaves, branches, fronds, sticks, etc.... Oh, and some plastic,” Horner wrote on Facebook.

“Some plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic cups, plastic sheets, plastic buckets, plastic sachets, plastic straws, plastic baskets, plastic bags, more plastic bags, plastic, plastic, so much plastic!” Horton, a Bali resident, added: “Surprise, surprise, there weren't many Mantas there at the cleaning station today... They mostly decided not to bother.” 

Giant mantas inhabit tropical waters around the world. 9News reports that the nation last year pledged to spend $1 billion per year to reduce this type of pollution.

The scene provided by Horton is reminiscent of a scene presented five years ago by Zak Noyle. The surfer-photographer’s images showed large pollution-filled waves breaking over the heads of other surfers.

As bad as the pollution problem was during Horton’s dive, he said currents swept the area clean the following day. “As expected, the next day, what the currents bringeth, the currents taketh away!” Horton wrote.

“The divers who went to Manta Point today report they saw no plastic/trash at all. Great for the mantas coming in for a clean at the station, but, sadly the plastic is continuing on its journey, off into the Indian Ocean, to slowly break up into smaller and smaller pieces, into microplastics. But not going away.”

Baby dolphin hitches ride on mom's back – and makes everyone's day

Baby dolphin seems to smile for boaters. Photo: Mandy Wilson/Rockingham Wild Encounters

By Pete Thomas

A photographer off Western Australia has captured an extraordinary image showing a newborn dolphin riding on mom’s back – and seemingly smiling in delight.

Mandy Wilson, who was with Rockingham Wild Encounters off Perth, snapped away as the baby bottlenose dolphin was lifted above the surface, as the pod traveled to nearby Penguin Island.

“When you’re this cute, you’ll always get away with it!” Rockingham Wild Encounters wrote on Facebook. “We love meeting the new additions in the bay and the local mums love showing them off to us!”

 

The dolphin is so young that you can see fetal folds on its skin. More than likely, the “mum” is simply lifting the calf for a brief look around.

Cetacean researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger explained on Facebook:  “Other cetacean moms – including gray whales and humpback whales, are also known to lift up curious calves.”

Humpback whale tail slap an in-your-face moment for OC photographer

Photos courtesy of ©Slater Thomas Moore

By Pete Thomas

Sometimes, as a photographer armed with a long lens, you can find yourself a little too close to the action.

That appeared to be the case Saturday for Slater Thomas Moore, when a humpback whale suddenly emerged between two boats and slapped its tail.

Moore, who was aboard one of the boats, the Ocean Explorer out of Davey’s Locker in Newport Beach, was shooting with a 100- to 400-millimeter lens and was only 20 to 30 feet away.

Yet the photographer somehow managed to fit most of the tail-end of the whale in the frame, and also captured the reactions of those watching from the other boat, which was also 20 to 30 feet from the whale.

The result was one of the more unique whale images to have been captured this summer off Southern California, where humpback whales, blue whales, and fin whales have been providing plenty of shooting opportunities.

“We were watching it, and then it just threw its tail at the boat,” Moore said. “It was amazing.

Humpback whales are known for their curious behavior and will often approach whale-watching vessels. It’s not clear whether the tail-slap was a “You’re too close” warning, or merely playful behavior.

Moore captured several other photos of the same whale, including the accompanying breach shot, showing the OC coast in the background.

 

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.

Humpback whale near-vessel breach 'startles' passengers

By Pete Thomas/GrindTv

Last week we featured an amazing photo sequence captured by a passenger aboard a whale-watching boat in Monterey Bay, California, showing a humpback whale breaching within 80 feet of another whale-watching boat.

Now we've obtained images captured from the boat closest to the whale, showing just how close the whale was to the 43-foot vessel, and its monumental splash.

 The images posted here were captured by Giancarlo Thomae, a naturalist for Sanctuary Cruises and owner of Kayak Whale Watching. (The images in the first story were captured by Jodi Frediani of Monterey Bay Whale Watch.)

Thomae said the humpback whale was a juvenile, measuring about 35 feet, but it was large enough and close enough to cause the boat to tilt sharply and rock amid so much displaced water.

 

 “All the passengers were thrilled during this encounter,” Thomae said. “We always try out best to be respectful of the whales, but this whale approached us. It also breached within 80 feet of another boat about five minutes after the close encounter with the Sanctuary.

“We were thrilled and a little startled, but when we saw the whale was not pointing at us after it's rostrum first cleared the water, nobody was scared. 

The boat didn't get wet, but water splashed very close to the boat.” Thomae described this particular whale as a “chronic breacher,” explaining that it had breached more than 50 times before this close encounter.

Humpback whales have been feeding in Monterey Bay for most of the summer and fall.

Tiger Beach sharks featured in stunning 'bite anatomy' photos

Photojournalist Daniel Botelho has a talent for making his subjects appear larger than life—a viral Mola mola image he captured a few years ago is just one example—and the tiger sharks of the Bahamas are no exception.

During a recent expedition to Tiger Beach, a dive destination famous for close encounters with tiger sharks and reef sharks, Botelho focused on capturing a "shark bite anatomy" series involving some of Tiger Beach's most frequent visitors—notably a large shark affectionately named Emma (pictured in most images).

The accompanying images, which are protected by copyright laws, were sent by Botelho to GrindTv for single-use only. They were captured during a feeding event. These involve local dive masters who lure the sharks in and sometimes hand feed them with with whole fish.

This longstanding practice is for the benefit of scuba-diving tourists, and Emma is the most prominent and perhaps the most beloved Tiger Beach visitor. (The Bahamas two years ago banned commercial fishing for sharks, which are deemed far more important as a tourism resource.)

"I was using the fisheye lens, and it made me be very close to the action while the feeding was happening," Botelho said. "It took us only five minutes to perform all these 'shark bite anatomy' shots, as we got in the water before the guests to calm down Emma and check how safe it was to dive with all the sharks."

Pictured with the sharks is Tiger Beach veteran Vincent Canabal.

Botelho, who specializes in underwater photography and has swum alongside great white sharks, crocodiles, and swimming elephants, described this as one of his most rewarding experiences.

"I love tiger sharks and sharks in general, so being in the water and performing such open-mouth composition blew my mind away, raced my heart, and was an experience of a lifetime," the Portuguese photographer said.

"Despite the name, Tiger Beach is a place with no land in sight: a wild place that is now protected. We were diving with five tiger sharks and dozens of lemon sharks and reef sharks all at the same time, and we all made it safely back home.

"This shows the world that sharks are predators for sure, but they are not half as dangerous as lions, crocs, and hippos. Just try to hand feed a lion and see what happens."

–Pete Thomas, via GrindTv

–Images are courtesy of @Daniel Botelho and protected by copyright laws

Flying dog photographed just before takeoff (optical illusion)

Only in a dog's dreams could it run swiftly along the beach, sprout wings and fly out over the ocean.

But thanks to a seagull-chasing dog named Snoopy, and some timely camera work by Megan Whiteley, this event looks as though it's about to become a reality.

The optical illusion was created when Snoopy went after a gull on Opotiki Beach in New Zealand.

The image of "DogBird" has gone viral on Imgur (more than 700,000 views) and has been featured by the U.K.'s Daily Mail and GrindTv, among other websites

Whiteley, 22, writes on her Facebook page: "This dog was obsessed with chasing seagulls, and I was zoomed right in as it ran up to a sitting bird, and managed to get a perfectly timed photo just as the bird took off, making it look like a flying dog!"

–Pete Thomas

–Photo is courtesy of Megan Whiteley, via Imgur

Awesome cloud images; are you this creative with Instagram?

How creative are you on Instagram?

Over the weekend several users participated in the photo-sharing company's Weekend Hashtag Project (#WHPmindintheclouds), in which they were asked to draw upon their creative energy and focus on clouds in their images.

Though not everybody fully grasped the concept, several submitted spectacular entries that were both imaginative and, perhaps for other Instagram users, inspirational.

The company on Monday selected nine submissions to feature on its blog. We've randomly selected five of the nine to be featured here.

The image atop the post, submitted by corrinahoffman, boasts a golfing theme and is accompanied by this comment: "Good morning, everyone! #Chasingclouds yesterday for #whpmindtheclouds was fun! It's a new day and get excited!"

The second image, by thedoncor1, was the featured image on the Instagram blog, so we assume it was the top choice.

To be sure, if a man can be portrayed as blowing a cloud-like steam from his upturned palm, into an otherwise cloudless sky, it's impressive.

The third selection, by kitkat_ch, shows the user (presumably) seeming to deposit a white puffy cloud–referred to as Cloud 9–in just the right spot over a mountain lake.

The fourth image, by greggutkin, is another with a sporting theme. It shows a man "playing some javelin with the clouds for this week's #WHPmindintheclouds for Instagram."

Obviously, this was inspired by the thin, bolt-like shape of a particular cloud, and some skillful positioning of the subject.

Last, but certainly not least, is the submission by toniandash, showing as much or more creativity than the others.

A pristine-looking sky, a perfect strip of toothpaste hovering in the blueness ... add a colorful brush and tube and you have a mini-masterpiece aptly titled by Toni and Ash: "Pearly white."

Instagram each Monday features user entries for various hashtag programs. Click here to view more submissions in the #WHPmindintheclouds project.

--Note: This post also appears at GrindTv.com