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Northern Elephant Seals


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#11 Wallowa

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Posted 16 January 2023 - 11:57 PM



Thanks for the kudos on doing a report again, guys.

 

Frank, we did visit Ano Nuevo many years ago. As I recall, there are not any places to camp nearby, making it easier to do a multiple day visit to this colony. BTW, hope you are staying high and dry as part of the new "island" off of California.

 

Monte, I'm not sure about more reports. Doing them in parts definitely helps, but they still take quite a bit of effort. We shall see.

 

 

Ted,

 

I echo the praises of your photos and report.  Outstanding.  One of my occupations was as a Diving Safety Officer [25 years].  Many times, I was privileged to freedive and SCUBA dive with a variety of pinnipeds on North coast of California, Channel Islands, Baja and the mentioned Ano Nuevo just south of San Francisco.  At Ano Nuevo the elephant seals shared the water with a significant number of white sharks, their main predatory threat.  At Ano Nuevo while freediving with visibility of 3-4 feet these behemoth males would effortlessly glide into view, look me over and disappear. For all their mass they are unbelievably graceful in and under the water.  Night diving off the channel islands [this was in '80s and I now understand the Stellers are no longer that far South] the Steller sea lions would ‘bomb’ us trailing bioluminescence outlines while literally dancing around us.  Special encounters.

 

Thanks for resurrecting many of these great memories with your photos!

 

Phil


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#12 Ted

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Posted 18 January 2023 - 03:01 AM

Phil, Glad I could bring back some memories for you. I was a recreation diver and have been fortunate to see white tip sharks, sea lions, and manta rays while diving. But this was always in the daytime, warm water, and good visibility. But diving among what is essentially a swimming SUV along with its predator in low visibility conditions??? Yikes!


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#13 Wallowa

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Posted 18 January 2023 - 04:14 AM

That you did Ted...good memories indeed...swimming SUVs damn good descriptor!  Hey, I was young and fearless, would not repeat the Ano Nuevo freediving...not mentioned are the "harbor seals", Phoca vitulina , very curious critters and more than once had pups bite the tip of my fins and want attention by pulling on it...definitely got your attention if unexpected!

 

Take Care and thanks again.....Phil

 

['East of Sacto'....I grew up in Reno]


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#14 Cpt Davenport

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Posted 18 January 2023 - 07:44 PM

Diving at Ano Nuevo!????! Yikes is right! I live right up the road from there and often see badly mangled seals wash up on the beach. I frequently fish those waters and have had numerous great whites along side my boat. One time a whitey grabbed a younger cow about 10 yards from the boat. I will never forget the crunching sound the bone made as the shark enjoyed its breakfast. You could feel the vibrations through the fiberglass hull of the vessel. All respect to those beasts. There use to be a guy running a shark cage tours off the island there back in the day. I often run guests out around the cement ship to see the juveniles at the rookery and they are around 8-10 footers. Still very impressive creatures. The ones we see up at Ano, 18'-20'+, again, YIKES!


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#15 Wallowa

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Posted 18 January 2023 - 08:38 PM

Diving at Ano Nuevo!????! Yikes is right! I live right up the road from there and often see badly mangled seals wash up on the beach. I frequently fish those waters and have had numerous great whites along side my boat. One time a whitey grabbed a younger cow about 10 yards from the boat. I will never forget the crunching sound the bone made as the shark enjoyed its breakfast. You could feel the vibrations through the fiberglass hull of the vessel. All respect to those beasts. There use to be a guy running a shark cage tours off the island there back in the day. I often run guests out around the cement ship to see the juveniles at the rookery and they are around 8-10 footers. Still very impressive creatures. The ones we see up at Ano, 18'-20'+, again, YIKES!

 

Yes...not a healthy place to dive; we worked the channel between the 'rock' and beach...that was early '70s and the abs there were huge...thinking back I was not young enough to attribute such poor judgement to my age...just plain dumb...of course from '80 to '05  as DSO I dived North coast and did see whites up there, fortunately not while in or underwater...they were there; but hits on divers up there were very, very rare....surfers up there did get hit, I would never think of dangling off a board outside waiting for a wave and imitating the silhouette of a sea lion…even sea kayaking around Trinidad made me nervous...hey, sometimes being lucky is better than being good...odd but I worried more about my divers safety that mine.


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#16 Cpt Davenport

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Posted 19 January 2023 - 05:52 AM

Yes...not a healthy place to dive; we worked the channel between the 'rock' and beach...that was early '70s and the abs there were huge...thinking back I was not young enough to attribute such poor judgement to my age...just plain dumb...of course from '80 to '05  as DSO I dived North coast and did see whites up there, fortunately not while in or underwater...they were there; but hits on divers up there were very, very rare....surfers up there did get hit, I would never think of dangling off a board outside waiting for a wave and imitating the silhouette of a sea lion…even sea kayaking around Trinidad made me nervous...hey, sometimes being lucky is better than being good...odd but I worried more about my divers safety that mine.

 

 

I have a super shout out to my beloved K9 companion Mickey regarding surfing here. As you mentioned we had a little span of attacks in those years. 1992 I lived across the street from Davenport Landing and surfed it as much as possible (still do :)  I woke up and said to Mickey, "wanna go to the beach"? she would usually freak out, run around and go sit by the door. This day she just laid there with her head down and looked up at me with worried eyes. Odd I thought so I fell back asleep. About 40 minutes later I was awaken by a helicopter flying overhead. I rode my bike down to the beach and witnessed a young man being taken away with a surf leash around his leg to stop the bleeding from an attack. God bless Ole Mick! I still feel she had a 6th sense that may have saved me from perhaps being on that helicopter. From that day forward we call that surf break, Shark bite Right.


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#17 Wallowa

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Posted 19 January 2023 - 04:53 PM



I have a super shout out to my beloved K9 companion Mickey regarding surfing here. As you mentioned we had a little span of attacks in those years. 1992 I lived across the street from Davenport Landing and surfed it as much as possible (still do :)  I woke up and said to Mickey, "wanna go to the beach"? she would usually freak out, run around and go sit by the door. This day she just laid there with her head down and looked up at me with worried eyes. Odd I thought so I fell back asleep. About 40 minutes later I was awaken by a helicopter flying overhead. I rode my bike down to the beach and witnessed a young man being taken away with a surf leash around his leg to stop the bleeding from an attack. God bless Ole Mick! I still feel she had a 6th sense that may have saved me from perhaps being on that helicopter. From that day forward we call that surf break, Shark bite Right.

 

Listen to the pup!  Hypovolemic shock [blood loss] is what kills after a bite [although a free diver near Westport lost his head] so I always required my divers to carry a 3 ft + length of surgical tubing for a tourniquet and to practice self-rescues by tying off tubing on their upper arm and leg...got teased by other DSOs, but they did not live and dive in the "White Triangle" ...surfer leashes are elastic and will work...I still would advise them to carry surgical tubing...oddly the wars strengthened the logic behind using tourniquets...

 

I do not have the cojones to surf and hang out outside...hats off to you.


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#18 Lighthawk

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Posted 22 January 2023 - 05:49 AM

Touching story and wonderful photography.  You have many gifts to share.


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