Beware the whales

[Bill McIntyre]

I guess even the whales are pissed about Brokeback Mountain.

SANTA BARBARA


Gray Whale Flops Onto Boat, Crushing Cabin
From Times Staff And Wire Reports

February 3, 2006



A gray whale smashed into a 27-foot boat, damaging the vessel and injuring one person, the boat's owner said.

The Bayliner was cruising off Leadbetter Beach shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday when the whale surfaced under the right bow and belly-flopped onto the boat, crushing the cabin, said owner Jerry Gormley.

He said the whale surfaced a second time and ran its tail along the boat's side, knocking over passenger Bob Thornburgh, 50, who suffered cracked ribs, and tearing down the vessel's railing.

[Ron S]

That's amazing. I had no idea grey whales could get that pissed. Do they just not like Bayliners?

[Powerhead]

I heard of a Manta ray killing a teen age boy a long time ago.

Said it jump on top of the whaler he was on watching the 4 of July fireworks.

I don't know if it's true, just heard it.

[ErikY.]

I thought it said "Gay Whale".
Peace,
Erik Y.

[Bill McIntyre]

Originally Posted by Powerhead

I heard of a Manta ray killing a teen age boy a long time ago.

Said it jump on top of the whaler he was on watching the 4 of July fireworks.

I don't know if it's true, just heard it.

I can easily believe it. I've seen those monsters go way up in the air, and I doubt they are careful about where they land.

[promethean_spar]

A whale killed a guy up here a couple years ago by belly flopping the boat. He was knocked across the railing and squished in half. Another guy hit a whale about a year ago out of moss landing and went completely airborne as if the whale were a ski jump. The boat landed on it's side and took on a few hundred gallons, but then righted itself and everyone was ok.

[Oldsarge]

Guys, that's why the old whalers called them "devilfish"! If you were to ask some Haida elders, they'd tell you the same thing. Just because something is a plankton feeder (or an herbivore) doesn't make it a sissy. Consider the Cape Buffalo . . .

[mattymatt]

Leadbetter has alot of Halibut and Sheepshead. We spear there alot in the summer and fall. It is also the beginer surf break in Santa Barbara and there is always a ton of tourists out there learning to surf. Probally, would have sent alot of people rushing to shore screaming shark. Gray whale makes alot more since, when I first heard the story my friend said it was an orca!!! I have seen a fair number of grays at Mesa but never heard of one being at Leadbetter.

[OceanEd]

I used to go down and camp on the shore at Scammonds Lagoon and go out freediving when the Grey whales were in the lagoon for their annual mating and birthing cycle.

The females would be in the shallow water giving birth to the calves and they would stay there for a number of days feeding the calves and getting them stronger. You could snorkel around and literally touch the females, as long as you didn't try to swim around her to the other side where her calf was. That would produce a whole different reaction.

The males would "tail walk" out in deeper water and look like slow moving pistons, vertically rising out of the water and then slipping back in without making a splash.

Others would be in the middle of the lagoon mating and I never had the courage to go out there for a closer look. At night the only sound was their breathing. It was great.

One year there was a trimiran anchored in Scammonds and the folks onboard would play music which the whales seemed to like. They liked classical the most and would come and scratch their backs against the hulls when they played it. Amazing.

[Don B]

It was a Bayliner, what else could he do?

[apneanaut]

Wow. This nearly happened to me. Blasting along the east side of San Clemente Island in a 15' boston whaler last March we had a gray whale breach about 100 yards ahead. We continued toward it and when it breached again (yes breached, out of the water to the last third of its body) it was probably no more than 20 feet in front of the boat. If we hadn't slowed down immediately we would have hit it. I was sitting on the bow and to this day my brother teases my about my terrified reaction.

[MACKFISH]

We Saw A Gray Right Under The Boat At The Peurticitos Open Haulling Ass At The Same Speed And Angle As The Boat,dale Really Freaked It Was Like A Dolphin Bow Riding,never Seen This Before.

[Bob Ballew]

Last August, my family and I were heading over to Avalon for 10 days..About 2 miles off Avalon, a big blue surfaced a 100' in front of the boat..I turned rapidly to port and threw everyone off their chairs...all that saved us from a hard collision was the fact that the blue was also heading for Avalon!! The luck of the old.....
....Why does SeaWorld have a seafood restaurant?? and what do they do with their dead fish??

[Travis Jones]

I was on the Sundiver, out of Long Beach a couple years ago. We anchored off at Catalina to do a little hunting and also had some scuba divers on board. I wanted to get in first to beat the bubble blowers to the fish. Just as the deck hand opened the side rail for me to jump in, a huge whale swam under the boat and came up on the same side that I was about to jump from. A couple more seconds and I would have jumped right in the middle of him.