Posted by kelphead on August 30, 2000 at 11:11:18:
In Reply to: whats out there? posted by simon on August 30, 2000 at 10:38:21:
well, simon, i'm no dolphin expert, but i thought that
usually, dolphins travel in pods, so i'm a little
surprised that you saw only one fin. but i'm certainly
not going to start a shark fear campaign, so i'll
just stop here and let someone else take over.
however when my buddy and i were diving off shaw's cove
in laguna beach a few months ago, we saw a whole pod of
dolphins that couldn't have been more than 20-30 ft away
from us. it looked like they were deliberately avoiding
us as they actually changed course and swam around us to
get to wherever they were getting to. (the vis was soooooo poor
that we could NOT see them under water, so we stayed
at the surface to watch them.) that was the closest
i had ever been to dolphins--especially wild dolphins.
i think you can tell if it's a dolphin or a shark
by the way that dorsal fin moves: if the back of the
animal arches out of the water and then back into
the water, and if the animal repeats this motion, then
it's a dolphin. i get the impression that sharks
don't arch their back and dorsal fin out of the water
the way dolphins do. i think sharks just slice
the surface of the water in a straight direction, but
i could be wrong.
don't worry, though, we've got TONS of dolphins off
our coast here, so enjoy them WHEN you see them!!
though i've been told that great white sharks do
migrate through our southland waters, i've lived in
huntington beach for six years now--known as surf city--and
i have yet to hear of a great white biting a surfer.
these surfers can literally take up a couple of
miles of surfline and they come out day or night,
summer or winter to surf and still i have yet
to hear of a great white 'attack' in the soutland.
the s.f. bay area seems to be where the great white
shark action is. there have been sightings, i believe
off catalina island, especially the backside, but
i don't THINK there are sightings off our beaches.
hope all this helps somewhat--and welcome to socal!!!
= : )
kelphead.