Posted by mike on March 03, 2001 at 21:59:00:
In Reply to: again, i believe we are in agreement... posted by kelphead on March 02, 2001 at 20:15:11:
Huntington Beach last April. We were coming back from the oil rigs on the Pacific Nightmare (formerly owned by Atlantis Charters) and cap'n Don Banas stopped the boat so we could watch the show. The sea lion used the boat as a foil but the orcas apparently caught up with him anyhow. That was wild!!!!!!
I would guess that white sharks would not be overly attracted to otters, because of their lack of body fat. I would also guess that Seaks and Sea Lions were far more numerous in the past, simply because of the lack of competition (competition with side-scanning sonar, spotter planes and 6 mile long drift nets that is).
Oh yes, Orcas have been hammering the otters up in the Aleutian Islands (and there is an apparent concomittant decline in kelp cover) but that is a recent phenomenon, due in part (or so it is hypothesized by those close to the situation) to our resuction of the orcas' normal food supply via overfishing.