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I have felt their pressence on at least one occassion, but haven't seen one myself.
Although they are present around Catalina, and occasionally seen under water by divers, the only time I thought I felt one's presence was last spring while diving Church Rock on the windward side. This is fairly close to the sea lion hauling grounds at the East End.
I sensed something big but could not see anything. Decided to enter a wide crevice and continue filming in their until my tank got low. I was just in 30 ft of water and right near the dive boat.
When I ascended to the boat, the captain asked if I got any good footage of "it." It turned out to be a young gray whale that had hung alongside the dive boat practically right over me. I never saw it.
I have heard a story from one of our local divers who was diving the backside of the island when a sea lion came racing past him at full bore. Shortly afterwards he saw a GWS catch up to and cut the sea lion in half. No camera.
There was one spotted off Pt Dume about 2 years ago. Some people were hanging out, watching a sea lion swim, when all of a sudden a GWS beelined across the water and bit into it.
I thought it was unusual that it didn't attack from below, as I thought was their normal method, but zipped across the surface. But I heard the same details at a local dive shop, so... that's my contribution!
Great story about the young whale, Dr. Bill! I would love to dive next to a whale. Too bad you didn't see it.
By the way, is that really true that GWS are the ONLY sharks that prey on mammals/ warm blooded prey?
I know some sharks will attack and eat birds... which are warm blooded, too.
I have heard of sharks plucking birds from the surface, but I'm not sure what species do it. If my rotten memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure we saw blue sharks trying for gulls and other birds when I spent much of my research time on small boats in the 70's.
On a large pile of smokin' A'a, the most isolated population center on the face of the earth. 2,175 miles to Alaska, 2,390 miles to California; 3,850 miles to Japan; 4,900 miles to China; 5,280 miles to the Philippines.
I have heard of sharks plucking birds from the surface, but I'm not sure what species do it. If my rotten memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure we saw blue sharks trying for gulls and other birds when I spent much of my research time on small boats in the 70's.
I think the best known were photos by Norbert Wu out on French Frigate Shoals of Tiger Sharks snapping up birds.
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I have read about Bulls taking birds off the surface, as well as license plates, boat trailer tires, etc. Not sure if they are "attracted" to warm blooded animals or just being inquisitive.
I work near the Intercoastal Water Way in Orange Beach Al. And one day I was taking lunch and watching the water way. There was a pelican that got spooked and tried to fly out of the water but something had a hold of it and it struggled for a second then went down and never surfaced. It was far off from me but I figured it was a Bull shark that got it.
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Originally Posted by renpirate
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