If you want to discover the pristine California that hardly anyone gets to see it should be done from the water looking back at the coast. That is the view that original European explorers and native American Channel Island dwellers had. Much of the coast and most of the Channel Islands remain unspoiled. However, relatively few California visitors or residents venture out by boat whether power or sail, charter or private because of perceived or actual discomfort. Such discomfort is minor compared to the experience of seeing large schools of dolphins playing, pelicans diving, whales breaching and seals sunning themselves on large buoys at harbor entrances greeting you with a yawn or a bark.
In sheltered coves of the Channel Islands some moorings and safe anchorages exist where, after arrival one can swim and snorkel an enjoy world class under water wild life with family and friends before preparing the evening meal. Cruisers are...
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Data collected by a UCSB marine biologist show that oil platforms create a fertile breeding environment for fishes
By Julie Cohen
The UC Santa Barbara Current
Monday, October 13, 2014 - 12:00
Santa Barbara, CA
Oil platforms off the Southern California coast are some of the world’s most productive marine fish habitats, according to a new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings could have important policy implications for the decommissioning and construction of oil platforms, wind farms and other offshore structures.
“Given the hundreds of thousands of fishes that sometimes live around these platforms, these results were not a complete surprise,” said Milton Love, a research biologist with UC Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute.
Love and a team of marine biologists from Occidental College and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) are the first to estimate rates of production for the entire community of fishes associated with oil platforms....
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Sperm Whales Drone Video Shot with GoPro Hero4
Sperm Whales GoPro DRONE VIDEO by Danawharf
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This is the first release of the SPERM WHALES GoPro drone video , here is the full story on how we got not one but 2 amazing drone videos of rare Sperm Whales off our coast. SPERM WHALE video shot in 4K , with a GO PRO 4 Drone.
This Dana Wharf exclusive video featuring Sperm Whales frolicking off the Orange County Coast and specifically Dana Point is the first ever Drone footage from the encounter off Dana Point 10/6/14. Sperm Whales have never been seen close to shore off the coast of California.
full post...Shark Attacks Kayaker in Southern California
By: [KSBW]
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. — A kayaker who said a shark thrashed his boat in waters off Santa Barbara County, Calif., on Friday said he walked away unscathed and described the impact as worse than a car crash.
"I was thrown 5 to 10 feet in the water in the kayak," Ryan Howell said. "I just remember my buddy yelling, 'That shark is huge,' and yelling my name over and over, but the kayak just kept getting thrashed."
The shark encounter was the second in two days in the same area, near the Vandenberg Air Force Base, after a surfer was attacked by a shark on Thursday.
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