It's alive, IT'S ALIVE!
SURF:
So yes, I'm a wave & weather nerd (I think the actual scientific term is 'Meteorological Moron'), but are you not excited?! I'm not a big fan of 1-2' surf and June Gloom as you know, so this is kind of a big deal for me. The Pacific hasn't been this active, since, well, I don't know, but I do know this- it's not letting up any time soon.
Solid surf this past week has led to a BOMBING swell along the California coast this evening. If you didn't have a chance to watch it from afar this afternoon, you'll have a slight chance Friday morning as the swell starts to subside. The good news is that the swell is too big to surf anyway (unless your name is Lance Burkhart) so we'll be back to the head high range for Saturday.
Sunday gets a slight reinforcement from the WNW for more head high+ surf (and bigger in SD)- with another chance of showers and suspect winds. Be careful out there this weekend! Tide, sunrise/sunset, and water temps for the next few days:
- Sunrise and sunset:
- 6:52 AM sunrise
- 4:59 PM sunset (THIS close to 5 PM!)
- Water temps are still high 50's and suspect quality due to all the rain.
- And tides are going to make a mess of the coastline tomorrow with the leftover big surf:
- almost 4' at sunrise
- almost 6' mid-morning
- and about -0.7' late in the day
FORECAST:
Another tricky forecast ahead of us as the storm door remains open and the arrival of various storms next week complicate the timing.
At this point, it looks like another solid WNW swell should arrive by Tuesday for 10' surf in N County SD and double overhead sets in SD. It won't be as big as tonight's swell but still plenty of size for you chargers.
Things calm down by Thursday then ANOTHER well overhead swell could arrive by Friday. Rain looks to be in the mix as well, so finding a clean window to surf- and a beach that can hold the swells- will be key. So the Emergency Boardriding System is staying on for the foreseeable future.
WEATHER:
With all this rain, you'd think we'd be well above average for our rainfall this year and out of our drought. But of course we're not! If you remember last year, we also started off with a bang (a couple big storms vs. our steady stream of storms this year)- and then it went quiet after that. Currently we're sitting at about 5" of rain (about 130% of normal) with more rain due next week, so no complaints there. As far as our drought goes, we've been below average for over 20 years, so the current rain is just a drop in the bucket. Reservoirs are still historically low but on a positive note, our wildfire threat has subsided for the time being. For the upcoming week, here's a rough estimate of what's in store...
- Friday/Saturday dry and cool
- weak cold front for Sunday
- better chance of rain for late Monday/early Tuesday
- Wednesday/Thursday dry and cool
- more rain by Friday?...
If anything changes between now and then, make sure to follow North County Surf on Twitter!
BEST BET:
Tough to say due to the multiple storms lined up over the ocean like planes coming into LAX (I just cut and pasted that from last week if you noticed). Even though Saturday and Thursday will be smaller, at least the weather will be cleaner. Or Tuesday/Friday for all you storm surf people out there.
NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Thanks to the 1975 summer blockbuster 'Jaws', it's been falsely believed that great whites are blood thirsty predators. In reality, like most sharks, attacks are a mistake and most them don't 'finish the job'. After inadvertently biting a human, they leave the area realizing it wasn't the seal they were looking for. If you look at the amount of sharks in the ocean (estimated at 1 billion) and the amount of surfers in the world (estimated at 50 million), sharks could be nipping at us all day long if they wanted to. But they don't. So who does that leave as the apex predator in our oceans? If recent video footage suggests, orcas take the title. Here's what Smithsonian Magazine had to say:
For several years, scientists have suspected that orcas have been killing and eating parts of great white sharks off the coast of South Africa. Now, they have the video evidence to prove it. Drone and helicopter footage captured in May shows orcas, also called killer whales, attacking and killing at least two great whites off Mossel Bay in South Africa’s Western Cape province, writes the Washington Post's Rachel Pannett.
A video clip of the predation was released in the summer, but scientists shared more extensive footage with a new paper published last week in the journal Ecology, according to a press release.
“It’s probably one of the most beautiful pieces of natural history ever filmed,” Alison Towner, a great white shark biologist at the Marine Dynamics Academy in South Africa and the lead author of the paper, said to the Daily Beast’s Kevin Fallon in July.
Killer “whales,” which are actually dolphins, are apex predators, and their diet includes fish, squid, seals, sea birds and whales larger than themselves, according to the Natural History Museum in London. They are the only known predators of great white sharks.
Since 2017, eight attacked great whites have washed up on the shores of South Africa, according to Gizmodo’s Isaac Schultz. The sharks were missing hearts and livers—evidence that they had been killed by orcas. The number of great whites in the water off South Africa’s coast has also been declining in recent years, possibly due to orca predation, per the Post.
But scientists had never observed this behavior in detail—until now. The drone footage shows a group of five whales pursuing sharks for more than an hour, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP). In one clip, two orcas swim near a shark while a third comes at it from below and pushes it toward the surface. Then, one of the other orcas bites the cornered prey, creating a pool of blood. The researchers hypothesize that three other sharks may have also been killed, according to the release.
The study didn’t try to answer why the orcas are targeting great whites, but Towner told Gizmodo in June that it could be “for their lipid-rich, nutrient-dense liver.” Great white shark livers could make up one third of the animal’s body weight, she tells the publication.
Videos and photos from the helicopter pilot appear to show an orca eating a piece of floating shark liver, writes the Post. That particular orca is believed to be an individual named Starboard—a suspected shark-killer. This was the only orca of the five thought to have previously attacked great whites, suggesting to the researchers that the others are learning the practice from Starboard, per the AFP. (Another orca not captured on video, named Port, is also suspected to be killing great whites.)
After watching the footage, scientists now believe the sharks try to evade capture by employing a technique also used by seals and sea turtles: circling the orcas and staying in their sight, writes the Post. But that technique likely proved ineffective, since orcas hunt in groups. Following the attacks, great white sharks fled the area—only one was spotted there within the next 45 days, per the AFP.
“Killer whales are highly intelligent and social animals,” Simon Elwen, a co-author of the study and a marine mammal specialist at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, said in the release. “Their group hunting methods make them incredibly effective predators.”
For several years, scientists have suspected that orcas have been killing and eating parts of great white sharks off the coast of South Africa. Now, they have the video evidence to prove it. Drone and helicopter footage captured in May shows orcas, also called killer whales, attacking and killing at least two great whites off Mossel Bay in South Africa’s Western Cape province, writes the Washington Post's Rachel Pannett.
A video clip of the predation was released in the summer, but scientists shared more extensive footage with a new paper published last week in the journal Ecology, according to a press release.
“It’s probably one of the most beautiful pieces of natural history ever filmed,” Alison Towner, a great white shark biologist at the Marine Dynamics Academy in South Africa and the lead author of the paper, said to the Daily Beast’s Kevin Fallon in July.
Killer “whales,” which are actually dolphins, are apex predators, and their diet includes fish, squid, seals, sea birds and whales larger than themselves, according to the Natural History Museum in London. They are the only known predators of great white sharks.
Since 2017, eight attacked great whites have washed up on the shores of South Africa, according to Gizmodo’s Isaac Schultz. The sharks were missing hearts and livers—evidence that they had been killed by orcas. The number of great whites in the water off South Africa’s coast has also been declining in recent years, possibly due to orca predation, per the Post.
But scientists had never observed this behavior in detail—until now. The drone footage shows a group of five whales pursuing sharks for more than an hour, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP). In one clip, two orcas swim near a shark while a third comes at it from below and pushes it toward the surface. Then, one of the other orcas bites the cornered prey, creating a pool of blood. The researchers hypothesize that three other sharks may have also been killed, according to the release.
The study didn’t try to answer why the orcas are targeting great whites, but Towner told Gizmodo in June that it could be “for their lipid-rich, nutrient-dense liver.” Great white shark livers could make up one third of the animal’s body weight, she tells the publication.
Videos and photos from the helicopter pilot appear to show an orca eating a piece of floating shark liver, writes the Post. That particular orca is believed to be an individual named Starboard—a suspected shark-killer. This was the only orca of the five thought to have previously attacked great whites, suggesting to the researchers that the others are learning the practice from Starboard, per the AFP. (Another orca not captured on video, named Port, is also suspected to be killing great whites.)
After watching the footage, scientists now believe the sharks try to evade capture by employing a technique also used by seals and sea turtles: circling the orcas and staying in their sight, writes the Post. But that technique likely proved ineffective, since orcas hunt in groups. Following the attacks, great white sharks fled the area—only one was spotted there within the next 45 days, per the AFP.
“Killer whales are highly intelligent and social animals,” Simon Elwen, a co-author of the study and a marine mammal specialist at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, said in the release. “Their group hunting methods make them incredibly effective predators.”
BEST OF THE BLOG:
Got a couple announcements from the North County Board Meeting to start 2023. First up: Thanks to everyone that attended the holiday party last month at Pacific Coast Spirits. It was a rousing success if I don't say so myself, and we raised good money for Sustainable Surf. Appreciate all the auction sponsors as well as everyone that donated funds to help save our oceans. Secondly: It's time for our next meeting and until the waves & weather clean up, we'll be meeting at Broad Street Dough Co. in the Encinitas Lumberyard on Friday, January 20th. Note the new time too: 8-9 AM for all of you that need to get your beauty sleep. If you haven't been to Broad Street yet, it's a great group of people who make great donuts. Come on down to support your community and talk a little surf while you're at it. Thanks for the support and we'll see you on the 20th!
Pretty sure this is what clean sunny surf looks like.
Keep Surfing,
Michael W. Glenn
Relentless
Speaker Of My House
I Listen To Turtle
