Our friends in gray
**day 34
There is always a feeling of wonder when the dolphins come out to play. Some mornings, dolphins swim leisurely past the morning surfers. Other morning the dolphins are playful. On rare occasions, I've seen them jumping up and out of the water, or splashing fins and tails at the surface.
On my way out to the line up, I noticed a gray dorsal fin protruding from the surface of the water behind the breaking surf. Being the first person in the water, it was a fearful moment. The fin signified the presence of one of several species of sea creatures. The question was: which one?
The answer to that question, reached in my own mind, depended on a number of factors. One of them was that I was alone.
I had heard no sound from a blow hole. If a fin is accompanied by the noise of a blow hole, the creature is certainly a mammal. Otherwise, the fin can be considered based on the known differences between the possible sea creatures. Was the back of the fin curved or straight? Was the top of the fin rounded or pointed? Was the motion of the fin up and down, or side to side?
I convinced myself that I recognized the shape of the fin and continued swimming outward, cautiously. A moment later, I saw two fins surface right next two each other. They were dolphins. I could see them clearly.
I had been in the water for only a few minutes and had caught a series of quick rights in succession. Brett arrived, and paddled out into the surf towards me.
I swam through the first wave of a set, and saw a larger wave behind it. I set my concentration and paddled quickly towards the shoulder. The wave peak was just to my left. A quick look over my shoulder verified that Brett was immediately behind me and to my right.
I was at the apex of the wave. Before I could swim up and over, there was a shocking sound of splashing water. My face was slapped with pellets of cool mist, causing me to blink momentarily as the salt water burned into my eyes. I exhaled through a film of moving water and opened my eyes as the body of a dolphin rocketed out of the water and over the peak of the wave. I stopped swimming, my arms frozen in place. The dolphin's launch point had been a yard to my left. In the surface of the water ahead of me, the landing spot still swirled with the residue of the dolphin's splash.
The dolphins that we see at Huntington beach in the summer are bottlenose dolphins, feeding on small schooling fish in the warm waters. They regularly visit the surf, swimming into the waters as shallow as 6 or 8 feet deep and can often be seen as a gray shape through the face of a breaking wave, surfing just under the surface. Brett and I have an ongoing joke about the dolphins knowing when the surf is good, as they seem to be more active on good days.
The bottlenose dolphin is a relative of the Atlantic Bottlenose dolphin that is often used in spectator shows at marine attractions parks, and featured on television and films. The California variety are darker in color and larger than their Atlantic counterparts. The size of the dolphins in southern California varies from 6 to 12 feet in length. The dolphins I've seen at Huntington beach were at the small end of that range, from 6-8 feet long.
In Southern California waters, the population of bottlenose dolphin is about 15,500 in winter and spring, bulging to 57,000 in summer and autumn.
No matter the size, the dolphins are clearly at home where we are merely visitors. They are relaxed, agile, playful, and fast. Dolphins can reach top speeds of 25 miles per hour in the water.
Brett had swum up behind me. "Did you see that?" I asked. He answered silently with a quizzical look, shaking his head in a quick and short motion as he sat upright on his longboard.
"Well." I excitedly "The dolphins are back today. There was one jumping into that last wave right over here He --"
As I turned my body to point at the spot, I heard another loud splash - this time in Brett's direction. I whipped my head around to look, and caught the blur of gray skin and splashing green water. The dolphin had breeched, and landed only inches from Brett's leg.
Brett looked like he'd seen a ghost. His eyes were wide. His mouth was open. He was panting.
"It doesn't get much closer than that, bro." He said.
copyright 2004 Travis R. English
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jaap/delphin.htm
http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/common.htm
http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/btlnose.htm
There is always a feeling of wonder when the dolphins come out to play. Some mornings, dolphins swim leisurely past the morning surfers. Other morning the dolphins are playful. On rare occasions, I've seen them jumping up and out of the water, or splashing fins and tails at the surface.
On my way out to the line up, I noticed a gray dorsal fin protruding from the surface of the water behind the breaking surf. Being the first person in the water, it was a fearful moment. The fin signified the presence of one of several species of sea creatures. The question was: which one?
The answer to that question, reached in my own mind, depended on a number of factors. One of them was that I was alone.
I had heard no sound from a blow hole. If a fin is accompanied by the noise of a blow hole, the creature is certainly a mammal. Otherwise, the fin can be considered based on the known differences between the possible sea creatures. Was the back of the fin curved or straight? Was the top of the fin rounded or pointed? Was the motion of the fin up and down, or side to side?
I convinced myself that I recognized the shape of the fin and continued swimming outward, cautiously. A moment later, I saw two fins surface right next two each other. They were dolphins. I could see them clearly.
I had been in the water for only a few minutes and had caught a series of quick rights in succession. Brett arrived, and paddled out into the surf towards me.
I swam through the first wave of a set, and saw a larger wave behind it. I set my concentration and paddled quickly towards the shoulder. The wave peak was just to my left. A quick look over my shoulder verified that Brett was immediately behind me and to my right.
I was at the apex of the wave. Before I could swim up and over, there was a shocking sound of splashing water. My face was slapped with pellets of cool mist, causing me to blink momentarily as the salt water burned into my eyes. I exhaled through a film of moving water and opened my eyes as the body of a dolphin rocketed out of the water and over the peak of the wave. I stopped swimming, my arms frozen in place. The dolphin's launch point had been a yard to my left. In the surface of the water ahead of me, the landing spot still swirled with the residue of the dolphin's splash.
The dolphins that we see at Huntington beach in the summer are bottlenose dolphins, feeding on small schooling fish in the warm waters. They regularly visit the surf, swimming into the waters as shallow as 6 or 8 feet deep and can often be seen as a gray shape through the face of a breaking wave, surfing just under the surface. Brett and I have an ongoing joke about the dolphins knowing when the surf is good, as they seem to be more active on good days.
The bottlenose dolphin is a relative of the Atlantic Bottlenose dolphin that is often used in spectator shows at marine attractions parks, and featured on television and films. The California variety are darker in color and larger than their Atlantic counterparts. The size of the dolphins in southern California varies from 6 to 12 feet in length. The dolphins I've seen at Huntington beach were at the small end of that range, from 6-8 feet long.
In Southern California waters, the population of bottlenose dolphin is about 15,500 in winter and spring, bulging to 57,000 in summer and autumn.
No matter the size, the dolphins are clearly at home where we are merely visitors. They are relaxed, agile, playful, and fast. Dolphins can reach top speeds of 25 miles per hour in the water.
Brett had swum up behind me. "Did you see that?" I asked. He answered silently with a quizzical look, shaking his head in a quick and short motion as he sat upright on his longboard.
"Well." I excitedly "The dolphins are back today. There was one jumping into that last wave right over here He --"
As I turned my body to point at the spot, I heard another loud splash - this time in Brett's direction. I whipped my head around to look, and caught the blur of gray skin and splashing green water. The dolphin had breeched, and landed only inches from Brett's leg.
Brett looked like he'd seen a ghost. His eyes were wide. His mouth was open. He was panting.
"It doesn't get much closer than that, bro." He said.
copyright 2004 Travis R. English
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jaap/delphin.htm
http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/common.htm
http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/btlnose.htm
posted by travinator @ 1:41 PM
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