Had enough of the barge?

[MaxBottomtime]

I have! I was pretty bored today as the vis was down to fifteen feet after our spectacular dive yesterday. I only took a few photos while swimming around the entire barge. We went offshore after the dive and Merry had a fun jelly dive. After she climbed back aboard she yelled that two Molas were next to the boat. By the time I grabbed a camera we had a dozen. Merry slipped back into the water, but the molas dived before she could see them.
We met Tyler Fenton as we were gearing up. It seems as if everyone is out this weekend.

We had a report of good conditions yesterday from our lookout.

Dave Jensen surfs up behind us on the Disappearance.

Merry is down there somewhere

One of twelve

Here comes the rest of the gang

Merry fires off a shot

Gopher rockfish

Lingcod

 

[FrankPro1]

Cool fanged Lingcod shot. What an awesome encounter that must have been seeing all those Mola's together. Any notable jelly sightings?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I forgot the most exciting part of the day! As Merry was gearing up for her blue water dive, a small salmon shark swam toward the boat. I tried to get close enough for a photo but it dived. We didn't know what species it was until we got home. Merry was just a "little" nervous.

 

[Gill]

You and your Mola Mola sightings! That it's! I'm going to have to make it out there to see Mola Mola's in the wild.

 

[FrankPro1]

Merry was just a "little" nervous.

Salmon Shark, eh? They look quite a bit like a baby GW. I would be a "little" nervous myself. How could you have almost forgot to post that!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I was going to call you when we saw it, but by the time we got close he dived. I found this image online of a tagged one. It's similar to the way we saw it, with just the dorsal and caudal fins out.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

You and your Mola Mola sightings! That it's! I'm going to have to make it out there to see Mola Mola's in the wild.

I hadn't seen any in several years, other than a group of tiny babies a few inches long last year. All of a sudden we saw them twice in the last three times out. I really wish I could have gotten a photo of the salmon shark. It was my first sighting.

 

[FrankPro1]

It's similar to the way we saw it, with just the dorsal and caudal fins out.

Was the dorsal fin rounded / semi-blunt like the tagged picture? That would be a big identifier that it was a salmon shark v.s. a juvi white. Such an awesome find.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

That was the first thing I noticed. It was also black, and the other surface-swimming sharks around here are gray or blue. I researched a lot of sharks last night and it was definitely a salmon shark. It's too bad Merry didn't spot him and the molas underwater.
[vimeo]26202479[/vimeo]

 

[FrankPro1]

Charlie was just telling me about this nat geo special. I need to see the full episode!