ORCAs off Palos Verdes.. We think we heard them loud and clear and..<gulp>... near!

[drbill]

Sam... so you know and dove with Ron, eh. He was a great SCUBA instructor. Even though I had been diving sporadically for about 8 years before I got certified, I learned a lot from him. I can just imagine him swimming back to the Golden Doubloon (which was, by the way, the boat that brought me to Catalina for my first ocean dives here back in the late 60's).

I'm not aware of an orca attack on a diver, but do seem to remember something about one chasing a human onto an ice flow, or was it a rocky pinnacle.

Orcas have been experiencing problems with their normal food sources in Arctic waters (they're now decimating sea otter populations up there), so perhaps they are moving south to take advantage of the increasing pinniped populations in our waters.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Yes, I have known and dove with Ron for very close to 60 years.. He was a GREAT instructor...We were both aclaimed "Outstanding Instrctors of the year" by LA County, me in 1969, Ron several years later. We recently celebrated birthdays together in CenCal.

Ron is doing well. We communicate frequenly; I will give him your regards. It is always comforting when a former student remains in the sport as you have.
By the way do you know Dr Mary Ann Reidman, author of a book on "Seals, penipeds &??" Or Dr. Richard (R.H.) Johnson author of "Sharks of Polynesia" Both were OC types.

Thanks for the information, I and I feel certain others appreciate it, especially no REPORTED attacts on humans....

Cheers from OC where it all began,

SDM

 

[LAJim]

Penny, Randy and I dove at buchannon's reef right after you did on Friday. We all heard the same noises. thanks for investigating the possible sources!


send me the recording of the orca noises if you have a chance...

Scott

Scott:

Links to two orca songs are in the second post of this thread - PM me if they don't work for you. There is also an orca in the "whale song test". You can google up another four or five easily. All are different, and all are reminiscent in general features of what we heard at Buchanan's.

Jim

 

[dlndavid]

Very cool ! Orcas definitely visit our coast line. In fact, I've seen them while surfing at Trestles around this time of year. Do you think there could be a link to the seasonal gray whale migration ? I've heard of Orca packs hunting calves.

I've seen them on the Discovery channel, they harrass the calve and mother untill the calve is worn out and can't keep up, kinda sad but it is their world.

 

[Jcsgt]

Wow, very cool! Thanks for the info and the links, very informative.

I've got to get a dry suit!

 

[mdb]

Yes, I have known and dove with Ron for very close to 60 years.. He was a GREAT instructor...We were both aclaimed "Outstanding Instrctors of the year" by LA County, me in 1969, Ron several years later. We recently celebrated birthdays together in CenCal.

Ron is doing well. We communicate frequenly; I will give him your regards. It is always comforting when a former student remains in the sport as you have.
By the way do you know Dr Mary Ann Reidman, author of a book on "Seals, penipeds &??" Or Dr. Richard (R.H.) Johnson author of "Sharks of Polynesia" Both were OC types.

Thanks for the information, I and I feel certain others appreciate it, especially no REPORTED attacts on humans....

Cheers from OC where it all began,

SDM

I presented the LA county diver of the year award to Ron in 1972 or 1973, can not quite remember the dates. The award was a gold plated Healthways regulator. Ron was wearing spear gun shock cord as a belt. He flashed those eyebrows and thanked us with a bit of his usual wit and sarcasm.

Made many a weekend dive of the Golden Doubloon. Lots of fun.

My partner, Gary Keffler, of Underwater Sports in Seattle WA. was the diver who captured Shamu. Gary, as you probably know, was a world class free diver and spearfisherman.

Interesting to me that, in the LA South Bay, we still have Dive N' Surf and Sea d Sea, two great stores still owned by the folks from the times we have been talking about.

 

[ChrisM]

That is so cool. If you haven't checked with the folks at Point Vicente Interpretive Center, you should. If the local orca pod is back, they'd know about it, they've got people watching and recording every day.

Prior to our Galapagos trip the DMs had heard a lot of orcas UW at Darwin Island, as long as they heard the orcas, the whale sharks simply disappeared.

 

[LAJim]

That is so cool. If you haven't checked with the folks at Point Vicente Interpretive Center, you should. If the local orca pod is back, they'd know about it, they've got people watching and recording every day.

Prior to our Galapagos trip the DMs had heard a lot of orcas UW at Darwin Island, as long as they heard the orcas, the whale sharks simply disappeared.

I just called them. They report that orcas were last seen off of PV on December 5, 2006. There was no scepticism about our identification based on sound, but I'd be interested to know if they actually spot any this month.

Jim

 

[Sam Miller III]

I presented the LA county diver of the year award to Ron in 1972 or 1973, can not quite remember the dates. The award was a gold plated Healthways regulator.
>>>I think the correct term would be "On behalf of Healthways and president Richard "Dick" Klien I presented Ron Merker a gold plated reg in recognition of him being honored as the oustanding UW instructor of the year" ( The award is always presented by the President of the LA County UIA at that time it was Glen Egstrom.

Yes, in those days gold plated presentation regulators were in style. I received a 2 hose reg engraved with my name and the award for which it was given from Tommy Thompson on behalf of JYC & US Divers. We, Ron, I and the others who were so honored received tons of other goodies from all the manufacturers. As I recall my Healthways reg was presentedby Noel Brown who was sales manager of Healthways--what ever happened to Noel?


Ron was wearing spear gun shock cord as a belt.
>>>It was a poly propolene belt made from a peice of ply pro and a set of brummel snaps--the sign of a OC spearfishermen...all OC spear fishermen wore them--- sort of a badge of honor. Still have mine hanging in the basement ( yes I have a basement!)


Interesting to me that, in the LA South Bay, we still have Dive N' Surf and Sea d Sea, two great stores still owned by the folks from the times we have been talking about.

>>>See D Sea was founded by Mel Fisher. He owned it as "Mels Aqua shop" always on Catalina Ave. Prior to moving to Florida in the early 1960s he sold it to a couple of LA Co Instructors whose names have been lost in the passage of time, They in turn sold it to current owner Barry Freidman about 1973.

Mel also owned the Golden Doubloon for about 10 years. He sold it to the late Eddie Tsukamura, who sold it to Greg Elliot who sold it to???

SDM

 

[Codyjp]

I saw an orca from my plane 2 winters ago about 8 miles north of Avalon. He was completly breaching out of the water, it was an absolutly amazing sight! There may have been several (probably so) but I couldn't confirm as I never saw more then on at a time. I will surely be keeping my eyes peeled for these fellows now!