Saw a the arse end of a...

[Adobo]

I was scootering at the breakwater yesterday (again), doing the grand circuit (again), with Ben.. er Nils. If you are curious as to what this dive was like, read Ben_CA's dive report from last week (just substitute Nils for Ben and substitute 10ft for 20ft when referring to vis). Oh, also add "sporty entrance".

After tooling around the metridium fields, Nils and I were headed southish to get back to the pipe. About halfway back to the pipe, I saw a ginormous silhouette moving perpendicular to our direction of travel. At first, I thought it was one of those bull sea lions - the kind the freak me out every time I am at the end of the breakwater wall. But when I thought about it, this was bigger. Much much bigger. As we got closer to the silhouette, I was able to see that the tail was moving vertically. And it was huge. I am 100% sure it was a whale.

I could only see maybe 8 feet or so of it. I am gonna guess that we could really only see less than half of his body. The shock of seeing this creature at the breakwater left me puzzled as to what to do. I let off the trigger to see if Nils saw what I saw. He stopped, looked at me with eyes bulging out of his head. When looked back at the whale, it was gone.

I have no idea what kind of whale it was. And I have no idea how big it was. But I do remember very distinctly where we saw it.. at 45ft depth between the metridium fields and the pipe. Nils talked with some people at the breakwater parking lot afterwards who mentioned that they had seen a whale breaching its tail earlier in the day.

Anyway, did anybody else see this whale either topside or while diving? If so, any idea what kind of whale it was?

 

[Ben_ca]

But of course no one brought their camera, right?

 

[Gombessa]

The camera was probably flooded when the wwii battleship sank next to them right before the whale showed up

Seriously, I would LOVE to see a whale in the water, though I doubt my drysuit would remain true to its name if I did.

 

[TSandM]

Wow, that's cool! I've heard of a whale being sighted in our Edmonds Underwater Park (max depth 35 feet) in the past. You never know where they'll show up. Too bad there were no photos.

 

[matt mattison]

Congrats on seeing the whale, That is truley a lucky experince and humbling as well, makes you feel small when in the water close to somthing that big huh ?

 

[nilsdiver]

I was gonna bring the camera but it has been failing randomly after 1 or 2 flashes. I think I need a new battery. It wouldn't have really made a difference though. The whale would have been gone by the time I could get it out anyway.

Seeing this whale was an incredible experience. I love how 10 seconds of epicness in a 90 minute dives make the entire dive epic.

Nils - the replaceable cog in Ted's dive machine

 

[masterof0]

I was out at BW on saturday and there was a baby gray tooling around in the area. we first spotted it at about two playing with our float between dives. It stayed in the general area for the rest of the day. At one point, we thought there might have been two, but weren't sure

If I had to guess, I'll bet that's what it was

 

[ae3753]

I think that they are Grey Whales, which do the artic to baja migration.

I need to be diving Breakwater more - this is the second underwater encounter that friends have reported. Though last one was 2 years ago.

 

[nilsdiver]

I was scootering at the breakwater yesterday (again), doing the grand circuit (again), with Ben.. er Nils. If you are curious as to what this dive was like, read Ben_CA's dive report from last week (just substitute Nils for Ben and substitute 10ft for 20ft when referring to vis). Oh, also add "sporty entrance".

Also add "My Cuda is fast". :cool2:

Ted got to try it out during the dive, and is already trying to work out how he can justify a 2nd scooter...

After tooling around the metridium fields, Nils and I were headed southish to get back to the pipe. About halfway back to the pipe, I saw a ginormous silhouette moving perpendicular to our direction of travel. At first, I thought it was one of those bull sea lions - the kind the freak me out every time I am at the end of the breakwater wall. But when I thought about it, this was bigger. Much much bigger. As we got closer to the silhouette, I was able to see that the tail was moving vertically. And it was huge. I am 100% sure it was a whale.

I could only see maybe 8 feet or so of it. I am gonna guess that we could really only see less than half of his body. The shock of seeing this creature at the breakwater left me puzzled as to what to do. I let off the trigger to see if Nils saw what I saw. He stopped, looked at me with eyes bulging out of his head. When looked back at the whale, it was gone.

Ya I mostly remember the tail. Looked a good 5 feet across. The 5 foot number is not corrected for underwater vision or post dive story time exaggerations. We where less then 10 feet from it... Very cool and freaky at first. My guess is the whale was 20 to 25 feet in length based on the part we could see.

I have no idea what kind of whale it was. And I have no idea how big it was. But I do remember very distinctly where we saw it.. at 45ft depth between the metridium fields and the pipe. Nils talked with some people at the breakwater parking lot afterwards who mentioned that they had seen a whale breaching its tail earlier in the day.

Anyway, did anybody else see this whale either topside or while diving? If so, any idea what kind of whale it was?

The tail did look like some photos of grey whale tails I have just been googling for.

Nils

 

[Adobo]

Acknowledged. The Cuda is fast indeed. If anyone is interested in a Dive-Xtras Sierra for a really good price, drop me PM.