Yesterday round noon, Eric Stockwell of Loleta Eric’s Guide Service was fishing alone at Cape Mendocino when he spotted and briefly filmed a great white shark swimming between him and the group of kayakers he’d paddled up to. If you want to know what one looks like close up in the wild, you can get […]
Sharks
Posted inLife + Outdoors
You’re No Mola
Evolutionary history” is probably a terrible phrase to begin a lighthearted natural history story with. But maybe if I throw in live fish disc golf, that will keep your attention for another 500 words. Anyway, in your evolutionary history you have a fish. There’s plenty of genetic and anatomical evidence to support this. For example, […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Naming the Sharky Looking Thing on the Beach
A couple of you may remember my imaginary friend. Well, I had him killed. Every shark I’ve ever found on a local beach ate him alive. He raised his hand in a final act of defiance as he sank into the bloody water, and a salmon shark (Lamna ditropis) bit off his middle finger. Salmon […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Sharktober: Part Two
If you lived in Humboldt County in October of 2012, you heard about the encounter. For me, the word came via my cell phone, which blew up with news that someone had been hit and it was bad. Really bad. Rumors abounded on Facebook that the victim had died. Nobody knew who the guy was, […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Sharktober Part 1
The first person I knew to be hit by a great white was this guy Casey. That was in 2000, the same year I’d started surfing. A couple years later, Reed. Then in 2004 a shark not only knocked my friend Brian off his board, but came back for him. The next year it was […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Surfing with Sharks
If you want to learn to surf, you’ll find ideal conditions at Shelter Cove. The small, predictable, mellow waves that meet the crescent sweep of the cove are perfect for beginners, according to longtime surfer John Dowd. Since I’d never surfed before, it seemed like a great place to start. But first, surf conditions: You […]
Posted inNews
Not All About The Shark
Just wind, waves, sun and eye-aching blue sky today out at the beach. Slight breeze, biting sharp. Not far from the Bunker Road parking lot, north of the North Jetty, surfer Bill Lydgate had parked his truck on the waveslope. His surfboard jutted out of the back end of the camper, and he was scrubbing […]