Wow, I wish I had seen this! I think we may need to take Tuffy out this weekend!




Rare sight: Manta rays spotted off Dana Point September 4th, 2007

Brian Woolley, captain of the Sum Fun boat out of Dana Wharf Sportfishing, at first thought the ripples on the water's surface were caused by a school of large fish, possibly yellowtail.
Instead, he spotted three manta rays cruising along.

Woolley, captain for seven years, has never seen of them around these parts before. Marine biologists were shocked and excited about the report.

The dark gray rays had a white underbelly and a wingspan of 10- to 12-feet wide.

"They were just kind of swimming along in a formation, staggering one after the other," Woolley said. "They were just cruising right at the surface."


When Rachael Calkins, marine biologist for the Ocean Institute, first heard
of the sighting, her reaction was "how bizarre is that?"
The last official sighting she had heard about around here was during El
Nino.

Calkins speculated that the manta rays came up here because of the quick
change in water temperatures during the past week.

There was recently a drop in water temperature to about 59 degrees because
of upwelling - when colder water is pushed up to the surface by strong
winds. With the hot weather, the water temperatures have shot up drastically
since Sunday.

Dennis Kelly, professor of marine science at Orange Coast College, said in
his 35 years of teaching he's only heard of them being here once - and even
that was iffy, being that the source was a fisherman who enjoyed drinking.
"This is extremely unusual," he said. "Very rare, one in a million."
Kelly thinks there may be a large, temporary current called the "Davidson
counter current" coming through from Baja.

If the mantas found their way here, other subtropical fish such as the Wahoo
barracuda, large sun fish, green sea turtles, and the black jellyfish that
washed up on shore a few years ago could also be making their way to our
region.

"If we're seeing mantas here, there's a chance we'll see stranger creatures
here," he said. "Tell everybody to keep their eyes peeled, when things like
this happen, we can see anything out there."

The manta ray is the largest of the rays. Its wingspan can get up to 25 feet
across and its weight up to 6,600 pounds. The rays are usually found in
tropical areas and coral reefs, as well as the Sea of Cortez and through
Baja, and occasionally in San Diego, the highest point of their range.

During Monday's sighting, the manta rays came up to the bow, like dolphins
sometimes do, and swam with the boat for about five minutes before the boat
took off to look for more fish to catch.

"The passengers were stoked checking them out," Woolley said.

WOW - thats really something!

Thanks for sharing!

COOL!!!!!!!

Awesome!!!

Now that is an awesome sight!

I've never gotten a pic that close. You keep crusin' on Tuffy (I had a Wolfhound by that name when I was a kid, always reminds me!), and taking pics. Only time I've ever got a real pic of a manta was in the Gulf of MX, near Isla Holbox, and we thought it was a whale shark, but no. And we couldn't jump out of the boat. The thing was huge. Only other time was when I was starstruck in Key Largo, and only got a pic of one from behind. I've since learned to raise my camera.

Wow! Get on out there, Cyn!! Camera in hand, OK? cb

Cynde - YGM and YGPM, sorry if both go through, lol

Cool beans!!!! Hope you can get out there and get your own pics; that would be awesome!!!

Thanks for sharing.....

Kobi

They are just beautiful!! I can only imagine what a site that must have been.... think they came up the coast???

Maybe all the hot weather down that way has warmed up the waters and they are following a stream to the area? cb

Wow!

Magnificent!

WOW - that's EXCELLENT!!!

kewl!
mare