so i went to spring lake, nj, today to celebrate fathers day with the fam, and there were no waves so my brother and i are spongin' it up, and BAM. a whale breaches about one hundred yards off the beach. this thing was huge, probably about 35 feet, completely dwarfing every vessel around it. this was one of a few whales that comprise a pod which has been scouring the central nj coast for about the past week. the whales have been following an absolutely massive school of bunker (menhaden), i would say at least 500 yards by 500 yards, i am talking millions of fish. the sight of this animal was absolutely awe-inspiring. i am just 16 and i dont know if ill ever see such a thing again. i think this is a testimony to the constantly improving water quality and marine environment of new jersey. i was wondering if anyone else had an encounter of any sort with these whales recently, and if so i would love to hear it. on a side note, these bunker aren't only attracting whales and the typical bluefish-striper combo, thresher sharks have been enjoying the feast themselves. a friend who runs a fishing charter caught a 177-pounder off of belmar. just goes to show that they really arent out to get you..
Wow thats awsome . I know that the dolphins are coming in alot closer to shore this year in Wildwood . I got my board bumped 2 weeks ago . Its not as kool as what you saw but it make surfing mean more with experience like that.
this past winter i had seal encounters with them swimming right next to me and diving under my board... kinda freaked me out cuz we all know what they attract! if it was summer time maybe i would be less freaked out... have yet to surf with dolphins or whales yet
i live in spring lake year round and the past weeks ive seen about 3 of them which is very unusual. the only time besides this week ive ever seen one was about this time last summer
awesome whale sighting Very cool stuff, kid; thanks for sharing with us. Keep that great perspective, never lose it, grow it. The world's a wonderful place & the planet is ours to take care of. Too bad the corporate weasels & the politicos have no accountability for their actions unless they get caught red-handed fu*king up things in our lives. And even then..."appoint a committee to look into it." wtf I luv it when I'm out at Assateague & the dolphins cruise by while I'm surfing. Just a great feeling, you guys know what I mean.
i saw a pod of dolphins a few years ago about 50 yards away and started making squeaky noises with my fingers against my board, don't ask why. A few seconds later a dolphin surfaced about 10 feet away and a nearly shat my pants. those things make you feel small in the water.I won't do that again!
we haven't had any whales offshore here in the Delaware/OC beach area,but we have seen a HUGE increase in thresher sharks. my fisherman friends are pullin those things out of the water left & right & i'm talkin 200-700lb'ers. my sisters friend actually won the thresher shark catergory of the shark tournement here 2 weeks ago with a thresher shark that was 627.6lbs caught at someplace called the "HotDog". this shark was only 14.5lbs shy of the maryland state record. i used to think threshers didn't come close to shore,but i saw someones footage from a carribean trip & they saw one just a few feet from shore were they were. i wonder why there has been such a drastic increase in threshers & whats making them grow so large now....hmmm......my sisters friends & i ate that big thresher,so i hope her relatives don't return the favor on the line up this season!!!
I have had many encounters with dolphins, big fish, and little sharks down at Assateague. I really don't enjoy their presence cause i get spooked out. The only whale i have ever seen in Maryland/DE was the one with the washed up
I was out about a week or two ago in OCMD with my buddy and his dad and we saw this what appeared to be a dolphin fin breach the the surface about 100yds off the beach at first we were thinking it was just a dolphin but then about 75yds down the beach we saw this massive 30ft whale jump out of the water and I almost crapped myself I was so amazed.
I saw a huge school of fish coming down the coast in Fenwick DE Friday night while fishing. I thought they were blues, but who knows. I saw a seal in OC this past winter, freaked me out at first, but then was kinda cool. He kept poking his head up watching me, and kept me company while I was alone out there. He seemed curious. Also saw a fox that day in OC. Sometime years ago in oc we saw a group of big whales, but they were couple hundred yards out while we were surfing. Never saw them since. I think dolphins have freaked out almost everyone. I think they like poking up 5 feet in front of you, making you crap yourself.
just a week ago in uptown OCMD a whale went cruisin up the coast following a big school of fish, the whale had to be at least 25- 30ft.
Whale / 30+ footer A 30 foot whale was just hanging out about 75 feet off of 39th street on Saturday. It may have been bigger. It made way down to the board walk with about 100 people just following it. It was low tide, so you could almost walk out to it!
Maybe this marine life is smarter than we think. they could be fleeing the gulf and coming up here. hahaha
For the past two winters, a huge gray whale has entered the SD bay and stayed in it for about 3-4 weeks each time. He just swims right up to the Cruise Ship docks and looks up at all the people. Pretty cool creature. Really beautiful… But as far as being in the water with one, I would sh** myself. Ive had tons of dolphins encounters and seals are in my lineup in LJ everyday all year basically… And with a few random shark sightings, Ive had my fair share of interaction with sea animals… But if I was out at one of the deep spots that I surf and a whale rolled up, that would be the end of me… I was in my buddies boat, a little 26ft Catalina on the bay, and the gray whale was about 50 yards from the boat. I was shook even being that close in a boat. I felt like the guy could just flip us at any moment if he wanted to get playful… My strange friend who owns the boat was tempted to jump in and swim with him. I told him that was the worst idea I have ever heard, that if he got close to that thing in the water, the amount of current etc that is around him would probably end up killing him. But at any rate, whales are sooo beautiful, yet so creepy when they are around you. Can you imagine looking down and seeing a 40 foot creature cruising under you… Not cool…. Ive seen them WAYYY out at sea when im surfing, on the other side of the kelp beds. The kelp beds hear usually deter enormous fish. at least thats what I tell myself. here's a photo of the whale that the media named "Diego"
I saw a fifty foot whale around 54th street on friday. gaurds were whistling people out becuas eit was only about 20yds from shore
i was there for that too. at one point he got himself stuck in about chest deep water 25-30 yards from shore. it was so epic. he rolled himself back out, it was really really ****ing cool. the dolphins were corralling the blues up against the shallows and the whale was just chilling in the middle of the feeding frenzy feasting away. epic.
yo moose that was teh same whale. we also saw a lil crew of 3-5 whales a few days before that. never seen a whale in my life except in coastal maine before this.
I've got a pretty funny whale story. About 3 or 4 years ago I was surfing with a friend on a day that was just huge and blown out. It was probably like 7 to 8 foot, and just bumpy as hell, but we were out there braving it, just trying to get a few big drops. So my friend an I are paddling back out after both catching wave, when we see this massive whale breech about 10 feet out from where we were just sitting. Were both just like "Ohhhh My God," but we continue to paddle out. Then this massive set rolls in, and I start getting all freaked out cause I think the whale is gonna breach on top of me or something. I yell to my friend "You can't paddle out there!!! Thats whale Territory!!!!!" So I just stay put, and am prepairing to duck dive this set as my friend paddles out. And wouldn't you know it, as be paddles out the whale surfaces not even 5 feet away from him! At this point were both just freaked out, and ride a whitewash all the way to shore. We got to shore and were both just like "Holy ****!!! That was Insane!!!"
