Killer Waves - Day 32

The bird waves have basically ended (we had five American Robins show up today) but the ocean waves have been cranking. There are a few places around the island where the waves break pretty nicely. Since I've been in California, I've started to surf, so I'm looking at waves a lot more. You would be crazy to surf out here though, but it sure is tempting. As far as I've heard, no one has ever surfed out here. There's a story that I heard a couple times about a group of guys that were going to surf here several years ago. They drove up and the biologists on the island could see them suiting up and getting their surfboards ready. This was sometime during the fall, when the waves are good and the most sharks are around. The biologists called the boat on the radio and explained how dangerous it was to be in the water here and how they drag a surfboard around to attract sharks for research purposes. The guys on the boat weren't taking them seriously. The biologist convinced them to at least throw a board out in the water until they finished suiting up, and if they still wanted to go after that, then fine. Some 10-15 minutes later a shark came up and bit the board. They hauled the surfboard in and took off without saying a word to the biologist. I'm still tempted to get out there, but luckily there aren't any wet suits handy.

The Mirounga Bay Break (great but a bit rocky)

The break off Indian Head (lay back in the barrel)
Closeup of the Mirounga Break

Here are a few other pictures from the past couple days. The first is of a sea anemone. The low tides have been very low making it easy to check out the tide pools. There are sea stars and urchins around as well.

The last picture is of one of the Northern Saw-whet Owls we banded a couple nights ago. It roosted in the tree next to our house two days in a row. We could see it looking out one of the windows. Cute little buggers.