Posted by jas on August 02, 2002 at 14:17:39:
In Reply to: G. White encounters in a yak posted by jweave on August 01, 2002 at 12:40:35:
Last time I visited San Simeon, I met a couple in their late 40's from Decker Cyn. The guy had the oldest Scrambler I'ver ever seen. Cool hippie couple that spends a lot of time fishing and camping up and down the coast.
The story went:
He and his wife took an inflatable row raft to the outer kelp beds at Gaviota. After fishing for a while, they noticed a seal exhibiting odd behavior. The seal would poke up out of the water and go down quickly only to reappear on the surface somewhere else. The seal did this 3 times, on the last time the seal came up out of the water came an estimated 18ft GW with the seal in it's jaws. It wasn't like a full leap, but he did say the GW's head and part of the dorsal came up. He saw the white belly even when it did sort of a mini roll as it came back down. Keep this in mind: The shark attack happened in between them and the shoreline. They were going to have to actually pass by the spot it happened to get back in.
They decided to approach in cautiously but delliberately. It was calm that day so they were able to paddle a very slow, soft stroke. They tried to make as little of a splash as they could when they put the paddles in.
I didn't ask, but it doesn't look like she does as much fishing w/ him anymore. The 2 days I was there with the couple, the guy was the only one doing any fishing.
jas-