Just about to go windsurfing and we noticed a black thing in the water. What looked like through the binos, a massive fin standing straight up probably 3 foot high, one or two other fins visible and a long long body, just drifting very slowly, almost not moving first one way then really slowly back again. The water was not that deep, it was at Snapper Point Reef. We first thought it was a seal but really the fin was massive. There wasnt much wind, so we sailed out towards it to check it out but couldnt see it at the time, course I fell off and hardly enough wind to get back on the board, felt a little creepy so we went back in. It was still there and hung around for an hour or so. Any ideas?
Sounds like a sunfish........they get hit by yachts a fair bit which usually ends up bad for the yacht. funny looking fish too, google them for a photo.
Not a sunfish with a "long long body".
Whale shark?
Orca? I saw Orca's here for teh first time just a couple of weeks ago. 5ft Dorsal fin!
i'm still in shock that you sailed out to check it out.
sounds like a big shart!
i was thinking maybe a hammerhead but apparently they don't like cold water. so i guess something else!
Prob a killer-whale (orca, as tobes said). We get a few around here, but mainly in the deeper water. Personally wouldn't want to be sharing the water with them after seeing what they can do to a seal on the discovery channel!
Not sure if you get many down there - but the Great Hammer Head has a massive doral fin in comparison to body size. I've seen 3m++ Hammers with fins easily that tall on the reef!!
They also love getting right up in the shallow water to chase and trap critters.
Would have been more of a dark grey colour though!?
a photo is cheaper, it won't cost an arm and a leg.....
saw a fin probably around 1m high out the back at lano once. Quite strange really as it didn't really bother me that much as at the time I thought it was too big for a shark so it almost didn't register properly. Was talking about it with a mate who also saw it and he thought Orca ?? Is that the most likely around Lancelin ?
Yep I would say Orca (killer whale).
I was checking out Cathederals at the back of Rotto whilst getting ready to head out for a solo surf a few years back when I saw a huge fin sticking up almost vertical just behind the break, decided to give it a miss . I could only think it must be an Orca but wasn't sure if we got them here, I started telling the local ranger who had lived on the Island for years and he told me that they were often seen around this time of the year and that they ambushed and picked of the weaker whale calves as they made there way South and headed around the West End.
I have checked out the shark fins, they are too triangular, it was kind of like a big slalom fin sticking up only massive and black, actually did look a lot like the orca fin. Only no white and no blowhole, so no. Guess I'll never know.
yes you should have seen some white on the orca, manta rays also stick their wingtips out and look like shark fins, but i haven`t seen 3 foot manta tips, tiger sharks + pointers...well you`ve already done the fin check,and their obvious,but i`d have another look at the hammer head, they have a big dorsal fin ......and susie next time you see a fin that big or even half that size paddle (sail) the other fkn way...please
cheers
Could it have been a Thresher Shark?&imgrefurl=www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dpi/hs.xsl/28_12248_ENA_HTML.htm&h=342&w=600&sz=51&tbnid=jefu-oksUie5FM:&tbnh=77&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthresher%2Bshark&hl=en&usg=__h3uZ6a1ix6lj_YKQ5fTN418k4vI=&ei=JbjXSoWPCJbs7APVt4CbBg&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&ved=0CAoQ9QEwAA
Snapper Point SA
I knew Johnathan Lee from school days he was a few years younger than me ..... he was take right there SNAPPER ROCKS by a great white on a university dive trip,right on the ledge of the drop off.
He would have been in his early 20s ........approx in the early 1990s I would like to be reminded what year.
And then there was RODNEY FOX who got tatooed up with teeth marks in the 70tees ? Very lucky.
It sounds like it may have been jaws to me rolling around ?
So many attacks around the SA metro and surrounding coastline ........... seacliff ,glenelg ,out harbour,
floaty board and or it to be bloody windy........... oh and no falling off
Biiiig balls or no brains? Curiosity got the pussy chomped - apparently.
Sunfish ey? At least we know where all the left over parts for fish go.. Clearly the sunfish was put together by the same designer as the Ssanyong.
Hi Susie, down this way out the back of livingstons bay at Carpenters Rocks we quite often have elephant seals lying around out the back of the reef. they are very large and hold there flippers up in the air to get the sun to warm there blood. they stick up around 2 foot or more. they are more common in the winter months. this may explain why if just hanged around the same area as they do this when thet are resting.
Aaaah Jimbom, you have it right on the knocker, apparently a ws mate of mine knocked his fin out on it later that week. I thought it was too big for a seal, but elephant seal, makes sense...