House for Sale by Owner in Andes New York Catskill Mountains

Hi everyone - well this blog is a bit different. My parents have just put their house up for sale and they wanted something on the internet. I thought I would tell you about the home and town I grew up in.

I grew up in Andes, New York a small town about a 3 hour drive from New York City. Andes is a tiny, nice and friendly community to live in. My parents own 66 acres of land and finished their house themselves. The house was built back in 1963 and is a red Cape Cod style house. The Pepacton Reservoir is situated below the house and at different times of the year offers a spectacular view. My mother is an out-of-control gardener - having slowly expanded to have numerous gardens and a greenhouse and potting shed. My father has meticulously maintained the house - you will find everything in tip-top shape here. They have two ponds - the initial pond was in case of a fire - you could use the water in the pond. There are gorgeous weeping willows behind the pond and on occassion you will have ducks or turtles or geese or whatever is passing by in the pond. When I was young we used to catch frogs, salamanders, newts, and fish from the pond. We also went swimming in it during the summer and ice skating on it during the winter. I remember playing ice hockey with my brother a lot. My parents created a second pond and my father built a fully working waterwheel. There are benches all around the ponds and gardens everyone. Behind the first pond we planted tons of scotch pines and larch trees - they are huge now. In fact my parents were avid planters of trees and reforested a lot of the 66 acres. During my summers I would hike all over the mountain - there are old logging trails, and tons of paths - you won't see any civilization here. I would hike up the mountain or even down to the river, streams and reservoir below. This was great fishing and my father would often spend his time fly fishing on the streams - the funny thing is he doesn't eat fish - so he would catch and release them or we would stock the trout in our pond. I remember the beavers, deer, fish, rabbits, woodchucks, and more. In the winter we would sled down our road to our mailbox to get the mail or even take the sled down to the school bus. During our time off we would go up the mountain and go cross country skiing or sledding in the upper fields. We would build snow forts in the front yard, treehouses in the back yard and explore our wilderness. I can probably identify more trees and plants then most anyone - simply from growing up on the mountain and exploring. Summers we would ride our bikes on the roads around the reservoir - it was beautiful - and when I got older I would ride my bike into town as a means of transportation.

It is about 7 miles until you get to Andes. In Andes you have the Andes Town Pool (I was a lifeguard and taught swimming there for years). The town has really cool 19th century architecture. - you will see what I mean when you drive through. This is a small town but all the houses are - for lack of a better word - cute and quaint. The heart of the town is the school - Andes Central School has been around for a long time. It is Kindergarten through 12th grade all in one building. When I graduated I had 18 kids in my high school class - about 14 of them I had been in school with since kindergarten. Out of all the kids graduating - all went to college except for one - he went into the military. I was on the soccer team, the volleyball team, the skiing team, the basketball team, the tennis team and the softball team. Everyone joined the teams because you needed everyone just to have the team! If you go through the school I guarantee you will see my name, my sisters name, my brother's name and even my father's name on plaques throughout the school. My father was on the school board for more than 20 years. Andes is small but there are tons of things to get involved in - believe me I was not bored growing up! Bobcat Ski Center was located on Mt. Pisgah down Gladstone Hollow Road - it was really a great place to go skiing! Mt Pisgah (3440 ft) is the highest peak in Delaware County outside the Catskill Park and it is a great place to hike. One place that I spent a lot of time was the library - I checked out thousands of books there - bringing a pile of books home every week and staying up all night reading them. I loved the town library - it was great! There is now a local history museum (learn about the anti-rent wars that Andes was the center of), galleries, antique shops or play tennis (for free) on the courts behind the school. There are a lot of churches in town - growing up we actually didn't attend church in Andes but went to Margaretville - a nearby community where my father had his business.

What is Andes close to?
When I grew up I went to college in New York City - and then on weekends we would drive a carpool home. I went to college in the Bronx and it would take about 3 hours to get home. When I was visiting my parents recently I didn't want to drive into New York City so I went to Kingston - caught the express bus and was in New York in a flash. On the way back we took the train up the Hudson (beautiful trip) and got off in Poukeepsie. When I'm flying back to see my parents I usually fly into Binghamton. My father decided later in life to get his college degree - he would attend night classes at Sullivan County Community college - he ended up being the class validictorian at 69 years old. For shopping you can go to Andes, Margaretville, Delhi or even over to Oneonta. My parents usually go to Oneonta once a week - it is considered the closest big city or sometimes they go to Binghamton and Kingston. Andes is in Delaware County New York - so named because this is where the east and the west branches of the Delaware River begin. That's right that river that ends in the state of Delaware begins in upstate New York. Another town that we would go visit is Cooperstown - home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Glimmerglass Lake and the Glimmerglass Opera (my Mom loves them!).

What about the house?
The house is a two-story red house with a green roof. There is a separate 2 car garage. The house is covered in aluminum siding but it looks totally like it is wood! There is a front door that no one ever uses - except during the summer when it is open a lot. Enter through the side door and onto the enclosed porch. The porch has a closet for junk and jackets - and is a great place to put your shoes and outer clothes. Next is the kitchen -it is not a big kitchen but it is big enough. The kitchen has beautiful cabinest done by my father. It has a center island with two bar stools to sit and chat while dinner is made. The washing machine is in the kitchen but when the door between the kitchen and porch is open (almost always) the washing machine is not seen. There is a microwave oven, an oven, a refrigerator, and a small dishwasher on wheels with a butcher block on top. The dryer is over on the other side of the kitchen. The bathroom is next, it was completely redone by my father and is of fresh new tile and easy clean and care bathtube and shower. There is a door across from the bathroom - this leads down to the basement but we'll go there later. There is a linen closet in the hallway next to the bathroom. You will notice the beautiful wooden floors throughout most of the house. It is extremely well kept. Into the living room - and you immediately see the picture widow looking out onto the yard, trees and reservoir. Make sure you look for the rabbits and deer! There is an old stone fireplace in the lving room along with a cherry wall. There is a staircase for the upper level here. There is a closet right across from the staircase leading up. There is also the front entrance door that leads out onto another porch and the front yard. Next we have the dining room - this room has evolved over the years.

Enjoying Hawaii's Sharks

I enjoy going out on the ocean, especially since we live in Hawaii but sometimes life just makes it a bit hard to get out - especially around April 15th. Well, taxes are all filed on time and I am taking a well deserved day on the ocean.

We head out of Honokohau Harbor around 11 a.m. - having a few boat issues slowed us down. I think everyone knows that having a boat sit around for 3 weeks is almost like automatically signing the credit card bills for the repairs - rust just never seems to take a day off.

We headed out of the harbor and immediately saw Hawaiian spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, leaping by the green buoy. The spinner dolphins are almost always here - hanging out and sleeping during the day and then going out at night to hunt. They were in resting mode so we just left them be and continued on. We passed a NOAA research vessel and then head over to neaby FAD (Fish Aggregation Device) - absolutely nothing was happening there so we decided to go out to an offshore FAD lacated 10 nautical miles from there.

The ocean looked so calm from my house - but even though there were no wind waves the swell was actually quite large. A large swell makes it hard to find animals - really hard - but I'm actually really good at finding creatures! I thought I saw a splash - and sure enough we spotted a pod of pantropical spotted dolphins, Stenella attenuata. It was a large school and the sport fishing boats were all in it hoping to latch onto a big tuna. We were hoping to get a shot of those spectacular leaps that pantropical dolphins do - they can leap so high it seems unreal. However - the pantropical dolphins were in feeding mode - this means they were all over the place - zig zagging all around and definitely not interested in playing with us. It was frustrating - dolphins leaping all over the place but in totally unpredictable locations - you simply couldn't track them! It is not always about photography - dolphins sure can make you smile! After awhile we came to the realization that we had been there for quite some time - and only taken three shots! Not exactly productive for wildlife photographers!

We decided on an alternative plan and turned the boat in search of that offshore FAD buoy - the most elusive buoy of all. This buoy swings a lot - it can be off by a couple of miles from the position you marked the previous week - and if it is off and the swell is high it is almost impossible to find it unless you have luck. Well no luck for us today (or at least not yet!) and no FAD to be found. Time to head on to another buoy down south.

When we found the next buoy we knew the fish were biting - lots of boats around is always a good sign. We tried jigging and caught a bigeye tuna almost immediately. The current was really kicking so we drifted quite fast. We would try to drop where the fish were - and according to our Garmin fish finder this place was loaded - but the current drifted us back so quickly that we ended up past the fish before we started jigging. A bit of maneuvering finally got us into a good position and both Masa & I got a hit on our lines. A few minutes later our deck had two convenient sized bigeye tunas on it. I like the 20-30 pounder range - bigger than that and I just can't fillet it myself. However today my fish was being given away as a gift - thanks Gerald & Ann - my carpool couldn't survive without you - hope you like the fish!

Masa decided to get in the water and try out his new fins - he had gotten huge fins and was itching to see how they worked. He got in and I handed him his camera so he could get the feel of things. He was swimming around, diving down and checking things out when all of a sudden he comes up and shouts SHARK! I saw the shadow underwater and then the fin started cutting the surface heading straight to Masa. Now we run a stock photo agency that specializes in sharks - we LOVE sharks, have experience with them and respect them. Living in Hawaii and going out where other people don't we encounter sharks. The most common shark that we encounter is the oceanic whitetip shark, Carcharhinus longimanus. Oceanic whitetip sharks are not a common shark elsewhere - but in Hawaii these ocean cruisers are around - not near the shore but far out in the blue water.

Oceanic whitetip sharks are beautiful, but very aggressive and have been known to attack humans. The shark went straight at Masa (this is normal), bumped into his camera housing that was held in front of him (totally normal), then bumped it a second time - this is not so normal - then threw his tail - kind of like a peduncle throw - straight at Masa (this never happens). By now I am shouting at Masa to get out of the water - this was a big shark - a ten footer and it wasn't scared, or cautious or anything. It was powerful and supremely aware of its status as an apex predator. Then Masa pops his head up and says - "WOW - it's so beautiful! Sue you have to get in here to see this - it is fantastic!" I'm thinking a ten foot aggressive shark can be as beautiful as the Michelangelo's David and I'm not getting off this boat to see it - thank you very much!

Then Masa shouted "There's another one!" Sure enough another shadow began to approach Masa - but no fin cutting the water - this one looked smaller and I was able to see it was loaded with pilot fish, Naucrates ductor. Pilot fish are often found with oceanic whitetip sharks - theirs is considered to be a symbiotic relationship, mutualism - the shark gets cleaned of its parasites and the pilot fish feed on the scraps of the sharks (sharks are notoriously messy eaters). Pilot fish look like they are escaped prisoners from an old time movie - they are dressed from head to toe in black and white bars.

These were larger pilot fish than I normally see - maybe a 1 to 1-1/2 foot in length. The pilot fish were curious and left their shark host to come visit the boat - they hung out with me for a bit while the sharks disappeared. But of course the sharks were not done - they had found something very interesting floating in the ocean -MASA - and they wanted to see exactly what he was about. At this point I was begging Masa to get out of the water - but Masa has been in the water with a lot of sharks, he has over a decade of experience with them and he was totally calm. I kept threatening to call his wife and tell her exactly what he was doing but he seemed unperturbed and thrilled to be the center of the sharks' attention.

The big shark was the one that simply didn't follow proper shark protocol - apparently it hadn't read the shark handbook before it showed up. I rarely see fins of this shark species cutting the water - but this one was above the water a lot - you could clearly see where it was and where it was heading. And, of course, it was heading directly at Masa - again - for a nice hard bump against his housing and then it swam over to say high to me on the boat. It even poked its head out of the water (sorry no pictures of this). Contrary to my wishes, Masa comfortably cruised with the 10 foot shark and its smaller sidekick for about 45 minutes - and then as silently as they came, they left. Masa finally got out of the water and then I got to put my head under a towel to see what he had seen in the back of a 3 inch on camera LCD screen. Wow, did he get some great shots! They looked incredibly awesome and I was hoping he would get around to posting a few here for everyone.

Well, I know you are all thinking I'm a big chicken - and well, I am - but the little shark loaded with pilot fish did cruise back over again - and without its gargantuan cousin I did get in the water to check it out. OK - it is true that I didn't let go of the boat or the tuna bat in my hand - but I did get to see the most beautiful shark cruising with pilot fish in the blue, blue water of Hawaii - and as Masa said - it was gorgeous!

Shark Talk

It's been so long since I (Susan Dabritz) have blogged, or even had something to blog about! Boat excursions have been few, and those we've had were uneventful. Fortunately, I got mail from a student in France, Océane Beaufort, with some great questions about sharks, so here's my deux centimes on that topic ...

Q. I would like to know how you reacted the first time you saw a shark.

I learned to dive off the coast of Long Island and New England, where the water is very murky. Fortunately, I never saw a shark there; if I had, it would have been right in my face! I was already an experienced diver when I first saw a shark in the tropical waters of Malaysia. It was a whitetip reef shark, Triaenodon obesus, a very docile, non-threatening shark, and one of the most common sharks seen by divers. They are not scary by any means, and while I don't remember exactly, I was probably happy to finally see a shark.

Q. Why did you choose to work with sharks?

Many of the professional photographers who market marine life pictures with SeaPics.com are eager to dive with sharks because sharks are exciting to watch and they are extremely photogenic with their sleek, fuselage form, large teeth and penetrating eyes. High quality shark photos are also among the most marketable stock images, as the public is fascinated with sharks and people are always eager to see an in-your-face shot of a large open mouthed shark.

Pictures of great white sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, scalloped hammerhead sharks, Sphyrna lewini, great hammerhead shark, Sphyrna mokarran, and bull sharks, Carcharhinus leucas, are among the most sought after by the media and the general public because they are potentially dangerous to humans and one of those sharks is typically responsible for attacks on humans. In addition, it is most difficult and challenging for marine wildlife photographers to take such exciting pictures of those sharks due simply to their massive size and aggressive nature.

Q. Were you afraid of sharks when you first started diving and working with them? If yes why, by which type of shark, and in which place of the globe?

There are so many species of shark in the ocean, and most of them are not particularly dangerous, so speaking for myself and others in the marine wildlife stock photography business, I would say we are eager to observe most species of shark, and they aren't scarier than any other animal we encounter in the ocean. That being said, I would personally never swim with a great white shark without a cage, though there are some extreme risk takers out there who are doing just that! Other large species of shark, such as hammerheads, bull sharks and tiger sharks, should always be treated with caution, but they are not overly dangerous in controlled situations, such as areas where the environment is healthy and the sharks have plenty of their natural prey, and the water visibility is good so the sharks do not mistake a moving body part for a fish.

One of the best great white shark viewing areas today is South Africa. There are cage dives and popular boat trips where you may be able to observe a great white shark breaching completely out of the water as they attempt to catch a cape fur seal, Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus, on its daily foraging trip across False Bay.

Here in Hawaii, we often encounter oceanic whitetip sharks, Carcharhinus longimanus, because we typically go offshore for tuna fishing at FAD (fish aggregation device) and the sharks like to hang out there to snatch some fisherman's catches for easy meals. Oceanic whitetip sharks are known to attack humans, and they may be responsible for many of the horror stories of over-board victims or offshore airplain wreck victims. They are persistent scavengers like many other sharks, and they often swim with pods of short-finned pilot whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus for their feces and whatever they leave behind during hunting (see previous blog post: The Strange Dietary Preferences of Oceanic Whitetip Sharks). Pictures of these large oceanic whitetip sharks are particularly impressive, as they do not afraid of humans and readily approach us to inspect us for edibility. Cute, pilotfish frequently swim alongside the sharks, making for a nice image of symbiosis, too.

Q. Does man have every reason to be afraid of sharks? At what instant can they be the most aggressive?

In general, scuba divers need not fear sharks, and dives in controlled situations with sharks rarely end in injury. There are almost no deaths on organized shark dives (though I do know of one in a recent well-publicized event in the Bahamas). People swimming in the ocean, either from shore or from a boat, tend to worry about what lurks below unseen, so their fear becomes magnified. Considering the number of people in the ocean and the few recorded shark attacks, the fear is far out of proportion to the actual risk. It is a well-publicized fact that there are many more deaths from dog bites or lightning strikes than there are from shark attacks.

Nevertheless, the few shark attacks that occur are always reported on TV and in the newspapers, which increases people's anxiety and amplifies their perception of the risk. Most shark attacks do not end in death, as a shark bite is most often an exploratory bite to determine the nature of the prey. When the shark realizes that the swimmer is not the prey it was expecting, they swim away and the victim has an opportunity to escape. Sharks most often mistake humans for prey in murky water, when a flash of leg or hand can be mistaken for a fish. Researchers also believe a surfer lying on a surfboard bears a resemblance to a sea turtle or seal when viewed from below by large sharks that prey on those animals.

Sharks are most dangerous if the swimmer can be easily mistaken for their natural prey, if there is blood in the water, or if a person puts a hand or foot near their mouth. Sharks brought into boats by fishermen will lunge and snap at any hand that comes near their head.

There is information by researchers about threat displays by sharks, where they lower their pectoral fins and arch their bodies in preparation for an attack. Personally, though, I don't believe your average swimmer or diver is apt to witness such a display as a prelude to an attack, so the usefulness of this information is minimal, except perhaps, for shark researchers!

Q. What kind of shark is the most impressive for you? Why?

The most impressive shark for me is the whale shark, Rhincodon typus, which sometimes comes to the coast of Hawaii where I live. They are the largest fish in the ocean, but among the most gentle. They have a beautiful, spotted pattern and divers and snorkelers can swim alongside them without fear. They are plankton feeders and have no teeth, so they are no threat to the swimmer or photographer. The most impressive predator shark is the great white shark, the largest predator fish on earth. Millions of years of evolution have made them extraordinary predators, but they are currently under great stress by humans the world over. They are listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List, and I an fearful for their future.

Q. Did your opinion of sharks change in the course of time?

Because I have encountered many sharks while diving, and the photographers at SeaPics.com have photographed many more, I react to sharks with respect but not fear. Like many environmentally conscious people today, I've learned that sharks have more to fear from humans than we do from them. I am concerned about the rapid depletion of sharks from our oceans, and I abhor the practice of shark finning. Over time, I have come to view sharks as magnificent animals deserving of our protection rather than animals to be feared or hated. I hope the photos available at SeaPics.com generate interest in sharks and lead to more protection for all species of sharks. They really need it, as they are not prolific breeders and many species are severely threatened by the international shark trade.

Q. Do you think that it's possible for people to get used to sharks so there is less prejudice towards them (as the "killer of the sea ")? Can they become animals that are accepted by mankind?

I have seen a change in people's attitudes over time, and more people around the world are interested in protecting sharks. However, this concern for sharks is more than offset by the increased efficiency of factory fishing vessels and the increase in international trade in the fishing industry. It will be a difficult battle, as sharks are not cute and cuddly, and they can't be preserved in zoos like tigers or pandas.

Q. How do you feel about the massacre that sharks are subjected to at present? How can it be put right?

As I've said, shark finning is a repulsive practice and should be outlawed. Even if that happens, though, it will always be difficult to have enforcement around the world, especially when people's livelihoods are affected. The recent rise of China as an economic superpower will put ever increasing pressure on shark stocks, as shark fin soup is so popular in East Asia, as is shark cartilage medicine. I lived in Singapore and know and respect the Chinese, but it will take an extraordinary effort, and may well be impossible, to get them to lessen demand for these items. Still, the Chinese have embraced the panda and have made an effort to save other endemic species (though they had little luck with the baiji, aka Yangtze River Dolphin, Lipotes vexillifer), so it's possible some dramatic initiative will resonate with the Chinese people. In any case, we must publicize the plight of sharks and stimulate interest in preserving them around the globe. Marine sanctuaries should be created wherever possible, and find a way to successfully and sustainably cultivate sharks for consumption so that the value for wild shark fins and cartiliage drop significantly. And eventually ban the shark fishing in the wild thoughout the world.

Q. Marine tourism is increasing, and there are many publicized dives with sharks that claim to be safe. Do you think this tourism will become a problem or change shark behavior in the future?

This is a complex and difficult issue. Judging by past experience with animal conservation, it has usually been the case that ecotourism has provided a livelihood for local people, and their personal interest changes from wanting to kill an animal to wanting to protect it. You can kill an animal once for food or a trophy, but if the live animal can attract the tourist dollar, it has value longer and for a much larger payoff. Tourists in an ecotour area support not only the tour guides, but also local restaurants, hotels and shops, so the benefit to the community is multiplied. Additionally, as more tourists are able to encounter rare and exciting animals, they are more likely to contribute money to animal conservation causes. From this point of view, shark dives can be considered a positive development.

Unfortunately, there is a downside with respect to shark dives as a tourist attraction, as these excursions tend to habituate sharks to humans. Most shark dives rely on either chumming (putting buckets of bloody fish into the water to attract the sharks) or actual feeding of fish to the sharks by the dive operator. The result is that sharks begin to associate boats and people with a meal, where they may have tried to avoid both in the past. This may potentially increase the number of shark attacks on humans, and it may attract sharks to charter fishing boats. Most fishermen I know will not tolerate sharks grabbing fish they've hooked, so I can only imagine the increased risk to sharks in encounters of this type.

On balance, I would say a limited number of shark dive excursions, with strict controls, is probably a good thing.

Merci for your questions, Océane!

Susan Dabritz

Breaching Humpback Whales!

Wow, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Part of the reason for the gap is that Masa got a new boat, so we had some down time between saying goodbye to the old boat and getting the new one shipped over from Oahu. Masa felt pretty sad about seeing his old friend go, a boat on which he’s had many memories and taken so many amazing, award-winning shots over 10 years in Hawaii.

Once he got the new boat, though, a nice twin-engine, catamaran style Glacier Bay, we were out almost every day, testing the equipment and checking out the wildlife. We’ve been so busy out on the water, that I haven’t had much time to write it all down.

On Feb. 21, Masa, me, and Steve Drogin were out on the water for a full day of whale watching. I wrote about Steve in my blog called Steve Drogin's Party 11/30/07. He’s one of our SeaPics.com photographers, and he has many great images of sharks, rays, monk seals and more on our site.

Anyway, Steve was with us, enjoying Masa’s new boat and checking out the humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae. The whales were incredible that day, breaching all around us. It was really a photographer’s dream. Most days are not like this, as it’s not possible to predict where and when a whale will breach, so you have to be vigilant and a little lucky to t a reat shot. On this day, though, getting the money shot was like rolling over in bed. The light was great and the whales kept breaching over and over, so we could position ourselves perfectly and get the shots we wanted.

One of the great things about living in Hawaii is being able to see these amazing humpback whale breaches. If you live on the west coast of the U.S., you may be able to see blue whales, Balaenoptera musculus, or gray whales, Eschrichtius robustus, but they aren’t known for the breaches and other above water activities performed by the humpback whales.

The playful behavior of humpback whales is well known and has even been mentioned in classic American literature. Herman Melville, using the character Ishmael as his narrator in Moby-Dick, said of the humpbacks that they are "the most gamesome of species and light-hearted of all the whales, making more gay foam and white water than any other."

He certainly got that right. Humpbacks must think they’re dolphins, a distant relative, though they’re at least 110 times heavier. They launch themselves out of the water, nearly clearing it, and flop onto the surface, usually on their back or side, creating a minor tsunami for nearby boats. They’re also known for tail slapping, pec slapping, peduncle throws, spy hopping and other behaviors.

Here’s a quick glossary of humpback whale behaviors, with links to images of the behavior on our site:

breaching – the whale launches most of its body out of the water and crashes onto the surface. Masa call this spectacular breach an "epic breach" (this is not a scientific term!). However, 90% of the breaches we see, are those only the half of their bodies break out of the water at best. It's still quite impressive, and he call it a "lazy breach or tired breach" (again please note that these are not scientific terms of the behavior if anybody cares).

lobtailing or tail-slapping – the whale, with its body nearly vertical, facing down, slaps its tail repeatedly onto the surface of the water. This behavior creates loud sound which can travel miles in open ocean, above and underwater.

lunging (head lunge) – a shallow breach where a male lunges aggressively towards competing other male, in many case, it ends up head-butting others by doing so. In addition to the sound of the sudden water breaks, the aggressor usually creates loud and scary, whistling sound.

Sometimes it also makes a loud clapping sound by using its jaws (jaw-clapping). Other times it slaps its chin to the water surface to create a loud sound (chin-slapping).

pec-slapping – the whale, lying on its side or rolling its body, slaps its pectoral fin repeatedly against the surface of the water. It can create a similar effect to lobtailing.

peduncle throw – a powerful and quickest move where the whale thrusts its tail and lower body area (caudal peduncle) across the surface of the water, throwing up a big spray. Most of the time it happens so quickly and unexpectedly, thus, it is one of the most difficult humpback behaviors to phtoograph besides an "epic breach".

spyhopping – the whale, curious about activity above the water surface, assuming a vertical position, pokes it’s head out of the water. Humpback whale's head are covered with many lumpy, sonsory organs, called nodules, so it can sense the whale watchers!

singing - only mature male humpback whales sing by suspending his body vertically underwater about 50 t0 100 feet deep. It is known to sing the same "whale song" each season and also known to only sing at their breeding ground such as Hawaii. The singing sound is so lound and it can reach 100 miles away. If you have ever submerged yourself underwater during the whale season in Hawaii, you will most likely hear their singing. If you would like to hear such whale songs, visit Jupiter Research Foundation web site. They recorded and collected many songs at Puako Bay, Big Island where we regularly go whale watching.

Why do they do these behaviors? The breaching behavior may have the practical use of shaking off barnacles, or it may be that the whales just like the sensation of leaving the water and crashing onto the surface...just for the fun. A whale calf can do most of the tricks except singing. When a baby goes off, usually its mom goes off, too as if she's trying to teach her baby how to do.

While we can’t interpret each behavior precisely, many of their behaviors are believed to be related to breeding and thus, most often seen while observing competitive groups. As such groups are also called "heat run" and their behavioral displays sometime get really wild and violent. Other times, though, their behavioral displays are simply spectacular and graceful.

For me, personally, this was one of my best days ever for humpback whale photography. The reason for my confidence is that Steve Drogin lent me his telephoto lens, as he was trying out another one. For the first time, I was able to use an 80-400 vibration reduction lens, which made a huge difference in the kind of shots I could get.

Normally, when I’m out on the boat with Masa, his shots are always so much better than mine as he uses longer, superior lens. At the safe distance we must maintain from the whales, his whale shots have always filled the frame and been beautifully in focus, while mine have been way too small. On this day, though, with Steve’s great lens, my shots were nearly filling the frame! The light was great, and the whales breached straight in front of us, over and over. At least on this occasion, my breaching whale shots are good enough to beat my own previous best. I still can’t compete with the world class photographers I represent at SeaPics.com, but I was really stoked to get some decent shots, as those of you who take photos for enjoyment can readily understand! Thanks, Steve, for the assist!

That’s it for now, but I’ll have another blog up soon about more humpback whale excursions. I expect you’ll see that in a week or so. And don’t forget to check out my album, or better yet, go to the SeaPics.com site for all of my pix!

Close Encounters with Wyland the Artist, Part II

After a marathon day with Wyland, the Artist, where we boated, swam and snorkeled all day, followed by an artist’s reception at Wyland Galleries in the evening, Wyland was up and ready for more the next day! Wyland is a machine!

It appeared his gallery reception had gone well, and Masa and I had a good time, too. Besides the awesome original Wyland art we received (see Wyland Part I blog 12/28/07), we had met Dean Bernal, the Dolphin Whisperer. Dean was famous for his work with dolphins in the Turks & Caicos, where he used to live. For years, I had been selling our SeaPics.com photos of him with JoJo, the sociable Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus (that’s Dean & Jojo in photo at left), and suddenly, here he was in Kona, where he now resides! What an amazing coincidence!

Dean’s story of why he no longer lives in the Turks & Caicos, and how he ended up in Kona, Hawaii is a little long and personal, so I won’t go into detail. I will say, however, that the story involves a stopover in Crete, where sirens sing to you and cure whatever ails you. Enough about that, and on to our adventures with Wyland!

It was Saturday morning, the 29th, and we still wanted to see humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, so we headed north. If you come to Big Island, Hawaii during whale season, which is December to March, you’ll usually find majority of migrated humpback whales north of the Kona airport, especially up in the Kohala Coast region. Humpback whales breed here in winter after their long migration from Alaska.

As we headed north, Wyland said he wanted to stop and check out Turtle Pinnacle, one of Kona’s better known dive sites. SeaPics.com has many photos of green sea turtles, Chelonia mydas, being cleaned by yellow tang and other reef fish, and most of them are from this spot. We have so many of these nice shots that divers visiting Kona tend to think sea turtles are always getting cleaned somewhere, waiting to be photographed. Well, the key to getting these great shots is to be at Turtle Pinnacle, a time-honored cleaning station. If you look for this anywhere else, you’ll likely be disappointed.

The water was kind of rough, but we stopped at Turtle Pinnacle for Wyland to work his magic and find some sea turtles. Strangely, though, it didn’t happen. We searched for sea turtles for about 45 minutes, but never found any. Hmm, it seemed the Wyland magic was wearing off!

We continued north, convinced we’d see some long-snouted spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, around the airport. Nada. We wondered where all the marine life had gone.

As we searched the area, we stumbled upon a huge fishing net drifting in the ocean. The net was so large, we couldn’t even attempt to retrieve it. Like an iceberg, the tip of it was at the surface, and the rest of it hung down, down, down, fading into the blue.

A drifting net like this is certainly a danger to marine life. On the other hand, it’s also a refuge for thousands of other species. There were countless fish using this net as a floating reef, as were the sea plants and tiny crustaceans attached to it. When small fish and inverts gather, big fish follows. Any decent size, floating objects are great fishing spot! Usually you can expect big games like yellowfin
tunas, Thunnus albacares, wahoo, Pacific kingfish or ono, Acanthocybium solandri, and dolphinfish, dorado or mahi mahi, Coryphaena hippurus, as well as off shore sharks like oceanic whitetip sharks, Carcharhinus longimanus.

Masa dropped a jig to see what's down there, and his lure was immediately hit by a fish! He caught a rainbow runners, Elagatis bipinnulatus. Rainbow runner is one of jack or trevally speceis and belongs to the Family Carangidae. Masa said it is underrated but the fish is very tasty when prepared correctly. Everytime he dropped a jig, he caught one. All sizes are pretty big for rainbow runners. After we saved some for our dinner, Masa & Wyland decided to get in the water and see what was really happening down there around the net. After a dive, Masa came back to the surface and excitedly said there were hundreds of rainbow runners, Elagatis bipinnulatus, and whitespotted filefish, Cantherhines dumerilii, and mahi mahi near the surface, and then, deep under all the fish there were a dozen wahoo hanging around. Wyland videotaped and Masa photographed those shooling fish (see Masa's picture - Wyland and hundreds of fish). Wyland said he got some great footage and we may see it in his music DVDs!

After Wyland got back in the boat, I spotted a breaching humpback whale in a distance. Wyland was eager to go see if we could get some photos of it, but Masa was thinking he wanted to stay a bit longer in the water and photograph the net. To Masa, finding this size of floating net and the amount of marine life around this humongous net was very rare and significant event, and he must document that thoroughly as a marine wildlife photographer. It's certainly one of the greatest opportunity of this kind of subject.

Wyland suggested we leave Masa at the net, check out the whales, and then come back for Masa later. Strangely, Masa was not eager to go along with this plan. It seems being left drifting with a net in the middle of the ocean was not Masa’s idea of a good way to spend the day. I admit, I could see the logic in his reasoning. Wyland promised we’d quickly return to the net and Masa, but we thought it better to all depart together to look for the whales, which is what we did.

Well, the Wyland magic was definitely on hiatus, as we didn’t saw a humpback whale the rest of the day. After looking long and hard, we decided to go back to the floating net and do some fishing. But now that net was playing hard-to-find. We went up and down the coast, looking for it. It’s a really good thing we didn’t leave Masa out there, drifting with the net, as we might never have found him again!

After half an hour or more, finally, we spotted it and this time, Masa put out a couple of trolling gears and caught a mahi mahi right away. When you catch a mahi mahi, it’s common to leave the first one on the hook for a while, as strangely, the other mahi mahi will congregate around it. This happened in textbook fashion, and within minutes we had our second mahi mahi. We caught two more mahi mahi and packed it in for the day.

We headed south to try Turtle Pinnacle one more time at Wyland's request. Masa free-dived over the pinnucle and confirmed there were no turtles. Despite Masa's scouting report, Wyland decided to go for scuba diving, so we let him go solo. While Wyland was diving, we swam and snorkeled around there for at least an hour, but never did see a turtle. Too bad for Wyland; at least we live here, so we’ll see the turtles another day!

Close Encounters with … Wyland the Artist! Part I

As some of you may have noticed from my "Steve Drogin's Party" blog of Nov. 30, 2007, I do occasionally associate with humans. Most encounters of this type never make it into my blog, but now and then something of note happens on dry land and I feel compelled to share it with you. Today’s blog will be one of those occasions!

Last month I got a call from my friend, Wyland, the artist, and he said he was coming over to the Big Island for an artist’s reception at the Wyland Gallery on Ali’i Drive in downtown Kona. He was wondering if Masa and I would take him out on the water to look for whales and dolphins the morning of the reception. We said yes, and we spent the better part of a day on the coast of Kona, Hawaii, looking at marine life, both in the water and on the canvases in Wyland’s gallery.

First, let me give you an introduction to Wyland. His name is Robert Wyland, but he goes by the name of Wyland, the Artist. Wyland is known throughout the world for his murals and paintings of marine life, especially of whales. His series of 100 "Whaling Walls" is nearing completion, after which he will tackle a series of 100 monumental sculptures.

The "Whaling Walls" were what made Wyland a household name, as they are iconic artworks for the cities in which they’re located. They can be found in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. His 100th wall in the series will be painted in Beijing, China during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The walls are enormous and decorated with all kinds of marine life, with whales as their main focus. Wyland has featured gray whales, blue whales, humpbacks, orcas and others in an effort to raise environmental awareness and foster affection for whales. The Beijing installment will feature life-size images of the great (balleen) whales, and children from around the world are going to be invited to paint along with Wyland. To see more photos of Wyland’s Whaling Walls, go to the Wyland Foundation website.

We met up with Wyland in the morning of the 28th for breakfast for a meeting. He does not only bought us nice breakfast, but also gave us his calendars and newly produced Wyland Musice CDs. He has such a charm or charisma in him and also knows how to please people. Besides his talent, no wonder he is so successful as an artist. Around noon, we left the restaurant for Keauhou and then departed the harbor for whale-watching. Right away we ran into a Capt. Zodiac boat and asked them if they’d seen anything. They told us a pod of short-finned
pilot whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus, was just south, on the way to Kealakekua Bay, so we headed in that direction.

We found the pilot whales no problem, but unfortunately, there were a bunch of other boats there, too. We waited quite a while for them to leave, then Wyland got in the water with all of his HD video camera gear. As I mentioned, Wyland has a new record label and he needed some video of pilot whales, which he planned to use for a DVD version of one of his records.

Large marine mammals are protected in Hawaii, so we’re not allowed to approach them, but the pilot whales seemed drawn to Wyland, and they circled him for some great footage. One of the keys to Wyland’s success is that he always seems to be where the animals are, and if he’s not, they come to him! I’m looking forward to seeing those shots on the Wyland music label DVD.

Wyland is 51 years old, but he has the energy of a teenager. He was in and out of the boat at least 15 times, lugging that heavy video equipment, and putting in at various places to get different angles. I came away with a new appreciation of how hard a worker Wyland is!

After Wyland had enough of the pilot whales, we went into Kealakekua Bay to enjoy the beautiful scenery there. Again, there were tons of tourists, so we felt a little claustrophobic. There were some long-snouted spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, there, but they did not close enough to get any video of. Finally, as we were thinking about leaving, some spinner dolphins approached where we were, and again Wyland got some great footage for his label. A little while later, we saw one breaching humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae.

We finished our boating excursion about 6:00 p.m. Wyland is amazing, because after a full day of swimming, snorkeling and videography from Masa’s boat, he still had the energy to take on a full night’s work at the Wyland Gallery. He was there by 7:30 p.m. and stayed all evening, painting a whale on canvas in oils, and using a Japanese ink brush to make line drawings of humpback whales for friends and gallery patrons.

The gallery was pretty packed with Wyland fans, gallery clients and quite a few passers-by who just wanted to see what all the noise was about. Wyland would work on the canvas for a while, then put down the brushes to talk to the guests and sign memorabilia. He took photos with anyone who asked and delighted everyone with his friendly personality and casual style.

After he finished the humpback whale painting, it was auctioned off, and it fetched $16,500!!! The snapshot here, taken by one of my employee’s 8-year old daughter, shows a glimpse of the painting mid-way through the creation process.

Masa and I were personally invited to the gallery but didn’t arrive till later in the evening as I had to do some car pooling for my daughter and Masa had to wash boat and clean up all grears after all. There were still lots of people there, but when things started to die down, Wyland drew a line drawing for each of us using a Japanese ink brush . He drew a humpback whale and calf for Masa and a whale fluke for me! They came out great and we were both so excited to get these great works of art! Mine is now on display in the SeaPics.com office.

After all that, I was pretty exhausted, but Wyland was eager to get us to commit to another day on the water the next early morning! Obviously, there’s more to write about, but I’m going to save it for my next blog. Check out Close Encounters Part II, which should be up in a week or so! Mahalo!

Hunt or To be Hunted - Gang of False Killer Whales!

As some of you may have noticed from our spotty blog appearances, Masa and I haven’t been out on the water quite as much as we’d like to. It’s the holiday season, when everything is really hectic, so things like fishing excursions get put on the back burner. We also had some technical issues to cope with at my SeaPics.com office, which occupied much of our time. Finally, on the 20th, we managed to embark at long last.

As a change from our usual pattern, we launched Masa's boat from Honokohau Harbor, which is just north of Kona town, rather than from the southern marina, Keauhou. We were hoping to find a whale shark, Rhincodon typus, as they often appear in this area in December. I bet you didn’t know whale sharks were harbingers of Santa, did you? There were reports of some sightings north of the harbor. For us, though, it remained just that: a rumor.

We took some pictures of the lighthouse and the deep sea water pipes at Keahole Point. These pipes suck up cold sea water from a few thousand feet deep and pump it to over 30 enterprises in the National Energy Laboratory of Hawaii (NELHA). Some companies use the cold, clear sea water for aquaculture, including the raising of main lobster, abalone, Japanese flounder, seahorses, algae, and more. Other companies produce mineral-rich drinking water labeled as Hawaii Deep Sea Water. This water is exported to Japan, where it commands a nice price. We recently read in the local newspaper, West Hawaii Today, that the pipe had some damage to it and would require extensive repairs.

We cruised past the open water fish farm operated by Kona Blue Water Farms. They have huge submersible net enclosures out in this area where the current rips past. They raise very tasty and now famous Kona Kampachi, almaco jack, Hawaiian yellowtail, or kahala, Seriola rivoliana. Paradoxically, farm raised amberjack is arguably healthier than the natural variety. The fish farming operation produces fish that are free from ciguatera, the reef toxin that is common to this species when they live in the natural environment. The fish are fed pellets, so they don’t ingest any reef toxins. An article from West Hawaii Today told of a recent fish breakout that occurred here. Apparently, a lot of the escaped fish just hung out in the area of the net, as they had no inclination to strike out for better things.

We took some photos of airplanes landing at Kona airport, and because it was pretty clear, we had a great view of snow-capped Mauna Kea, and got some pix of that, too. Then we hung around with the "swim with dolphins" excursion boats for a while. About 3 or 4 boats were there, and all the tourists were trying to get close to the long-snouted spinner dolphins, Stenella longirostris, that were milling about in this area. The dolphins did their spins they’re so famous for, and everyone got a nice show. A dog barking on one of the boats drove us a little nuts. I love dogs, but I wonder how the paying customers felt to have that yapping going on all day. The ocean off the Kona coast is a quiet place, unless you bring noise like that with you.

After the boats left, Masa got in for some good picture opportunities. There must have been a hundred spinner dolphins there; a real sight to behold!

We headed out to ZZ buoy - the FAD
(Fish Aggregation Device), where the water was particularly rough. We tried XX buoy next, but there was nothing there either, so we continued on. We did some fishing out at OTEC buoy and caught a couple of small bigeye tunas, Thunnus obesus, for dinner. We almost had a nice one of about 40 lbs, but the hook came off at the surface. It was getting late and we were about 15 miles offshore and about to call it a day, when we noticed something going on in the water. We first thought they were wild Pacific bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, but as we got closer, we noticed their blacker, larger bodies and discovered they were something more rare and exciting: false killer whales, Pseudorca crassidens! Two or three of them! As their latin name shows, they share characteristics with more popular orca or killer whales, Orcinus orca. False killer whales are large marine mammals that grow to about 20 feet in length with a body shape somewhat like the killer whale, but more slender and without the distinctive black and white pattern. Like the orca, they are known to attack and kill other cetaceans such as dolphins and whales.

False killer whales live around the Hawaiian Islands, but range widely. They are generally difficult to see up close, as they are rare to find in the first place and tend to shy away from boats. This time, they seemed preoccupied with something at the OTEC buoy. They appeared to be blowing bubbles toward the buoy again and again. It would certainly be dangerous to photograph such "Killer Whales" up close, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for wildlife photographer, Masa Ushioda, to capture the moment.

As we slowly approached the buoy, we noticed the ocean current was ripping, so Masa dropped in the water up current of the buoy, and drifted toward it and two of the whales. According to Masa, it turned out the whales were trying to hunt a lone bigeye tuna which was using the buoy as a shield against the whales! Masa was kicking hard and trying to stay parallel with the buoy and whales in the strong current. He was barely able to keep himself positioned far enough from the buoy to not affect the activity of the animals, but close enough to watch and photograph this rare event. Masa said the false killers occasionally looked straight at him, but they seemed unconcerned about his presence. Apparently the tuna looked a lot more appetizing to them than Masa. Lucky for him!

Besides these killer whales, there was another rare species in the vicinity, a lone silky shark, Carcharhinus falciformis. These are fairly rare in Hawaiian waters, but they’re one of the most beautiful shark species. Masa was able to snap some good shots of the shark lit up by golden sunset light, because unlike the false killer whales, it seemed more interested in him than anything else, and it circled nearby.

As the whales continued to focus on the tuna, they blew big bubbles underwater with a loud noise. It seemed like they were trying to startle the tuna away from the buoy and snatch it as it tried to escape. Two relatively smaller whales tried this technique again and again, but at the last moment, the tuna was able to swim to the other side of the buoy, escaping the sharp teeth of killer whales. As this behavior kept on, a large false killer of about 19 feet came out of nowhere and swam right by Masa’s legs and joined the rest of the whales. Now three whales with open mouths blowing bubbles ganged up on this poor, frightened tuna. Can you imagine if you were that tuna dodging these huge black monsters? Three whales persistently attacked the tuna in vain, and finally the false killer whales faded into the blue one by one. Yes, the tuna prevailed and went on to live another day!

What a day! Masa was able to get some fantastic photos of two rare species. It was really a behavior we don’t normally get to see, and Masa nailed the images nicely!

As the sun was setting, we thought we saw the false killers again in the distance, but they turned out to be short-finned pilot whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus. It was a large pod - maybe hundreds of them - spread out for miles. We all traveled together riding large offshore swells for a while, and tried to photograph the pilot whales rocketing out of large swells like in the emergency surfacing scene of the Navy submarine from the movie, Red October. Believe me, it was very hard to capture the scene in the near-sunset because the whales were quick and totally unpredictable as to where they were going to appear. Besides, the boat was rocking pretty bad, and in the end, neither of us got a decent shot. Despite that, it was a great day for marine photography; 3 false killers, spinner dolphins and a silky shark! We’ll catch the pilot whales and the whale sharks another day!