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?

3 foot?
Jaws...
Whale mucking round...
lost submarine

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!

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!

Gestalt said...

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!

If I had my camera and big lens, maybe I would have settled for a photo. Really wanted to know what it was.

if you got a good look at the dorsal fin maybe google up fins, i think their all a bit different

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.

japanese sub lost after the war?

Could it have been a Thresher Shark?

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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.

The fish looks like a better drive

And when you couldn't get back on the board did it look like this?

^^^ 'gold' call

it was a seal, saw it next day it was still hanging around

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...