What's your most interesting sea life encounter?

[SoCal WaterSpout]

Dolphins? Seals? Large Kelp? Octopi? Sharks?

Tell me.

I'm interested.

[libby]

Whilst surfing or generally? Nothing really whilst surfing, but in general the coolest things i've seen:

Minke whales (UK)
Orca whales (NZ, UK)
Sperm whales (NZ)
Hector's dolphins (NZ)
Bottlenose dolphins (NZ, UK)
Dusky dolphins (NZ)
Harbour porpoises (UK)
Basking sharks (UK)
New Zealand fur seal (NZ)
New Zealand sea lion (NZ)
Grey seal (UK)
Common seal (UK)
Fiordland Crested Penguin (NZ)
Little Blue Penguin (NZ)
Yellow Eyed Penguin. (NZ)

Take your pick )))))

Oh and they aren't marine but I've seen Amazon River Dolphins (Boto) in Bolivia, they are pretty crazy!

[SoCal WaterSpout]

Sounds awesome, Libby! I just ask because I asked the same question of my instructor today, and he mentioned all kinds of things. He was telling me the most freaky thing that ever happened to him was a dolphin brushed his back, and he didn't even know it was there until it was right on top of him. I suppose it sounds like a cool thing to happen to you, until it really does happen, and you mistake it for a shark!!!

[hawaiiSUCKSexceptsurf]

i saw an tiny shark once. it was only like 3 feet long.

sea turtles pop up really close like 4 feet away sometimes and theyre huge, i dont like it.

twice now a fish has jumped out of the water and landed on my face.

[isaluteyou]

I have seen the following while surfing

-Seals (got in touching distance of one)
-Dolphins (got in touching distance again)
-A Pack Of Dolphins (around 30 strong)
-Sand Sharks (kinda weird watching them swim under you)
-Leopard Sharks
-Sting Rays
-A Lot of fishies
-A Lone Otter
-Massives and massives of kelp
-A dead body (yes someone washed up on the rocks about 100-200 yards from us )
-Lobsters

Thats about it i guess

[LikeAGromit]

A 2000 strong pod of dusky dolphins in Kaikura (NZ). There were 'undreds of the buggers.

[Dec]

Whales
Sharks
Whalesharks
Manta rays
Stingrays
Dolphins
In hawaii sitting outback of Pipe watching whales splashing

[Lisa*]

Your all so lucky all i've seen are.... hmm.... a lifeguard fall off the jet-ski when showing off... does that count... oh no it's not marine
no i haven't seen anything
though i saw Dolphins in Scotland... i love Scotland
xx

[thaya]

saw a giant basking shark on my birthday last year... that was pretty amazing.

[pault]

Whales, Sharks, Stingrays, Dolphins, Sea Urchins (Spikey lil buggers)

The stingrays were amazing I was snorkling in Grand Cayman and we ere taken to a sand shelf to swin and feed the stingrays, weird yet wonderful creatures.

[Phil]

ive seen dolphins, and seals quite a bit in the summer

but i think the one that tops them all was having a sun fish just cruise right past me at puttsbrough a few years ago without a care in the world seeing this huge fin poking up out of the water and wathing in amazment as it just glided past me about 5ft away

[sal]

umm....

a seal

a huge jellyfish washed up on the beach

that's all folks!

[Bwgan]

30 other people!

[northswell]

Dolphins when surfin Georgia, a freaky seal at Cayton

Oh and some huge Whales, but thats normally during the holiday seasons. The real odd ones with huge beer bellys normally burnt red carrying a bodyboard.

Porpoises and penguins Falklands, plus some of the best surf i've seen, and the only guys ripping were the porpoises.

[hawaiiSUCKSexceptsurf]

I have seen the following while surfing

-Seals (got in touching distance of one)
-Dolphins (got in touching distance again)
-A Pack Of Dolphins (around 30 strong)
-Sand Sharks (kinda weird watching them swim under you)
-Leopard Sharks
-Sting Rays
-A Lot of fishies :lol:
-A Lone Otter
-Massives and massives of kelp :(
-A dead body (yes someone washed up on the rocks about 100-200 yards from us :shock: )
-Lobsters

Thats about it i guess

so odd that there is more sea life out there and in florida than there is in hawaii. im not being sarcastic, there really is.

[Stone Fox]

Emily, I think her name was.

[Jimi]

are we only including marine life while surfing? if so, I've only seen a couple of dolphins nearby.

If you include scubadiving, the coolest creatures to come across are octopi and cuttlefish.

I look forward to seeing an octopus much more than seeing a stingray.

2m Grey Nurse sharks are also very cool to dive with.

[rich r]

There are the yearly times where dozens of skates (like a stingray) glide under you in schools of a dozen or more, and they're all 2-4 feet in wingspan.

I had two huge humpback whales going up and down the coast, surfacing not 50-100 feet away from the lineup at least 3 times.

A 4 foot shark grazed my leg once

had to paddle away from a school of bluefish in a feeding frenzy a few times

Get dolphins up and down the coast, BUT

the best was when a dolphin broke away from its pod and I looked back behind me and he was surfing the wave right next to me. Once I bailed out, he circled me once and swam off.

[tomcat360]

Well, a manatee, that was cool.

See tons of skates below me all the time.

Had a dolphin graze against me and scared the f**k outta me!

I got dropped in on by a dolphin. Although I figured I'd lose the fight so I let him have it

Ooo, I wasn't out, but a couple years back there was some kinda whale (can't remember what) came and did his jump and splash thingy about 3 feet away from a kayaker when I was standing on the shore. It was 6 am, but someone managed to get a perfect picture of it, got in the paper.

[MyanRellick]

Manatee in Tampa, Bay, it was so cool...

Last trip in Daytona, two friends caught the same wave and saw a smal shark riding along with em, so we got the heck outta the water. I didn't see it though, but they had no reason to lie about it so I believed 'em.