Phil Friedman Outdoors

Commercial squid boat Midnight Hour sinks at Catalina Island (video)

 The Coast Guard responded to a report of a 61-foot fishing vessel that sank in the vicinity of Eagle Rock near Catalina Island Tuesday evening.

Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach was notified at approximately 10 p.m. Tuesday, and Coast Guard Cutter Narwhal was dispatched to the scene.

Six people were aboard the fishing vessel Midnight Hour and were rescued by a good Samaritan. "The commercial squid boat San Pedro Pride was first on scene to rescue the crew members on board," said Trent Kelly from the USGG Pubilc Affairs Detachment Los Angeles.

"The families of the Midnight Hour have been in this fishing business for years and were hauling market squid for the San Pedro markets," said Don Ashley from Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach. "I'm just relieved that no one was hurt."

"The United States Coast Guard remains on scene looking for debris and do an environmental evaluation," said Kelly.

   

Popocatepetl volcano spewing ash south of Mexico City

The Popocatepetl  volcano south of Mexico City is spewing blasts of ash from its crater. The name Popocatepetl comes from the Nahuatl words popōca 'it smokes' and tepētl 'mountain', thus Smoking Mountain.

Mexico’s national disaster prevention agency says the volcano has spewed ash more than a kilometer into the sky four times Tuesday. It says there is a possibility ash could fall onto Mexico City overnight.

Popocatepetl is one of the most violent volcanoes in Mexico, having had more than 15 major eruptions since the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. A major eruption occurred in 1947 to begin this cycle of activity. Then, on December 21, 1994, the volcano spewed gas and ash which was carried as far as 25 km (16 mi) away by prevailing winds.

The activity prompted the evacuation of nearby towns and scientists to begin monitoring for an eruption. In December 2000, tens of thousands of people were evacuated by the government based on the warnings of scientists. The volcano then made its largest display in 1,200 years.^[3]

The agency is urging people to stay at least  12 kilometers from the crater. The 17,886-foot  volcano is about 40 miles  southeast of the capital.

A night on Lake Biwa with the "Big Bass Lady" from Japan by Captain Greg Vella

 
She goes by the name “Gorie”, and owns a beauty salon in Osaka City, Japan.  She is well known, and respected by the regulars at Lake Biwa, one of the top largemouth bass lakes in the world. While she was one of the first lady anglers in Japan to fish big swimbaits/troutbaits, she is not a professional angler. Rather, she fishes for fun.

I made a recent trip with Gorie to Lake Biwa to try our luck at some bass. Since we would be fishing from the shore、she brought only one rod; a custom seven foot, XH, with a baitcasting reel loaded up with 17 lb. line. She was fishing a wood swimbait, 7 inches long, that weighted two ounces….colored pink, with butterflies.  Before I had a chance to comment on her unusual lure selection, she had landed a nice fish.

  I took photos, and offered to take her bass down to the water to release it. She was fishing from a bridge over a small creek that flowed into the lake…about 10 feet above the water.  As I climbed back up to the bridge, Gorie was already off , to the next spot, on foot.

  Each bass she caught was larger than the previous one and all on the pink butterfly lure. We made a move to a shallow, weedy area of Lake Biwa’s eastern shoreline.  Lake Biwa has over 200 miles of prime shoreline to fish…all public property, free to access, and no fishing license required.

The next spot was a bust, so we moved back toward the outflow of the lake, the Seta River. She caught a few more nice bass, and then changed lures to nab the smallest of the night on a big plastic creature bait. Then Gorie hooked a bigger fish on the pink butterfly lure. It jumped several times before she lipped it, like a pro. It turned out to be her biggest bass of the night.

 Her last cast of the night yielded a surprise…a Japanese catfish. In three hours of fishing, Gorie landed seven nice bass, and the lone catfish with the greatest of ease. I for one can hardly wait to get back on the lake again, but I fear I will have a tough time matching Gorie’s angling prowess.

 

Photo credit - Captain Greg Vela

Great white shark sighting closes beach and the latest Patch Video Fishing Update

 

Tuna fishing continued excellent out of San Diego despite windy rough weather for most of last week. The best fishing was 150 miles from San Diego which meant that anglers had to be on a 1.5 day trip or better to reach the bluefin and yellowfin schools. The fish ranged in size from 8-25 lbs. and were eager to bite when encountered. There has also been some dorado and yellowtail on the floating kelp paddies.

 The boat Shogun was fishing 148 miles from Point Loma on Friday and reported steady action on 12-15 pound bluefin tuna with about 18-20 knots of wind. Captain Bruce Smith said that the fishing was so good that they didn’t notice how rough the weather really was. The weather was forecast to moderate over the weekend.

 Good schools of bluefin tuna have been found in one day range of San Diego but they have been reluctant to bite. Anglers on one day trips have been seeing lots of fish but catching very few. For the most part, it has been an exercise in frustration and futility.

 Mission Beach in San Diego has been closed for two consecutive days Friday after lifeguard Todd Rice saw an estimated 12-15 foot shark presumed to be a great white shark. Rice came across the shark was paddling on a rescue board about 100-yards offshore from tower 15.

An experienced fisherman and spear fisherman, Rice thought it was a large mako shark or a moderately sized white shark.  The beaches were scheduled to be reopened by the weekend barring any other sightings.

 Captain Chris Batts from the Gail Force out of LA Harbor Sportfihing reported good calico bass and barracuda fishing on Friday afternoon.

 More great fishing news and updates in this Patch Fishing Video Review.

 

Black hole eating a star (video)

In March, NASA's Swift spacecraft first detected what scientisits thought was a black hole eating star 3.8 billion light years from earth. Nasa has put together a YouTube video recreating the cosmic event.

David Burrows, professor of astronomy at Penn State University and lead scientist for the mission's X-Ray Telescope instrument, told NASA. "It behaves unlike anything we've seen before." As the black hole ate the star, it put out an x-ray detected by the Swift spacecraft. In fact, the source is still procucing x-rays and may well be detected into 2012.

The black hole itself is enormous, potentially four times the size of the one at the center of the Milky Way, according to NASA. Even more incredibly, the massive hole seems to be shooting matter out of its center at 80 to 90 percent of the speed of light.

An event like this has never before been seen by scientists.

 

 

International Space Station view of Hurricane Irene (video)

Irene strengthened to a Category Three Storm with winds of 120 miles per hour. She looks to be on a course to be upgraded to a Category Four Storm with wind speeds of up to 155 miles per hour within the next 24-hours.

The trajectory of most models has Irene battering the East Coast of the United States over the next few days. This YouTube video from the International Space Station shows shows Irene's immense size as she heads for cities like New York and Philadelphia. Many of the islands off North Carolina's Outer Banks have already been evacuated.

Even if Irene were to stay off shore, major population centers could experience torrential rains, loss of electricity and flooding.

Laura Southard, emergency department spokeswoman for the state of Virginia, told SKY News: "We are not paying attention just to the eye of the storm. We are looking at how wide it is, how large it is."

President Barack Obama, on holiday in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, has been briefed on plans put in place by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

 

Great white shark taken on Huntington Beach Pier comes back to haunt angler on YouTube video

 

A YouTube video posted by someone with the username Ograza 13 may come back to bite him in the posterior. On Tuesday, Orgraza 13 posted a video of someone catching a great white shark on the Huntington Beach Pier.

The shark was gaffed with a three pronged rope gaff, hauled up and slammed down on the pier. Bleeding and with its teeth chomping, it was dragged around the pier gasping for air.

Great white sharks have been protected in California waters since 1994. Unlawful take and possession of these creatures is a misdemeanor that can bring heavy fines and jail time.  

Capt. Dan Sforza from the state Department of Fish and Game told Pete Thomas Outdoors that the evidence is mounting. “We have the shark and we've identified who caught the shark,"  "We are investigating and nobody is going to get away with anything,”he said. Sforza would not release the name of the angler who caught the shark.

As the shark was being caught, there were a lot of surfers nearby. The reality is that statistically, they were in very little danger. Juvenile white sharks feed mostly on halibut, rays, smaller sharks as well as smaller fish. When they reach about 10-feet, they migrate offshore and begin to feed on sea lions and other pinnipeds. 

  This is not the first time that a YouTube video has been used as evidence against a Fish and Game violation. Jon Apothaker caught a protected black seabass on January 3 of this year on the Balboa Pier. Several bystanders posted his catch on YouTube and he ended up in getting 120 hours of community service.

 The most common defense in these kinds of cases is that the angler didn’t know that the fish in question was protected. Ignorance of the law is a very poor defense as it is every angler’s responsibility to know what he can and cannot keep for our precious seas.

 (Video does contain profanity and a bloody shark).

 

Letter to President Barack Obama regarding the sinking of the Erik

July, 28, 2011 

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Washington D.C.

 Dear Mr. President:

 I am requesting your assistance in retrieving the bodies of 6 (six) American fishermen, including two veterans who were recipients of the Purple Heart. 

 

On July 4 of this year, the Erik, a Mexican sportfishing vessel operating out of San Felipe, Mexico sank in approximately 300 feet of water.  The circumstances surrounding the sinking still have not been fully explained or documented by Juan Tintos Funcke, Secretary of Tourism, Baja California Norte or anyone else in the Mexican government.

 

The crew of 17 (seventeen), all Mexican nationals, were rescued.  Six anglers out of thirty-four (34) passengers, all American nationals, are still missing.  To date, only one angler’s body has been recovered.  It is believed that the remaining six victims are trapped in the Eric’s cabins.

 

There has been little information disseminated to the families of the dead regarding any efforts that might have been taken in retrieving the bodies.

 

An investigator who was on scene the day the Erik sank was kind enough to share the results of a joint rescue effort with Mexico, which includes the latitude and longitude of the Erik’s projected location.

 

I am specifically requesting that you exert all possible efforts upon the Government of Mexico to locate, retrieve and return the bodies of these missing American citizens to their families to enable burial and a start to the healing process.

 

I eagerly await a response.  As co-host of Fish Talk Radio, AM830, KLAA, Anaheim, CA (Thursday evenings, 9-10 PM), I have received a number of inquiries regarding this unfortunate event.  The American public wants to know what is being done.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact either me at (323) 839-8349 or via e-mail at [email protected]   My co-host, Mr. Philip Friedman, is available at (424) 237-0250 or via e-mail at [email protected], if you have any questions or need additional information.

 

Sincerely,

 Will Ebersman and Philip Friedman

 

El Cipres Airbase in Ensenada to remain open to civil avaition

Reports that the El Cipres Airbase in Ensenada Baja California was closing to the public appear to be premature.  

That according to the said Secretary of Tourism for Baja California Norte, Juan Tintos Funcke.

“Governor Osuna informed us yesterday that the airport is not closing after talking to the Secretary of Defense. The State Government will invest in an alternative entrance, passenger terminal, and better equipment to improve conditions for our passengers,” said Tintos Funcke.

Philip Friedman Outdoors started receiving a barrage of e-mails and phone calls after news started to leak out that the base would be closed to the public.

The Latin American Herald Tribune reported that the Mexican Military was expelling civil aviation from the El Cipres Airbase. “The army gave civilians and companies 15 days to assert their rights but ordered them to “vacate the space” they have been assigned,” the news service reported.

The fact that the base will remain open to civil aviation is great news for anglers and other Baja adventure seekers who enjoy traveling from El Cipres to remote islands like Cedros.

Photo- El Cipres Airbase in Ensenada, Baja California. Credit- Wikipedia

Wife watches husband killed by shark on honeymoon

 
A bull shark like this one had been filmed about a month earlier just off Anse Lazio Beach where the attack occurred. Photo credit- www.Wikipedia.com 

What was supposed to be a celebration of the beginning of a long and happy life together turned tragic for a British couple on their honeymoon on the island of Prasin, Seychelles. Gemma and Ian Redmond hs been married less than two  weeks before the tragic attack took place.

Gemma Redmond was sunbathing on the beach around 4:30 p.m. as he husband snorkeled about 20 yaeds from the beach.Police spokesman Jean Toussaint told www.pendletoday.co.uk  the attack happened shortly before 5 p.m. local time while Mr Redmond was swimming.

 “We discovered the British citizen was badly injured on the hips and the arms. He was assisted medically but unfortunately he could not make it. We haven’t got the autopsy report yet but he definitely lost a lot of blood.”

Witnesses said he was given first aid when he was brought to the beach having lost one arm and suffered serious wounds to his legs and chest.

It's the second shark attack in two weeks, after a French tourist was killed off the same beach on August 2nd. It had been 50 years since a previous shark attack here.

A bull shark had been filmed about a month earlier just off Anse Lazio Beach where the attack occurred.
 
The Seychelles'interior minister ordered the closure of all surrounding beaches and banned swimming in waters around the scene of the attacks. They have vowed to do all in thier power to find and kill the shark responsible for these attacks.