a day at the beach and all the dead
This stretch of Ocean Beach is full of magnitite that makes it look dark and oily.
This may be why I couldn’t get my metal detector to work out here. Â The
Beach Patrol guy said the sand will stick to a magnet!
This, I was told, is a harbor porpoise. A surfer dude came by and said that
commercial fishermen shoot them because they mess with their lines.
That certainly looked like a bullet hole in this baby porpoise’s
head…
This is a dead seal, just a few feet away. Looks like it’s head is gone. Seals
have fur, the porpoise had smooth skin and the dorsal fin. Also, the seal had
what looked like little claws on its flippers. 
You can see the black sand pretty good in this picture. It was quite a
learning experience this morning.
At least one of those holes on the dolphin is its blow whole, right?
Comment by johno — June 17, 2007 @ 7:02 pm
It is now.
Nice shot of the seal claws.
Comment by Lyle_s — June 17, 2007 @ 7:21 pm
On the Blow-hole of the Porpoise. By Francis Sibson, Esq.
received December 18, 1845
The Porpoise inspires through the blow-hole which includes the nostrils, and is so placed that the animal can breathe with only a very small portion of its head above the water. A large passage leads down from the external opening to two canals that pass directly downwards through the skull, between the cranial and facial bones.
Nice one Lyle! Johno, thanks for setting me straight. i assumed that was a bullet hole after I heard surfer dude say fishermen shot them. Wrong again.
Comment by Rolston — June 17, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
I like the shallow depth of field in the first image as well as the image of the claws.
Comment by J landry — June 18, 2007 @ 8:04 am