Offering Customers Kayaking Tours Along The California Coastline While Experiencing Extraordinary Sea Life
A kayak is gently bobbing in the eastern Pacific waters off La Jolla, Calif. It is silent except for the small splashing sound the water makes as it pushes up against the hull. An otherworldly presence is in the deep -- something big, something gentle.
More than a mile out, a gray whale surfaces and spouts a towering column of sea spray into the air which dissolves into a fine mist and a rainbow over the sea. The whale surfaces and its rough, long body – all 30 tons of it – reveals itself above the lapping water.
For Shane McCoy, general manager of La Jolla Kayak, this is the best place to work in the world.
"When you have the opportunity to paddle out there and have a 50-foot, multi-ton mammal pop up next to you, and see how gentle and gigantic they are, it is an eye-opening experience," McCoy explains. “When you are in a kayak you don’t have that engine noise and all the people around and it is really just you out in nature, in the whales’ environment. It gives a lot of people a new outlook."
McCoy counts himself among those with a new outlook. He was studying economics in college when he started working at La Jolla Kayak. As time went on – and he moved up in the operation – he realized that he was already living the life he wanted, paddling in the Pacific, watching amazing sea creatures in their natural habitat.
"The whales are extremely intelligent creatures. You can see them analyzing who we are," said McCoy. "We have had whales hang out for close to an hour… they understand who we are and we kind of respect each other's place out there."
La Jolla Kayak sells tours in this part of the world to witness the incredible sea life that appears here each summer. Like the gray whale, which appears during migratory seasons but there are also sea lions, a multitude of fish species, and even the occasional blue shark.
However, it is the leopard shark that draws many sea watchers to this peninsula. La Jolla Kayak sells snorkel tours of nearby coves and caves where the sharks are known to congregate during the summer months. Indeed, it's not uncommon to see many leopard sharks on a single day. Last year a group of more than 200 appeared on the sandy bottom of the shallow sea here. Visitors can come within feet of the sea creatures, in the LA Jolla Underwater Park or in the sea cave expedition, just yards off shore.
McCoy has led expeditions to see the sharks literally hundreds of times. So what does the leopard shark mean to him?
"That's a good question. Having that much time in the water you have to form a relationship with the ocean and there’s a certain about of respect that comes with it," McCoy said. “I have spent a lot of time in the water…and a lot of time interacting with the sharks we have out here.”
Leopard Sharks – known scientifically as Triakis semifasciata – get their name from the unique leopard-like patterns on their skin and grow to as long as 5 or 6 feet. Despite this size, they are docile and skittish animals…virtually harmless to humans. Even with a few dozen or a few hundred in the water, the threat to the human snorkelers is basically non-existent, McCoy explains. However, if the shark feels threatened, it can turn on a dime and dart into deeper water.
"The leopard shark tour is pretty popular," McCoy continues. "Most of our guests are just excited [to see the sharks]. Sometimes though, you get someone who misunderstands them and freaks out."
Feeding frenzies? McCoy laughs: "Their form of a feeding frenzy is just them shuffling through the sand.”
Leopard sharks are carnivorous, but their diet consists of clams, worms, shrimp, squid, and fish eggs. Interestingly enough, these specific sharks don’t lay eggs. They give birth to live young – called pups – where there can be as many as 30 in a litter.
La Jolla, located between Laguna Beach & San Diego, is considered one of the most diverse ecological points along the Pacific Coast, and brings in many maritime tourists. Tourism for watching the animals is a bustling business. McCoy sells snorkel and kayak tours for about $50 a head, and, during the summer season, he employs up to 80 individuals to help give tours and run the operation. That number swells from just 20 during the off season. Most of the seasonal work is in the sea…and thereby sustainable.
The proximity to these magnificent creatures including the large gray whales reaffirm the thought that humans share this planet with other majestic beasts and must be respected….a message McCoy wholeheartedly agrees with.
David Irvin
A graduate with a Masters Of Science from the University Of North Texas, David has written on many beats including crime and business for such outlets as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Montgomery Advertiser & USA. He enjoys RVing and surfing the Internet.
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