June officially is upon us, which means we’re one step closer to college football returning. That also means award watch lists are starting to come out, and plenty of Notre Dame players will be on them considering the Irish are expected to be College Football Playoff contenders. We have our first such instance now.
[autotag]Benjamin Morrison[/autotag] and [autotag]Howard Cross III[/autotag] have been named to the watch list for the Lott Trophy, which is given annually the best defensive IMPACT player. It considers character as well as play, the only major college football award to do so. [autotag]Manti Te’o[/autotag] is the lone previous winner for the Irish, taking the award in 2012.
The initial list consists of 42 names, so that obviously means a lot of competition for both players. Hopefully, at least one of them somehow stand out above the rest when the winner is announced during the ceremony Dec. 8 in Newport Beach, California.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
Report: NBA closes investigation on Josh Giddey for alleged inappropriate relationship.
The NBA has officially closed its investigation on Josh Giddey for an alleged inappropriate relationship with an underage girl, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
A since-deleted social media post went viral in November that showed Giddey had been in an alleged relationship with an underage girl. Giddey chose not to comment on the allegations in the immediate aftermath.
“I understand the question obviously, but there’s no further comment right now,” Giddey said on Nov. 24.
The NBA opened an investigation into the allegations soon after Giddey spoke publicly. California police followed suit five days later.
The Newport Beach Police Department closed its investigation in January due to its inability to corroborate any criminal activity toward the 21-year-old. The league had a similar conclusion to its investigation.
Giddey concluded his third season with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He averaged 12.3 points on 47.5% shooting, 6.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 80 games this past season.
Report: Josh Giddey will not face charges after investigation of alleged inappropriate relationship.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Josh Giddey will reportedly not face charges after being investigated for an alleged inappropriate relationship with an underage girl.
The Newport Beach Police Department has closed its investigation, which was opened in November to look into the online allegations, according to multiple sources. Officials were unable to find corroborating evidence.
The family of the minor involved in the allegations reportedly hired famed attorney Gloria Allred in December. She is known for taking high-profile and controversial cases centered around women’s rights.
GIDDEY CLEARED: I just got off the phone with Newport Beach Police. They tell me the case pertaining to Thunder's Josh Giddey is closed. No charges will be filed.
They say they found no information that corroborated criminal activity related to Giddey.
A since-deleted social media post went viral in November that showed Giddey had been in an alleged relationship with an underage girl. Giddey elected to not give an official comment on the allegations in the immediate aftermath.
“I understand the question obviously, but there’s no further comment right now,” Giddey said on Nov. 24 following the first practice after the allegations arose.
The NBA is still conducting its investigation of Giddey. It opened its inquiry hours after Giddey spoke to the media. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in an ESPN interview in December the league wouldn’t take action until the police investigation concluded.
“I think if you look back, I can’t think of many circumstances where we’ve suspended a player based on an allegation alone,” Silver said. “So we have an allegation and then you have a police investigation and a parallel league investigation.
“I’ll also add that where there’s a criminal investigation, we take a backseat. You have an allegation, you have an ongoing criminal investigation — that impacts how the players and Players Association can work with us because of course the player needs to protect his rights.
“I’m not going to say never ever, but I think this is the path we’ve consistently followed in the past. … That’s where things currently stand.”
Giddey has continued to play for the Thunder amid both investigations. In 39 games, he’s averaging 11.8 points on 45.5% shooting, 6.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists.
UPDATE: The Newport Beach PD officially released a statement on Giddey’s investigation, which they’ve closed:
Mark Girardeau recalls jumping in with a 400-pound Mola mola, a.k.a. ocean sunfish, during an expedition out of Newport Beach.
Mola mola sightings are special because the massive sunfish, aside from being docile giants, are so peculiar-looking.
Their bodies are flat and appear to be missing their rear ends. With huge eyes and tiny mouths, they roam the currents looking clumsy and alien-like, but strangely beautiful.
But because Mola molas inhabit pelagic waters miles from shore, the vast majority of sightings occur from boats.
On Friday, however, a Southern California photographer shared an image of him in the water alongside a Mola mola he estimated to weigh 400 pounds.
A small fry if you consider that the Mola mola, the largest bony fish in the world, can weigh up to 5,000 pounds. But still impressive, and for Mark Girardeau an encounter he’ll always treasure.
“From the surface, you mostly just see the upper fin sticking above the water but once you jump in when the water is clear, it’s just the craziest experience!” Girardeau told FTW Outdoors. “The water was still and the ocean was a deep-blue color that day so you could just swim right over to this massive fish and it was fine with it.”
The encounter occurred last summer between Newport Beach and San Clemente Island, in water more than 3,000 feet deep.
Girardeau stated Friday on Instagram: “I don’t post many photos of myself so here it is the real me (on the left)! Thanks to [Delaney Trowbridge] and her underwater housing for capturing this moment in time.”
Trowbridge is a captain and, like Girardeau, a talented photographer. Her Facebook post on June 30 showed the same Mola mola with a pilot fish escort.
Trowbridge described the encounter as “ dream come true… coming face to face with one of the strangest fish on Earth!”
She added: “ It wasn’t difficult at all to jump into 3,000 feet of open water to swim alongside this beautiful Mola mola.
“Accompanying this gentle giant was a lone pilotfish, a very rare species for Southern California, more often encountered in tropical waters. I can’t blame the little guy for visiting us though, it sure felt like we were swimming in Hawaii!”
Humpback whales are migrating through Southern California waters and the more fortunate observers are enjoying extremely close encounters with the gregarious mammals.
Humpback whales are migrating through Southern California waters and the more fortunate observers are enjoying extremely close encounters.
The accompanying footage, showing a humpback whale using its flukes to fling water onto tourists, was captured by Capt. Delaney Trowbridge.
Trowbridge, who works for Pacific Offshore Expeditions and Newport Coastal Adventures, described Friday’s encounter via Facebook:
“I had one of the best humpback encounters of my career yesterday! A pair of humpback whales curiously investigated and played with our boat for nearly 3 HOURS.
“They were pushing the boat around, making crazy vocalizations, and spyhopping a bunch. I’ve never experienced a ‘mugging’ as intense as this one before!”
Mugging behavior involves whales swimming next to boats as if to inspect their occupants. Spyhopping is a technique used by whales to check out their above-surface surroundings.
Humpback whales are famous for these types of “friendly” behavior.
Trowbridge continued: “An encounter like this cannot be forced. The whales approached us, not the other way around. Follow local viewing distance guidelines when watching whales and remain in neutral if approached.”
The California population of humpback whales migrates to calving and mating areas of Mexico during the fall and early winter. This appears to be prime time to observe the mammals off Southern California.
A California ecotour captain reminded social media followers Thursday that sea lions will prey on sharks and are not shy about going after large sharks.
A California ecotour captain reminded social media followers Thursday that sea lions will prey on sharks and are not shy about going after reasonably large sharks.
“I’ve seen sea lions eat a lot of different things, but these two sharks take the cake for most interesting meal caught on my camera,” Ryan Lawler, of Newport Coastal Adventure, stated on Instagram.
“The first picture shows a horn shark, with its conspicuous dorsal spine going ignored by the sea lion. The second photo is right after a bull sea lion caught a thresher shark whose total length is easily longer than its predator.” (Viewers can swipe on the Instagram post to view both images.)
Lawler mentions a period in October 2015, when his passengers and crew witnessed multiple predation events involving sea lions and thresher sharks off Newport Beach.
“And I have not seen it again since,” he wrote, explaining to FTW Outdoors that the Instagram photos are from 2017 (horn shark) and 2015. “Still waiting to witness the ultimate sea lion/shark take down, which would be a sea lion catching a white shark pup.”
Slater Moore Photography
In 2015, one of those predation events was captured in photos by Slater Moore, at the time a photographer for Davey’s Locker Sportfishing and Whale Watching in Newport Beach. (Two of Moore’s images accompany this post.)
After the encounter, Moore said, “I’ve never seen anything like it. We pulled up to a huge bird school with a sea lion finishing off the tail end of a thresher, and he drug it under and the we spun the boat around and all the birds were flying over to another sea lion with a brand new thresher, still alive.
“Then we leave and go to another live thresher under attack, and as we were leaving the captain saw another sea lion pop up with one!”
Slater Moore Photography
The largest shark measured at least 4 feet – a substantial meal for any pinniped.
Thresher sharks measure to about 15 feet. They boast small mouths and feed mainly on schooling bait fish, which they stun with scythe-like tail fins.
California sea lions, which can measure 8 feet and weigh as much as 800 pounds, are opportunistic feeders that prey predominantly on smaller fish and mollusks, but occasionally target sharks and rays.
Lawler alluded to great white shark pups. Southern California coastal waters are a nursing area for juvenile white sharks, which prey mostly on rays and bottom fishes. As adults, they prey on seals and sea lions.
A man walking on a Southern California beach on Friday discovered the well-preserved carcass of bizarre-looking fish that typically resides at depths of more than 2,000 feet.
A man walking on a Southern California beach Friday discovered a well-preserved carcass of a bizarre-looking fish that typically resides at depths of 2,000-plus feet.
The extraordinary discovery of what has since been identified as a Pacific footballfish, a type of anglerfish, was made by Ben Estef at Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach.
Images of the 18-inch anglerfish were captured by Estef and Crystal Cove employees, and shared to Facebook on Saturday by Davey’s Locker Sportfishing & Whale Watching.
“It’s been identified as a deep-sea Pacific footballfish, which is a species of anglerfish that normally dwell at depths more than 3,000 ft below the surface,” Davey’s Locker wrote. “It’s one of more than 300 living species of anglerfish from around the world. Though the fish itself is not rare, it is extremely rare to see one this intact along a beach in southern CA.”
Encounters with anglerfish are exceedingly rare because of the extreme, lightless depths at which they reside.
In 2014, scientists with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute captured ROV footage of an anglerfish swimming 2,000 feet below the surface.
Dr. Bruce Robison of MBARI described the anglerfish as being “among the most rarely seen of all deep-sea fishes.” Robison described the footage as first of its kind. The 3.5-inch fish was collected for study.
In 1985 a Pacific footballfish was caught in a fisherman’s net in Monterey Bay and collected by the California Academy of Sciences. The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro also has one on exhibit.
Most species of anglerfish measure less than 12 inches. They’re called anglerfish because first spine of their dorsal fins, called the illicium, extends outward and contains a phosphorescent bulb intended to lure prey.
They snatch up prey, usually small fish or squid, with long, sharp teeth.
While anglerfish fish are rarely observed, many will find them to look familiar based on a scene in the popular animated movie “Finding Nemo,” in which Marlin and Dory are entranced by the glowing light and narrowly escape capture.
The Pacific footballfish discovered Friday was collected by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and it was unclear Saturday where it might end up.
–Images are courtesy of Ben Estef (top) and Crystal Cove State Park
After a mesmerizing period in which Delaney Trowbridge sat at the vessel’s bow, staring into the eyes of a humpback whale from just feet away, an obvious phenomenon occurred.
After a mesmerizing period in which Delaney Trowbridge sat at the vessel’s bow, staring into the eyes of a humpback whale from just feet away, an obvious phenomenon occurred.
The whale, needing to breathe, rose slightly and exhaled powerfully toward Trowbridge and others on the boat, providing them with an evening shower and the memory of a lifetime.
Trowbridge, who had been holding out her phone to document the sighting, later joked via Instagram: “To any researchers out there, I’ve got a lovely DNA sample for you all over my phone and hands.”
The remarkably intimate encounter occurred late Tuesday aboard Newport Coastal Adventure’s inflatable passenger boat. The top video clip shows Capt. Ryan Lawler’s perspective, with Trowbridge at the bow.
Featured below is an Instagram clip captured by Trowbridge, providing her “straight whale spout to iPhone” point of view.
The humpback whale had been swimming alongside boats for several days off southern Orange County, exhibiting a behavior described as “mugging.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CLqONmKBzUq/
On Tuesday, Lawler and his small charter waited until the other crews left for their respective ports before motoring into the area.
“Then it was just us and the whale,” he told For The Win Outdoors. “And sure enough after following alongside the whale for another 15 minutes it decided to come over. So we totally stopped the boat and until the sun set this whale kept circling our boat.”
For Trowbridge, a photographer and naturalist for Newport Coastal Adventure, the experience was deeply moving.
Delaney Trowbridge after receiving a whale breath to the face
“I think whale muggings are so unique because you’re completely at the mercy of this giant animal, but there’s absolutely no fear. It’s just pure joy,” she said. “I had never seen a whale’s eye more clearly in my life, and it was amazing just how fixated on us it was.”
“It would swim past us, and underwater you’d see it turn around to come back. Encounters like this genuinely leave you breathless – the sight of such a powerful animal just inches away from you is just incredible.”
Humpback whales can measure to about 50 feet and weigh nearly 40 tons. They’re famous for their dramatic breaches and their apparent curiosity people watching them from boats.
Lawler said that at one point he placed his hand above the whale and splashed the water. The whale responded by “blowing a giant bubble blast on the surface.”
Whale watchers on a recent voyage out of Newport Beach discovered just what means to be “mugged” by a 50-ton humpback whale.
Whale watchers on a voyage out of Newport Beach, Calif., on Saturday discovered just what means to be “mugged” by a 50-ton humpback whale.
The accompanying footage, captured by Mark Girardeau, shows the whale surfacing just inches from the 36-foot boat, generating an almost euphoric collective response.
“What do you do when a massive whale decides to surface right next to your boat? Well, stay there and enjoy it!” Girardeau wrote Tuesday on the Orange County Outdoors Facebook page.
The humpback whale was encountered during an all-day Pacific Offshore Expeditions trip, and remained with the boat for 30 minutes. When curious whales approach and circle boats in this manner it’s described as mugging behavior.
The man shown in Girardeau’s video, enjoying the closest view, is Patrick Coyne, who wrote on Instagram:
“Saturday’s trip was one of the best days out on the water I’ve ever had. We had this curious Humpback whale check out our boat multiple times and get extremely close. These gentle giants truly amaze me and you can clearly hear how excited I am in the video.”
While NOAA Fisheries guidelines suggest that boaters remain at least 100 yards from whales, the proper course of action when a whale approaches a boat is to remain idle and let the situation play out.
