KFMB
TV
 A
strange phenomenon spinning off the coast of San Diego. Some say it comes from
out of this world.
It can best be described as a giant whirlpool caught
on videotape off Black's Beach. A man flying in a biplane shot the footage with
his home video camera and it is extraordinary to say the least.
Oceanographers
say they've never seen anything like it. But at least one expert says an unidentified
underwater object could have caused the weird whirlpool.
Flying saucers,
UFOs, strange lights - people say they've seen them in the skies, over the water,
even in the water. Imagine for a moment what would happen if a spacecraft did
land in the ocean off San Diego. What would it look like?
Saturday, February
3, 2001 - 1100 feet above Black's Beach. Mike Runion is a passenger in an open-air
biplane on a sightseeing tour when he sees something he's never seen before. The
pilot circles around for another look and there it is: a huge, spinning whirlpool.
Mike
pulled out his video camera and started shooting - 37 seconds of footage that
shows a spinning whirlpool, sucking up dirt and debris, just outside the surf
line -- a spiral of foam rising up from the center.
Mike is a kayaker.
He and his friends spend a lot of time in the ocean, but this video was like nothing
they had ever seen. When NEWS 8 first aired this video about a month ago, we received
a phone call from the director of the San Diego UFO society. Rob Baldwin wanted
to take a closer look so we obliged.
Baldwin says UFOs have been reported
for years off the coast of San Diego. But could an underwater spacecraft really
cause a whirlpool? Baldwin says the spinning motion of an underwater flying saucer
could do just that.
Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
are skeptical of the UFO theory to say the least. Bill Schmidt does extensive
research on ocean rip currents. He says the spinning motion in the video appears
to be a giant eddy, perhaps caused by two competing ocean currents.
Rip
currents run perpendicular to the shoreline, flowing straight out to sea. Once
they get outside the surf zone they sometimes collide with long-shore currents
heading north or south. When the two currents come together a spinning, eddy motion
can result.
There is also a deep canyon off the coast of Black's Beach,
which can make ocean currents unpredictable. But because the video is so short
Schmidt says it's difficult to say exactly what caused the eddy.
As for
the man who shot the video, he's still at a loss to explain it. For now, the cause
of the strange whirlpool off Black's Beach remains a mystery -- a phenomenon unexplained
by either science or science fiction.
No one really knows just how common
these whirlpool currents are off the San Diego coastline. But, scientists say
they wouldn't be surprised if they occur as seldom as once a year or as often
as once a month.
For
more information go to Scripps
Institution of Oceanography and San Diego
UFO Society. |
