What do you think?

So a friend of mine was hanging out at a break up here called Kellogg's where a couple of boogie boarders were out.   He took these pics of a shark, but if it was Mr. White, the dorsal fin don't look right.  Looks like a dorsal of a harbor porpoise or something.

Dave 

My guess is mammal. Its close enough for these guys to notice and neither one looks like they have a turd in their wetsuits

It does look like the Dolphin's dorsal fin.

Mammals are easy to spot if you're watching live - sharks cruise at the surface, while mammals come up for air and then descend...it's hard to tell from a photo. Ask your friend what else he saw...

...no caudal fin apparent so I'm inclined to say "not whitey"

....but I may be mistaken.

Mola Mola ?? http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/fish/oceansunfish060305-0316obxz.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/fish/mola-mola.htm&usg=__rs5dt-g9VDSrQ2HA-g__7ZXh8gI=&h=364&w=600&sz=45&hl=en&start=126&tbnid=AW3P_BDu-kwlMM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmola%2Bmola%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D108

It's impossible to tell, but if it were a shark wouldn't there be a shadow of body be visible underneath the surface?  I see something in front of the fin, but not behind, making it look like a seals head.

When I asked the guy about it, he actually never saw whatever it was until he processed the images.  Just based on that I'm saying mammal.  That dorsal (if it's even a dorsal) is way to small for anything but a blue, and given the cold water I'd say not even that.

It's impossible to tell, but if it were a shark wouldn't there be a shadow of body be visible underneath the surface?  I see something in front of the fin, but not behind, making it look like a seals head.

That's what I was going to say ... seal or sea lion, swimming to the right.

-Allen