Search the Web
Custom Search
|
Gray Whale Still Hanging Around San Diego Bay
March 13, 2009SAN DIEGO -- A whale that wandered into San Diego Bay this week was still hanging around Friday, seemingly reluctant to end its Southern California stopover and resume its migration schedule.
The 30-foot cetacean, first spotted cruising the harbor Tuesday afternoon, has become a low-key tourist attraction, drawing a stream of nature lovers eager to glimpse the stately sea mammal from the waterfront and aboard pleasure crafts.
In the mid-afternoon, a citizen made an emergency call to report the whale appeared to have been hit by a motorboat, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jetta Disco said.
Personnel with the federal maritime agency contacted the owner of the vessel in question, spoke with him and inspected his boat, finding no evidence that it had hit anything, according to Disco.
Additionally, the whale showed no signs of injury in subsequent surfacings over the afternoon, prompting officials to dismiss the reported accident as unfounded, she said.
About 10:30 Friday morning, the whale's rounds brought it into the northeastern reaches of the bay, said Petty Officer Henry Dunphy, another spokesman for Coast Guard.
"We're just urging boaters to stay at least 100 yards away and give the whale plenty of room to manuever and not get too close to it when they're out there," Dunphy said.
According to Joe Cordero, a marine biologist with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, the leviathan probably ventured into the bay looking for something to eat. He estimated it is most likely around a year old and hasn't been on its own very long.
"We pretty much leave the animal alone for as long as it takes," Cordero said Wednesday. "In other cases elsewhere in the past, we've learned that herding them away really isn't a good idea."
Trying to chase whales out of a less-than-desirable habitat into the ocean can backfire, causing them stress and weakening their ability to migrate, Cordero added.
Grays spend summers off Alaska, then travel south to the protected lagoons of Baja California, where their calves are born during winter months. The trip covers about 10,000 to 12,000 miles.
Usually around the end of February, the stragglers mix with some coming north, so it's hard to say which way the whale in San Diego's harbor was headed when he left the open ocean, Cordero said.
Return to San Diego Local News Roundup
