Wayward Whales in Central California
News: A mother humpback and her calf have had their fifteen minutes of fame. Now they probably want to go home, but home is hard to find.
May 18, 2007
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Two humpback whales who wandered 90 miles up the Sacramento River have become California's latest celebrities. The two lost their way while migrating from Mexico up the coast. Their situation quickly turned from cute to dire, when biologists pointed out that this freshwater channel harbors no krill, the mother's blubber is running thin, and she has a gash about two-feet long and six-inches deep, probably cut by a boat propeller.
Biologists are trying to lure them back to the Pacific Ocean with recorded whale sounds. (Humpback whales have some of the most complex songs of all animals. Listen here.
Most worrisome is that coaxing the lost little family home could take weeks, as it did for a whale nicknamed Humphrey (above) who spent a month wandering up the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta 22 years ago. So far these two have swum away from the sounds, rather than toward them. If the music fails, biologists will next week try to herd them downriver with a fleet of boats.
Photos by Ed Homich. Text by April Rabkin.
