Town Braces for a Flood of Weekend Sightseers : Having Whale of a Time? Well . . .

This small Sacramento River town, already besieged by hundreds of whale watchers, braced for a weekend invasion of sightseers Friday as a 40-ton humpback whale swam gracefully near the town’s edge for the fourth day in a row.

The first “Have a Whale of a Time” T-shirt appeared for sale Friday afternoon, and traffic was backed up on the Rio Vista drawbridge for more than 30 minutes at a time as cars streamed into the town normally populated by about 3,000 people.

Even a spokeswoman for the Rio Vista Chamber of Commerce said she wished that the people--and the whale--would go home. “We’re a quiet community, and we like it that way,” said Jody Vickery. “Now it’s so hard for us to go anywhere. The town is really disgusted.”

Meanwhile, federal officials warned boaters that they will begin today to strictly enforce laws protecting the endangered animal. Vessels must stay at least 100 yards from the giant creature or their operators will risk fines of up to $20,000.

‘Stand Back’

“We’ll be more actively enforcing the endangered species law, which prohibits harassing or interfering with the whale,” said Sheridan Stone, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. “It’s just going to be: ‘Stand back and leave the whale alone.’ ”

The 40-foot whale, believed to be a male, took a wrong turn at the Golden Gate Bridge nine days ago and swam up the Sacramento River, reaching Rio Vista on Tuesday.

The rare animal has been spotted as far north as the deep river shipping channel about 25 miles from Sacramento. For the most part, however, it has been content to swim back and forth along a two-mile stretch of the river north of the Rio Vista bridge.

Marine biologists have attempted to herd the whale back to the Pacific Ocean with boats and killer whale sounds or lure it seaward with soothing music and mental telepathy, to no avail.

“It’s best to reassess our own behavior and our motivation and sit back,” Stone said. “We can’t control everything.”

Dining on Fish

Marine biologists from the California Marine Mammal Center had hoped to try playing recorded sounds of humpback whales but called off the excursion Friday. They may try instead over the weekend.

The whale’s swimming pattern indicated that it could be feeding on fish in the river, said Debbie Glockner-Ferrari, a marine biologist with the center.

The humpback is one of about 1,200 of the endangered species that swim in the north Pacific Ocean. An estimated 8,800 more humpbacks live in the Atlantic Ocean and near Antarctica, according to Stone.