Wrong-Way Whale Makes a U-Turn, Heads Back Upriver
Humphrey the humpback whale took another wrong turn overnight and was swimming upriver and away from the Pacific Ocean today.
Exasperated marine biologists temporarily suspended efforts to coax the whale toward the Golden Gate and out of the Sacramento River, where he wandered more than two weeks ago on a migratory side trip.
“We will not be herding him today. We will tag and monitor him, but we will not push him anywhere,” rescue team spokesman Mitchell Ryan said. “We need to regroup.”
Earlier, they had herded the whale toward San Francisco Bay with a variety of underwater clanging noises and boats, but Sunday night Humphrey made a U-turn and swam about 10 miles back up the Sacramento River, eluding two Army landing craft that had been positioned to block a turnaround.
Sunday’s odyssey, Page 3.
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