Bid to Place Transmitter in Whale Fails

High winds and choppy water forced scientists to call off attempts Tuesday to implant a radio transmitter in the blubber of the Sacramento River’s celebrated humpback whale.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, which had led efforts to herd the 40-ton whale back to salt water, postponed any further action to save the animal until after a meeting of experts on Thursday in Sacramento.

“They’re going to let him rest and do his thing for a couple of days,” said Marian Barnes, a volunteer who assisted in the unsuccessful attempt to attach the homing device to the whale.

Humphrey, as the 40-foot whale has become known, spent the day swimming back and forth near Decker Island, about three miles south of Rio Vista and 45 miles from the ocean. Just before sunset, the mammal was observed leaping partly out of the water and slapping its tail and pectoral fins on the surface.

Swam Up River

The whale entered San Francisco Bay Oct. 10 and swam up the Sacramento River. A fleet of boats drove the giant animal out of a small, shallow dead-end slough and past Pittsburg, within 35 miles of the ocean, before suspending the rescue attempt Monday. The whale then returned upstream about 10 miles.

The satellite transmitter would be useful in following the animal’s path, once it returns to the open ocean--not in herding it back to sea, according to Bruce Mate, an oceanography professor from Oregon State University, who was flown in to implant the device.

The transmitter was designed to send out a radio signal for six hours each day during the morning and evening, coinciding with the times a satellite would be overhead to receive the signal.

In order to herd the whale back to the Pacific Ocean, however, Marine Fisheries Service officials have said they need to find a way to track the whale around the clock. Mate attempted to implant the device from a small rubber boat using a 16-foot-long pole.

Rough Water

The water proved too rough, however, for the team of Coast Guard crews and volunteers to track the whale, calculate where it would surface next and get there in time for Mate to attach the transmitter.

The whale confounded the attempt by swimming in an erratic pattern and coming up for air in unpredictable spots.

“It basically looks like a pretty healthy whale,” Mate said after returning to shore.