The State - News from Sept. 6, 1987

Humphrey the Whale, the 40-foot-long humpback who made a big splash two years ago when, by some fluke, he wandered inland up the San Francisco Bay delta, was reportedly spotted off the coast. The sighting, reported in the Oakland Tribune, was said to be confirmed by researchers who identified the distinctively marked mammal around the Farallon Islands, 25 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. Ken Balcomb, director for Whale Research in Washington state, said 45-ton Humphrey was among about 150 humpbacks spending the summer and fall off the California coast. Balcomb is the lead researcher in an annual effort to count the humpbacks and blues in the Farallons federal marine sanctuary