Cargo Ship Rams Whale as Schoolchildren and Teachers Watch in Horror

Nearly 500 schoolchildren, family members and teachers who intended to spend a pleasant day watching whales, instead witnessed a gruesome spectacle: a 35-foot mother whale being struck--and probably killed--by a cargo ship bound for the Port of Los Angeles.

The incident took place about 12:45 p.m. Saturday, 4 miles south of the breakwater that protects the Los Angeles Harbor. Witnesses said the 209-foot vessel suddenly veered north, crossing in front of three smaller boats and striking the Pacific gray whale, which was swimming northwest with her calf and another cow-calf pair.

The whale was thrown into the air and then floundered and thrashed about, blew her spout and then disappeared into the ocean as the stunned children watched, witnesses said.

“The kids were going ape,” said Bill Samaras, a marine biologist who narrated the tour for the students of Deer Canyon Elementary School in Alta Loma, near Ontario. “They were screaming and they were crying. . . . It was like going out in the woods to watch deer and then a hunter comes up and kills Bambi.”

Robert Yoshitomi, a Los Angeles lawyer for the company that charters the cargo ship, the Hakusan II, said Tuesday that an in-house investigation found no wrongdoing.

Although there are recorded instances of Pacific gray whales being hit by ships--experts believe it happens to one or two of the 18,000 whales that migrate annually along the Southern California coast--Saturday’s incident was unusual because there were witnesses, one of whom videotaped the event.

“This is the first gray whale encounter that I can recall that has occurred in front of a whale-watching crew,” said Jim Lecky, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Lecky said he intends to review the videotape.

If there is any evidence that the ship violated maritime regulations, Lecky said, the service will investigate, although he was not sure what the penalties might be.

The chances of finding the carcass of the whale struck Saturday are slim, Lecky said, because the currents have likely carried it farther out to sea.

Directors of the American Cetacean Society’s Los Angeles chapter are collecting witness statements and will submit them to the fisheries service and the Coast Guard, along with a request for an investigation.

“I’m sure it was an accident,” chapter President Tom Lewis said. “I guess the real question is if the large ship violated any Coast Guard regulations.”

The Hakusan II is chartered by a Japanese company but flies the Panamanian flag. It arrived at the Port of Los Angeles Saturday and left Sunday for Hong Kong, according to a spokeswoman for Matson Agencies, which manages the boat while it is in port.

“The captain told us that he kept trying to avoid the whale and finally, in order to avoid hitting smaller boats,” he had to swerve into it, said Matson operations coordinator Jacqueline Liska.

But Yoshitomi, who represents Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line), said Liska was misinformed and had “no direct contact” with the ship’s crew. An in-house investigation showed that the captain and crew “did not know that the whale was coming across the bow, nor did they see or feel any contact,” the lawyer said, adding that the boat was “making a standard maneuver” before entering port.

This is peak season for watching the Pacific grays, which each year make a 12,000-mile migration from the frigid waters of Alaska’s Bering Sea to the warmth of the Baja California lagoons, where they bear their young.

Nancy Pavlich, the teacher who organized the outing from San Pedro for first- and sixth-graders and their families, said the optional trip was the culmination of a whale study unit in the school.

The children, their teachers and families were aboard the Catalina Prince, run by Catalina Cruises of Long Beach and San Pedro. Witnesses said the Catalina Prince and two smaller whale-watching boats had been following the whales for about 15 minutes when the cargo ship made what one witness called a “drastic” turn across the path of the whale-watching boats.

Bob Oakley, the passenger who brought the video recorder, said he knew what was going to happen. “ You could pretty well tell it was on a collision course, and I just kept filming and thought, ‘Let’s wait and see where the whale comes up’ . . . it was quite a shock.”

Witnesses later saw the orphaned calf swimming with the other cow and her calf.

Pavlich said that the children spent much of Monday talking about what happened and that they intend to write letters to the NYK Line describing their feelings.

“They were just absolutely shocked. . . .” Pavlich said. “I overheard one little girl say, ‘I just wish I could swim out and help her.’ ”