Watch Out if Watching the Whales

There wasn’t much to Tuesday’s burial. No hymns. No prayers. No pallbearers--just a giant tractor to dig a hole, scoop up the carcass and lay to rest the 25-foot California gray whale that washed ashore Newport Beach this week.

The “giant gray blob,” as lifeguards called it, was barely recognizable. It was mutilated by a freighter and dragged into Los Angeles Harbor before its remains drifted into Newport Beach, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

About 15 whales wash ashore California’s coastline each year, according to Marine Fisheries. The cause of most of their deaths is unknown. But when a whale is killed by a boat, the evidence is fairly incriminating.

“You can actually see propeller slashes,” said Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist for Marine Fisheries. “Usually if there is a vessel collision, it’s pretty obvious. It’s all cut up, and the bruises couldn’t be caused by anything else.”

More than 23,000 gray whales will pass along Orange County’s coastline from December until April as they make their seasonal migration from Alaska to Baja California. Even more boaters will hope to catch a glimpse of a splashing tail.

There are specific rules to whale watching, Cordaro warns, and if boaters do not adhere to them, they are endangering themselves as well as the mammals.

Scott Earl of Orange was making his way to Santa Catalina Island on Saturday when, he says, a whale lifted him and his motorboat out of the water. Earl, who was about 11 miles off the mainland, traveling at 40 mph, was not injured. He said he noticed some blood in the water and assumed that his propeller wounded the whale.

Boats should not be within 100 yards of a whale or do anything to cause it to deviate from its natural behavior, according to federal law. Boats should be parallel to a whale or follow the speed of the slowest whale, which at times can be about 1 mph. If a whale pops up next to a boat after a deep dive, boaters should turn off their engines or put the boat in neutral until it swims away.

In 1995, four whales were injured by large ocean vessels. Two died, Cordaro said. But tracking whale injuries is nearly impossible unless a boater reports it.

“There could be more collisions going on out there that we don’t know about,” he said.

Natural diseases, pollution or other mammals can be obstacles for whales, said Stanley Cummings, president of Orange County Marine Institute, but people pose the greatest threats to the migrating creatures.

“When there are a lot of boats out there whale watching, not abiding by the rules, the whales exhibit radical behavior,” he said. When they are spooked, they “snorkel,” which involves short quick breaths instead of long ones followed by deep dives.

Norris Tapp, who operates whale-watching charter cruises out of Balboa, said he sees at least one boater every weekend come close to hitting a whale during migration season.

“People are unaware of the regulations or disregard courtesies to the whales,” Tapp said. “In the excitement and the effort to get up close to the whales, I’ve seen them almost run over them.”

He warned that whales travel in groups and even if boaters are tracking one whale, they might not realize there are another two or three nearby.

“You just have to pay attention and be cognizant of the fact that you are on the water during whale migration,” Tapp said. “The whales are on a mission. Leave them alone. Watch them, but keep your distance.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Safety at Sea

To protect yourself and the whales, some simple rules to follow during the whale migration period from January to March:

* Never block the path of whales or get between whales

* Keep boats at least 300 feet away from whales

* Don’t move faster than whales; change speeds slowly around whales, if at all

* Never chase or attempt to herd whales

* Don’t attempt to feed any marine mammal

Source: Times files