A recent story making headlines (no just locally, but nationally I believe) has involved two humpback whales that have made their way up the Sacramento River after taking a wrong turn somewhere in the San Francisco Bay.
For the Bay Area natives reading this, a whale accidentally swimming into the shallow waters of Northern California waterways is not completely unheard of. Twenty-two years ago, a lone humpback whale took a similar misdirected turn and was swimming in the San Joaquin Delta for almost a month. I vividly remember this story as the Coast Guard and other aquatic organizations worked diligently to help Humphrey (the local newspaper named the large mammal) get going in the right direction. T-shirts, newspaper headlines, and television broadcasts made Humphrey a household name and a local celebrity of sorts.
I appreciate stories like this, mostly because there is no inherent political bias in wanting to save a couple of whales, particularly these two whales who happen to be a mother and cub duo further enhancing the drama. Everyone hopes that these two humungous mammals eventually find their way and there are no ominous sound bites being spewed on local newscasts. “Whales are taking over the Sacramento waterways! Are your children safe? Stay tuned to the 11 o’clock news to find out.”
Rather, it’s a pretty interesting story about trying to figure out ways to get the world’s largest animals (I think) back onto the open water. Recently, the coast guard has used whale songs to try to lure the whales to follow the familiar sounds to freedom, but this has failed thus far.
(As an aside, I remember my high school trigonometry teacher used to play whale music while we were taking exams. He claimed research said that such sounds soothed one’s nerves that may become agitated under the stress of taking tests. This being San Francisco we didn’t really bat an eye, and by the end of the semester we found ourselves requesting the melodic tones of the Humpback whale orchestra should our teacher forget to play the tape. I should also mention that he was a football coach…only in SF.)
I hope the story of these two whales ends happily. What with the Iraq War continuing to be a mess, the Warriors losing in the playoffs, and Christopher getting wacked by Tony on The Sopranos, we could all use a little good news.
