Whales Should Hit Golden Gate Today

May 30, 02:56 PM

Current Headlines: By Rowena Coetsee and Scott Marshall, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

May 30--SAN FRANCISCO -- The long, worrisome sojourn of two humpback whales that swam all the way up the Delta to Sacramento had would-be rescuers expressing relief early today as the end of the pair's dalliances appeared to be in sight.

As of 7:30 a.m., the whales had not been spotted since late Tuesday.

"We haven't seen 'em yet," said Carol Singleton, a whale rescue operations spokeswoman with the state's Office of Emergency Services in Sacramento. "We're waiting for a report from the CHP's helicopter, which will do a flyover."

Singleton said officials plan to hold their morning briefing at 9:15 a.m. at Vallejo's California Maritime Academy. "If they cross over, get through the Golden Gate, then we'll have a larger press conference there," she said.

At 6:30 a.m., Petty Officer Dorian Jackson of the U.S. Coast Guard's Sector San Francisco said the whales are on pace.

"If they continue at the pace they're going, they should hit the Golden Gate (Bridge) by noon," Jackson said. "We're going to be getting a boat underway at 8 a.m." with a complement of boats similar to the one that accompanied them yesterday, he said.

The wayward animals made strong progress in the last day.

"This has been a very good day for the whales," said Rod McInnis, spokesperson for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Tuesday.

The mother whale and her calf, nicknamed Delta and Dawn during their two-week excursion, appeared to be settling down for the night off Paradise Cay, north of Tiburon, after spending most of Tuesday on a steady trek toward the Pacific Ocean.

"There's really no real progress of movement," said Bernadette Fees, of the state Department of Fish and Game, after speaking with the command vessel monitoring the two humpback whales shortly before 8 p.m.

The pair marked another milestone midmorning Tuesday as they swam purposefully under the Carquinez Bridge and breezed past the mouth of two rivers that biologists feared could send the whales off-course again.

By mid-afternoon the pair had entered San Pablo Bay where a small flotilla formed a protective flank as commuter ferries and hulking container vessels churned back and forth across the green expanse of wind-whipped water.

As government officials scanned the water, a sliver of black suddenly would appear amid the whitecaps and send a spray of water vapor into the air as arms pointed and camera shutters clicked.

"Yee hah!" chortled U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary member Don Enos as he glimpsed a whale from the helm of the 22-foot boat he and his teammate had brought from Citrus Heights for that day's operation.

By early Tuesday evening, the humpbacks had breezed under the Richmond-San Rafael bridge and were sighted near Tiburon, giving hope that they would reach the Golden Gate Bridge by nightfall. However, they turned north short of the goal.

At the bridge, a handful of whale watchers and media waited at the vista point on the north side for a glimpse of the high-profile visitors. The scattered crowd huddled against the evening chill and steady winds gusting up to 30 mph.

"We heard they were out here, so we wanted to come see," said Christina Gauthier, 31, of Pinole, who brought her son Christopher, 6, daughter Taylor, 7, and mother, Kathryn Gerk, following an afternoon baseball practice at Tara Hills Elementary School.

The whales and their plight have become a teaching tool in some classrooms since the story of their ordeal began. "We've been learning about oceans," Christopher said. "They should be in the water where their wounds will heal."

Considering the humpbacks had covered around 25 miles each of the two previous Sundays after they inexplicably shifted into high gear after days of seemingly aimless wandering, officials were crossing their fingers that the duo would continue its push toward the Pacific without further ado.

"If they put their minds to it they easily could do that in five to six hours," McInnis said.

Spotted near Rio Vista on May 13, the approximately 45-ton female and her calf have spent the last two weeks meandering along the Sacramento River.

The unprecedented detour captured hearts and headlines around the world as biologists tried both coaxing and driving them back out using high- and low-tech tactics with marginal success.

Scientists played underwater recordings of the endangered species, including sounds of humpbacks feeding and that of an orca attacking a grey whale and her calf.

They also banged on metal pipes, and on Friday briefly turned fire hoses on the water to get the creatures moving south.

As days passed with little or no movement, marine mammal experts became increasingly concerned about the whales' injuries and the effects of their prolonged immersion in fresh water.

Both bear gashes where a boat's propeller apparently sliced into them, and without the benefit of salt water's healing properties the edges of those wounds became necrotic as their skin began to blister and peel.

Scientists injected both whales with antibiotics over the weekend to stave off infection, and as of late Tuesday were still talking about tagging the female with a satellite tracking device.

Staff writer George Kelly contributed to this report. Reach Rowena Coetsee at 925-779-7141 or rcoetsee@cctimes.com.

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