Marine scientists say there is at least one gray whale and her calf in San Francisco Bay, a rare entry. A witness report of a boat harassing the pair has been received, and NOAA is urging boaters to steer clear.
More video from KCBS, which includes an interview with a NOAA official warning boaters to stay away.
Here’s the warning to boaters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
NOAA’s Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary advises San Francisco Bay Area boaters to watch out for and steer clear of whales. Multiple whale species migrate into the area in large numbers during the spring and summer. Boaters should use caution year-round, but springtime presents a higher chance of coming into close contact with whales.
Gray whales are at a particularly high risk of collisions with vessels, as they often travel near the outer coast shore and into San Francisco Bay and Tomales Bay, making their way north from breeding grounds off Mexico to feeding grounds off Alaska. Many of these whales travel directly through the busy shipping lanes off San Francisco in the Gulf of the Farallones sanctuary just outside the Golden Gate.
While several species migrate south through the sanctuary in the winter, gray whales — including mothers with newborn calves — swim closest to shore in the spring. Cow-calf pairs can sometimes be seen from shore, pausing in the surf zone for the calf to nurse or rest and avoiding killer whales.
Boaters should watch for the gray whale’s blow—or exhalation—which looks like a puff of smoke about 10 to 15 feet high, since very little of the whale is visible at the surface. A whale may surface and blow several times before a prolonged dive, typically lasting from three to six minutes.
Boaters should not:
-Approach within 300 feet (about the length of a football field) of any whale
-Cut across a whale’s path
-Make sudden speed or directional changes
-Get between a whale cow and her calf. If separated from its mother, a calf may be doomed to starvation
If you need any more incentive to stay away, watch this video from Santa Cruz last year…