Biologists continue efforts to steer Humpback whales

A team of marine rescuers, on Thursday, continued alluring two humpback whales marooned in the Port of Sacramento with the tried and tested method of using whale sound recording, hoping the whales would return to the Pacific sea where they belong.

The two humpbacks, a 5-foot female and her 20-foot calf, have traveled almost more than 70 miles up the delta and the Sacramento River Deep Water Channel to the outskirts of the capital city attracting thousands of curious spectators who have gathered to capture the rare occasion. When asked about their experience by the reporters, one of them cited it as “exciting and sad”.

Biologists and veterans are using whale music, 10-second vocals from whales feeding played in intermittent 10-second intervals which they described as the ringing of a dinner bell, because it consisted of the sounds of whales feeding, played from an armada of Coast Guard vessels using an underwater amplification audio device called a hydrophone.

The sound wave therapy has worked in the past when 20 yrs ago a humpback whale nicknamed Humphrey swam up the Sacramento River 69 miles in 1985 and wandered there for a 26 days.

"Hopefully, these will do the same thing we did for Humphrey the whale when Humphrey was stuck," Bernie Krause, of Wild Sanctuary in Glen Ellen, Calif., told The Associated Press.

A variety of humpback sounds recorded over the years, by recording engineer Bernie Krause, are being used at different frequencies hoping to get a green signal from the whales at a particular sound modulation as the mammals simply strayed around the coast’s basin rising above the water level only to gather some air for the past three days.

“We call ourselves the whale whisperers,” said Mr. Krauze, president of Wildlife Sanctuary, a nonprofit group. “But we are not whispering loud enough. These guys are not responding.”

The reason for the whales to move upstream is being studied but the only obvious intention could be attributed to their migratory instincts.

Peter Folkens, a research associate with the Alaska Whale Foundation, said, "We're trying different things, trying to find something that works. This is new territory for us -- we've never dealt with a pair of whales this far up a freshwater system."

The researchers have a back up plan of blasting noise from boats on the upstream side behind the whales and banging pipes to propel them towards the sea in case this doesn’t work. Although the method would be stressful to the animals, it is the only way out as it is not advisable for the whales to stay there for long due to health reasons.

"This may take days or weeks," Folkens said. "We have time to work out a plan, there's no need to get desperate. We want to find a combination that works -- we don't want to shock them."

An examination of the whales as they circled a shipping channel near the Port of Sacramento, about 84 miles northeast of San Francisco by the marine biologists on late Wednesday revealed that both the animals were wounded and a 2-foot-long, 6-inch-deep gash between the blowhole and the dorsal fin, was noticed on the body of the adult animal. These injuries appear to have come from a propeller of a ship, either in the open ocean or shortly after entering the bay but were not rated as life threatening by the researchers.

"Fresh water can affect a marine animal's skin quite quickly," Brian Sheehan, a Vancouver-based mammal expert, told CTV News. "So, especially when an animal may have some wounds, it'll definitely be beneficial to get it out to where it should be."

"From the position of the wounds, it appears the mother was nursing the calf, which was suckling while on its side," Folkens said. "It looks like the propeller hit the mother on the back and the calf on the flank."

"We are concerned that these injuries could further compromise the health of these animals," said Frances Gulland, director of veterinary science at the Sausalito-based Marine Mammal Center.

The humpback whales’ family includes the Blue Whale, the Fin Whale, the Bryde's Whale, the Sei Whale and the Minke Whale.

The male humpbacks are known to produce long, loud, complex whale songs described by researchers as techniques to lure female whales and help in mating.

The species is under the endangered tag in countries where local populations have recovered slowly, including the United States.