watch out for the whales

Ferry riders were thrilled to recognize the dark hulking form and unmistakable spouting of a gray whale on the cruise from Oakland into San Francisco one February morning. How many people get to watch whales on their way to the office? More California gray whales than ever seen in recent times are making their way into the Bay. No one knows why. But it sure is exciting.

In February, four young whales spent about three weeks flipping and fluking about the Dumbarton Bridge, capturing the attention of the entire Bay Area. They were also spotted in early March inside Redwood City’s harbor (near a proposed ferry terminal site) and also around Angel Island.

Last year whales were sighted on 69 days in the Bay, nearly double the 36 days they were observed two years ago. Sadly, 29 were found dead or dying (called strandings), a big jump in the annual average of 13 whale strandings found along the entire California coast in previous decades, according to researcher Guy Oliver of the Oceanic Society.

Are there more whales now than in previous years? Are they venturing in new territory or old haunts that were abandoned when populations crashed due to whale hunting? Why did so many wash up dead last year? The Oceanic Society hopes to answer these mysteries and more with a new study that will track whales in the Bay. (You can help by calling in your whale sightings at 415-409-GRAY -4729-)

If trends continue, ferry boats and other big vessels may soon need to watch out for whales as they navigate the dark waters of our bay and estuaries. More ferries and ships are expected to travel the Bay in coming years. While no one can recall any collisions between ferries or ships here, whales around the world increasingly face injury and death by commercial vessels and fast ferries as world shipping grows and water transit systems expand.

For reasons scientists don’t understand, the endangered Northern right whales that live along the East Coast appear incapable of dodging approaching ships. As a result, the dwindling population of about 300 could go extinct because so many die in collisions with vessels. Ninety percent of human-caused deaths of these whales are due to ship and ferry collisions, according to federal studies. Already this year, a ship killed one of the unprecedented 16 right whale calves born in the warm waters off the coast of Georgia and Florida.

The good news is that large ships approaching critical right whale nursery and foraging areas must now call into shore to get updated alerts about right whale movements. This allows captains to try to avoid the whales and help prevent such tragedies. But it remains to be seen just how effective this measure will be.

In the far-off Canary Islands along the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa, a new high-speed ferry system instituted in 1999 has taken a toll on pilot whales, sperm whales and dolphins. During the first three months of operations, four whales died from collisions. Fast ferries have also killed or injured whales in Maine, Washington state, British Columbia, Spain, New Caledonia and the Mediterranean.

Everyone loves whales, including ferry riders. So it’s important that if the ferry system expands in San Francisco Bay, the life of the gray whale is taken into account. A whale monitoring and warning system may be needed during the gray whale’s northern migration between February and late-May, so ferry and ship captains will know when and where to slow down to avoid whale traffic. Perhaps ferry and ship routes will need to be detoured, or even temporarily closed, when whales are spotted in busy channels of the Bay.

But who knows — if we are careful and these gentle giants swim more often into the Bay’s sheltered waters, maybe whale watching will become a favorite pastime of ferry riders and vessel crews.