on the cover / By Andrew Goff and Heidi Walters

Whales. In a River.

(July 28, 2011)  NOTE: For more pictures and video of the Klamath River’s gray whale visitors…

… click here.

Consensus: Whales are cuter in pairs. PHOTO BY ANDREW GOFF

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She wasn’t getting the message.

Clink-clink, clang-clang, clink-clink, clang clang…

Two miles upstream from the mouth of the Klamath River and surrounded by boats, the mottled 45-foot female gray whale lurched slowly through the waters, in between and sometimes beneath her human agitators. The people on the boats surrounding her used hammers to rhythmically clang long steel poles dipped into the water. A Crescent City Fire Department boat fired a strong stream of water from its hose at her. Power boats and jet skis spun confrontational donuts in front of her. Occasionally, the cacophony produced by the well-intentioned pipe-bangers coalesced into a synced metallic pulse. Almost musical. Mostly annoying. But that was the point.

The horrendous sounds and posturing — conducted intermittently last Sunday for about nine hours by a team of biologists, observers and others from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Yurok Tribe and Humboldt State University — were supposed to make the river uninviting to the cetacean and entice her to swim back downstream to the Pacific Ocean.

Up until Friday, the whale had been accompanied by her 5- to 8-month-old-calf — the two were inseparable during the first three weeks after they were discovered in the river on June 23. Then, earlier last week, the calf began making forays away from its mother — once it traveled a mile upstream from her before returning. On Saturday afternoon it disappeared. That evening, observers on the coast saw a small whale hugging the coastline that they strongly believed to be the calf. Happy ending, 50 percent realized. At least for now.

Scientists wanted to chase the whales back to the ocean for a number of reasons. Water levels would be dropping as the summer progressed — the river could get shallow enough to prevent the whales’ exit. As well, the toxic algal bloom that plagues the river each summer and fall might pose a threat to the whales’ health. And while the whales could tolerate fresh water, any prolonged duration in it was bad for their skin and also could cause internal issues. But the biggest health worry was food — it was scarce in the river, and the baby appeared to be losing weight. In addition to health concerns, the Yurok Tribe’s commercial fishing season was set to begin July 31. That would bring a swarm of boats into the river, which could pose danger to boater and whale alike. The gill nets that Yurok fishermen use to capture salmon at the mouth of the river could entangle the whales — or be destroyed by the whales if they did swim through.

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