Wayward whale decides to stick around S. California

NEWPORT BEACH - A juvenile gray whale continues to make news along the Southern California coastline.

The approximately 20-foot-long whale was spotted by the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol in Newport Beach Harbor's Back Bay at 9 a.m. Friday.

The area is a spot in the harbor where boats don’t go, said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who runs the American Cetacean Society’s Los Angeles Chapter Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project at Point Vicente off Palos Verdes.

The year-old whale first made headlines and drew the attention of hundreds in San Diego when it was spotted in a lagoon near Carlsbad on Monday. On Tuesday, it visited Dana Point Harbor for seven hours and led the Harbor Patrol and a group of stand-up paddleboarders in laps around the harbor trying to shoo it out.

On Wednesday, there was no news but on Thursday, the whale reappeared near noon just off Davey’s Locker Whale, a popular whale-watch and sportfishing business in the harbor. By nightfall, boat captains reported seeing it near Lido Island.

Reports of the whale’s escapades have led some people to be concerned that it is in distress or lost. But Schulman-Janiger said the whale’s behavior is normal and that it is simply hugging the coastline and exploring.

“It’s not a lost baby looking for its mommy,” she said Friday. “It’s weaned and exhibiting totally normal behavior. It’s curious and exploring. There is no sign of distress.”

Schulman-Janiger recalls a whale hanging out in Long Beach Harbor for four months in 1982.

“It was just there, living and actively feeding,” she said. “It’s kind of cool to have a local harbor whale. You just don’t want to hit it.”

Schulman-Janiger and experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration urge people to give the animal space and not to swim with it or get close to it with a paddleboard, kayak or boat.

“People just need to be aware and travel extra slow,” she said.

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