NEWPORT BEACH — Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are optimistic that a juvenile gray whale that has been swimming in shallow water in Newport Back Bay will leave the harbor.

“It’s a challenging situation,” said Justin Viezbicke, marine mammal stranding coordinator with NOAA. “We are concerned and monitoring it. We don’t have many options to remove the whale.”

The 20-foot whale — which drew attention after showing up in a lagoon near Carlsbad, then in Dana Point Harbor on Aug. 8 and in Newport Beach Harbor on Aug. 10 — spent the weekend in Newport Beach.

Harbor Patrol officials have been in contact with NOAA and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach about their concerns for the whale. They have also stepped up patrols to see if more intervention by NOAA and the marine mammal center are needed.

A gray whale was spotted inside of the Newport Harbor on Thursday, two days after it was seen in Dana Point Harbor.

OC Sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Ketcham searches for a lost juvenile whale in Newport Harbor on Tuesday, Aug.15, 2017. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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A gray whale was spotted inside Newport Harbor on Aug. 10, two days after it was seen in Dana Point Harbor.

A juvenile Gray whale makes it’s way around Aliso Beach in Laguna Beach after leaving Dana Point Harbor on Tuesday, August 8th. (Photo courtesy of Mark Girardeau)

A Gray whale is seen in Dana Point Harbor during Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari in Dana Point, on Tuesday, August 8, 2017. (Photo courtesy dolphin safari.com)



A juvenile Gray whale makes it’s way around Aliso Beach in Laguna Beach after leaving Dana Point Harbor on Tuesday, August 8th. (Photo courtesy of Mark Girardeau)

A Gray whale is seen in Dana Point Harbor during Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari in Dana Point, on Tuesday, August 8, 2017. (Photo courtesy dolphin safari.com)

Sgt. Paul Ketcham patrolled the far end of the Upper Newport Bay State Marine Conservation Area near the Jamboree Road bridge early Tuesday, Aug. 15, after the whale was sighted there late Monday. The area is a shallow marshland, with sandbars and depths varying from five feet even during high tide to a 15-foot center channel. The area is about 2.5 nautical miles from the mouth of the harbor.

By 10 a.m. Tuesday, Ketcham had received reports that the whale was sighted by a homeowner near the Balboa Yacht Club. From there it traveled east toward the harbor jetty, made a U-turn and swam about a half-mile west before being spotted near the American Legion building at the west end of the marina.

Ketcham spoke with Viezbicke on Monday about the possibility of increasing intervention if the whale doesn’t leave the harbor on its own.

“Someone could get hurt or the whale could be hurt if people get too close,” Viezbicke said. “There are not a lot of outward signs that the whale is struggling but there could be a problem.”

Herding the whale out of the harbor is not Viezbicke’s first choice. In the past, similar efforts have stressed out the animal and in some cases, while the whale might be driven out of the harbor, it could just as easily swim back in.

“We would try to put noise in areas we don’t want the whale to be,” he said. “We’ve tried that and it’s not as easy as it seems. It’s already in a confined space and herding it out can add to its anxiety.”

Mark Girardeau, a local wildlife photographer who operates Orange County Outdoors, filmed the whale on Aug. 8 off Laguna Beach as it made its way up the coast from Dana Point.

In the past few days. he and Ryan Lawler, who operates Newport Coastal Adventure, have searched Newport Beach Harbor for signs of the whale.

“It’s very elusive and the water is murky, it can stay underwater for several minutes and seems to be staying under the docks making it almost impossibly to track unless you just happen to be in the right spot at the right time,” Girardeau said.

Dave Anderson, who operates Capt. Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Safari in Dana Point and was among the first to spot the whale there on Aug. 8, has a theory.

He thinks the whale might stay in Newport Beach for a while.

“He had to make a hard left to get out of Dana Point and go to Newport and keep going inland a long way,”Anderson said. “He’s being drawn up the coast. I think he deliberately went in there to feed and it will not be coming out for a long time.”