VENTURA

Humpback whale gets stuck in Ventura Harbor

Megan Diskin
megan.diskin@vcstar.com, 805-437-0258



The whale can be seen Saturday swimming among the boats at Ventura Harbor. The spectacle drew hundreds of onlookers.

Hundreds of people gathered near a marina at Ventura Harbor on Saturday to watch rescuers try to help a stranded humpback whale.

Ventura Harbor Patrol officials said the whale was about 35 feet long and apparently got stuck in a marina near Navigator and Spinnaker drives in the afternoon.

Dr. Rachel Cartwright, a biology lecturer at California State University Channel Islands, has studied humpback whales for 20 years. She said the whale in the harbor was a juvenile. Full-size humpback whales are 40 to 45 feet long, Cartwright said.

Many of the onlookers were worried about the whale's well-being. But after seeing a video of the whale, Cartwright said it appears to be healthy.

Some people who live on boats in the marina said they saw the sea mammal about 1 p.m. and watched as it moved under their homes.

Although they may have been the first to see it, they weren't the last.

Hundreds of people gathered at Ventura Harbor on Saturday after hearing a humpback whale was stranded there.

"I felt like, 'When am I going to see a whale so close?'" said Marnie Snowden, of Port Hueneme, who came to the harbor to see the spectacle.

Snowden and hundreds of other spectators flanked the marina and watched as the whale swam back and forth between the same rows of boats. Children and adults ran across sidewalks trying to take a photo of the animal.

They gasped when it breached the water, with onlookers describing the sound as it exhaled as similar to a lion's roar.

"We can almost touch him," one woman exclaimed as the whale came close to the edge of the marina where the onlookers were.

Although the circumstances provided a rare opportunity for humans to see a whale, Cartwright said it was "pretty sad to see" the animal in such a situation. But it does tend to happen when whales get disoriented, she said.

This is migration season for humpback whales, Cartwright said, and we're at the southern edge of their feeding areas. Certain populations of humpbacks come through the Santa Barbara Channel, and many of them are juveniles, she said.

Upon hearing that a humpback whale was stuck in Ventura Harbor on Saturday, people went there to snap a photo.

At least four rescue boats from the National Park Service, U.S. Coast Guard and Ventura Harbor Patrol were positioned in the harbor for most of Saturday. Those on board played recorded whale sounds underwater and made banging noises in an unsuccessful attempt to direct the whale back out to the ocean.

Cartwright said all the noise may have bounced around the marina, making the whale more disoriented and possibly agitated.

"In some ways, quiet might be the better bet," Cartwright said. That's the advice she gave patrol officials Saturday night, and they changed their approach, deciding to give the animal space to possibly find its way out of the harbor on its own.

As the sun went down and cooler weather prevailed, the number of whale watchers dwindled.

But the roar of the whale lingered in the background as it tried to figure out what its plan would be.