Whale in California draws crowds and outsmarts wildlife crews
LONG BEACH, Calif. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - A small whale is drawing crowds in Long Beach Harbor and is outsmarting wildlife crews who've tried repeatedly to push the whale out to sea.
Churning around the harbor, four boats worked relentlessly for hours to push the whale out to open sea.
"He doesn't want to leave," said one person in the crowd.
"I think it's wild," said another person in the crowd.
Even pet iguanas were enjoying the show.
Crowds gathered on the pier, alerting crews when they see the whale pop up for air.
"He just right around them and sneaked right back in," the person in the crowd said.
"We put a lot of effort into it...it's a real challenge to move a whale when the whale doesn't necessarily want to move," said Justin Viezbicke with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
It's called a minke whale because of the white strikes on its fin which an NBC affiliate in the Los Angeles area caught on camera.
L.A. biologists, like Alisa Schulman-Janiger, have given it a name: "We are really hoping this minke whale, who we've nicknamed Bob the minke whale, gets his way out of here."
Biologists say minke whales are native to the coastline, but rarely come this far inland.
The cove it's staying in is next to where the L.A. River meets the Pacific.
"I've never seen one in over 49 years in the harbor area...There is only about 500 minke or common minke whales," Schulman-Janiger shared.
This worries biologists and wildlife experts who believe Bob the whale might be feeding on the cove waters, but not getting the healthiest of fish which are out at sea.
"It might consider it a safe haven. With more noise, it kind of knows this area. It's circling a lot, doing figure eights and so on," Schulman-Janiger explained.
And he is smart, outpacing boats who worked to make the harbor loud and unpleasant.
"He swam right underneath the boat in this channel that was spinning butter...which tells us that it's not super bothered by the boats...and go underneath them...so for us to create a wall big enough to convince him to do. So, what might we do to get him out? Honestly we don't have an answer to that yet."
Justin Viezbicke, NOAA
As of now, Bob was still in the harbor.
