WHAT APPEARS TO BE a rare visit by a minke whale to the San Francisco Bay has become fraught with danger as the animal got stranded Tuesday on a shallow mudflat in Emeryville.
Experts with the Cetacean Conservation Biology Team at the Marine Mammal Center said the likely juvenile whale was first spotted in the same area about a week ago.
It was swimming well and with good energy at the time but was seen in shallow water at about 2 p.m. Monday before the incoming tide helped it move to a deeper part of the bay at about 4:30 p.m., according to Marine Mammal Center officials.
Since then, it somehow got stuck on a nearby mudflat.
The whale is being monitored from the shore, but if it is unable to free itself, it could be in serious peril.
Because the area where it’s stranded is not deep enough for boats and inaccessible by foot because of the dangerously thick mud, options for a human-lead rescue are extremely limited.
The exact age, sex and length of the whale are not known but it appears to be in good condition still, except for some peeling white skin that’s likely the result of healing from some kind of trauma or skin condition.
“Minke whale sightings are rare in the bay, but not unprecedented,” according to Marine Mammal Center officials. “If confirmed to be a minke whale, this would be the fifth documented sighting in the past 16 years according to our researchers.”
The minke whale stranding is the latest in a string of bad news for the bay’s whale visitors.
So far this year, three dead gray whales have turned up — one east of Angel Island State Park on April 2 and one just off Fort Point Rock Beach close to the San Francisco end of the Golden Gate Bridge on Friday.
The first was an emaciated “subadult” female gray whale found dead near Alcatraz on April 1.
So far, it’s unclear what is causing the deaths or if they are in any way related.
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