Safe Harbor

Content: 

Three weeks ago, the hearts of ocean scientists and whale lovers were broken when the body of California’s most popular humpback whale, known as “Fran,” washed ashore at Half Moon Bay, the victim of a ship strike that dislocated her skull from her spine and fractured her vertebrae.

“For those of us in the ocean science community, this was a real tragedy,” said Douglas McCauley(link is external), a marine science professor and director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at UC Santa Barbara. “It was like waking up to find out Smokey the Bear had been roadkilled.” Beloved by those who followed her hundreds of sightings over the years, Fran was a new mother who had just successfully brought her calf to the local feeding grounds. The fate of her calf is currently unknown.

Fran is only the latest casualty in a disturbing and years-long trend of whale-ship strikes occurring at or near the San Francisco Bay, which hosts the third busiest container port in California(link is external). The Port of Oakland loads and discharges virtually all of the containerized goods moving through northern California. At the same time, its cold waters provide rich feeding grounds for the endangered creatures. As a result, it’s also one of California’s top whale-ship strike hotspots.

News Date: 

Wednesday, September 21, 2022