Humpback whale ‘Rio’ is headed west in the Delta toward San Francisco Bay
The humpback whale captured on video breaching in the Sacramento River near Rio Vista last week is headed west in the Delta toward San Francisco Bay, according to the Marine Mammal Center.
The Marine Mammal Center said the whale, named “Rio,” was last spotted on Friday and their westward move was a “very positive sign.”
(Previous coverage in the video above.)
Denny Glover said he was fishing with two other people south of the Rio Vista Bridge when one member of the group saw a whale just before 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
“I honestly, I didn’t believe it. I thought he had mistaken a dolphin or porpoise or whatever,” Glover told KCRA 3’s Denzen Cortez. “I just didn’t believe him.”
But after seeing another spout, Glover said there was no mistaking what they were seeing.
“Just the part of the whale that breached was longer than our 21-foot boat,” Glover said.
The Marine Mammal Center said the humpback is an adult who was spotted in the San Francisco Bay on Sept. 15 and then continued traveling into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Their sex is unknown.
The whale is known via the Cascadia Research Collective’s photo-ID public catalog as CRC-11620. It’s been documented 15 times over the past 24 years while swimming off the coast of California and Mexico.
Its path since being spotted in the Bay on Sept. 15 included:
Being spotted near the Richmond Ship ChannelTraveling north past the Richmond-San Rafael BridgeBeing reported farther east in the Carquinez Strait near Benicia
“We are hopeful Rio will find their way back to open ocean, and kindly ask boaters, kayakers, paddleboarders, and other observers to give this animal at least 100 yards of space for safety,” the Marine Mammal Center said.
It’s not the first time a whale has been spotted in the Delta.
In 1985, a whale named Humphrey spent several weeks in the Rio Vista area before returning to the ocean.
In 2007, two humpback whales, a mother named Delta and a calf called Dawn, were spotted swimming near Rio Vista.
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They spent 20 days before returning to the ocean.
The Marine Mammal Center said CRC-11620 was first seen off California in 2002 and was previously seen in Baja California in February.
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