Whale watchers hope for another view
Published 10:12 pm Sunday, May 23, 2010
EVERETT — Alissa Harrison and her daughter Viktoria were really hoping to see the whale again on Sunday afternoon.
They came out to a pier at the 10th Street Marina Park with binoculars and focused their eyes on Port Gardner Channel, but the gray whale they saw Saturday right near the mouth of the Snohomish River was gone.
They watched it spout between the boat launch and Jetty Island.
On Sunday, Harrison’s sister and mother tagged along.
“What’s that right there? Do you see it?”
Once in a while, one of them pointed to a black dot or a splash somewhere on the water. No luck.
Gray whales are spotted near Everett every year, as they move north during the migration season, said Howard Garrett of the Orca Network, a whale advocacy group on Whidbey Island.
They have wandered into the mouth of the Snohomish River in the past and even gone upstream.
These animals are not trapped, Garrett said. They often are starved and stressed, however, when they go into inland waters to feed. It’s common for several whales each year to die this way.
It was just last week that Amy Willoughby, who lives in north Everett, spotted what looked like a gray whale mother with a calf swimming between Jetty and Hat islands.
“When I see them out in the sound, it’s amazing. I run to get my neighbors and call my friends,” she said.
Willoughby used to work for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and researches whales. On Saturday, she grabbed her camera and hurried to the Everett Marina. The animal was less than 100 yards away. She noticed that it looked thin.
It most likely came looking for food, and appeared to be in bad shape, said Garrett with the Orca Network.
Police boats kept recreational boaters away from the animal on Saturday. Whale researchers were hoping it would find its way back. It was not known Sunday whether the animal survived or moved on.
Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.
Video on KIRO TV
