WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Thousands of spectators watched Saturday as two wayward whales swam looping one-kilometre laps around the Port of Sacramento after declining earlier efforts to lure them into the Pacific Ocean.
Crowds shrieked every time they caught a glimpse of the humpback mother and calf, dubbed Delta and Dawn by the state's lieutenant governor.
"I see it, I see it, I see it," screamed 4-year-old Eliyas Charles, wide-eyed and pointing at the water from atop his grandfather's shoulders. "That black spot was the whale. I can see it."
The dusty riverbank along the Port of Sacramento took on the air of a carnival Saturday as police officers directed traffic into makeshift parking lots, vendors sold ice cream and lines formed outside Port-o-Potties.
Scientists have been hoping the whales -- which appear to have been wounded by a ship's propeller -- would begin swimming westward toward the Pacific Ocean on their own. Spotted five days ago, they have hit a dead-end after traveling 90 miles through San Francisco Bay and up the Sacramento River.
But Carrie Wilson, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game, said experts are content with the animals remaining in the isolated port area for the weekend since heavy recreational boat traffic in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could complicate rescue efforts.
The whales swam in peace with the help of a Coast Guard escort Saturday. The Coast Guard enforced a 500-yard safety zone around the whales and authorities closed the north port channel and a nearby public boat ramp for the weekend.
"Of course, if they start moving, we're ready to mobilize," Wilson said.
A marine mammal rescue crew plans to resume efforts Monday to lure the pair by playing recorded sounds of other humpbacks feeding.
If scientists have not made progress by Tuesday, they plan to begin herding the animals down river with a gauntlet of 50 boats that would provide a less pleasing underwater soundtrack of banging on pipes.
