Rescue Comes Too Late for Second Baby Gray Whale

SAN DIEGO — For the second time in 10 days, a baby California gray whale was spotted in peril off the Southern California coast, but this time a rescue effort apparently came too late to save the struggling animal, officials said Monday.

“We had all the intentions to render aid,” said Jim Antrim, general curator at Sea World, which sent a boat and divers out to rescue the whale Monday night. “Not finding it [alive] was a letdown, but we know from dealing with these issues that Mother Nature is a tough task mistress.”

Experts say that up to one-third of calves born annually die within a few months.

Just hours after receiving permission from the National Marine Fisheries Service to attempt a rescue, Sea World divers and animal care specialists and city of San Diego lifeguards, in separate boats, went to the spot where the calf had been spotted Monday morning ensnared in kelp.

Lifeguards, arriving first, saw the calf flounder and slip beneath the surface, sending up a stream of air bubbles that usually indicates death. Using a searchlight, the Sea World specialists looked unsuccessfully for the whale, thought to be 13 to 14 feet long and only about a week old. Lifeguards were expected to resume the search today, but Antrim held out little hope that the animal would be found alive.

Sea World caretakers who helped save the life of J.J., a beached gray whale brought to Sea World on Jan. 11, had been put on alert to expect a second whale for the 40-foot-by-40-foot tank behind Shamu Stadium.

Lobster fishers had spotted the infant whale Monday morning caught in thick kelp about a mile off the Sunset Cliffs section of San Diego.

Initially, Sea World officials, after consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service, opted not to attempt a rescue since the case did not appear to fit the fisheries service rules. Charged with enforcing the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the fisheries service, in most cases, requires that animals either be beached or have been harmed by humans to merit rescue.

Getting caught in kelp is considered “a natural event,” and thus not eligible for a rescue attempt. But late in the afternoon, when it appeared that the listless whale was probably going to be washed ashore, fisheries service officials asked Sea World to attempt a rescue.

Lifeguards say the calf spotted Monday showed no sign of injury and still had a stubby part of its umbilicus attached. Lifeguards who responded to the early morning call cut away the kelp that had wrapped around the calf’s tail.

Lifeguards at that time reported that the whale appeared to be lethargic and did not attempt to swim away once freed from the kelp. No other whales were spotted in the area, giving rise to the suspicion that the calf’s mother had continued her migration south to Baja California from the Bering Sea.

Also on Monday, Sea World officials reported that J.J., who had beached herself at Venice Beach, gained 70 pounds over the weekend and is now able to suckle an artificial nipple rather than be fed through a tube in its throat. Now weighing 1,840 pounds, J.J. gets two gallons of food every four hours.