New Jersey has whale of a time with an unusual visitor
Hundreds gather to see beluga
Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Posted: 7:42 AM EDT (1142 GMT)
TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- A beluga whale that apparently took a wrong turn and wound up in the Delaware River drew hundreds of camera-toting onlookers to the riverbank, but all the excitement was doing more harm than good, experts say.
"Right now, our major problem is harassment by boaters," Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, said Tuesday. "It'll never get out of there if they harass it with boats."
The 10- to 12-foot whale was spotted downstream from the city's famed "Trenton Makes The World Takes" bridge, which spans the river at the uppermost reach of its tidal waters.
The whale spent the afternoon and early evening swimming in a loop between the bridge and a marina about a mile downstream.
"Four news helicopters are hovering overhead. The train is stopping on the train trestle, people are lining up along the river. It's like the city has gone mad," said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office who watched the scene unfold from his office. "They might rename the bridge 'The Beluga Whale Bridge."'
Schoelkopf said the whale may be a juvenile that wasn't seaworthy or an adult that chased a school of herring up the river. Typically, beluga whales travel in large groups but spread out when feeding.
The whale had to swim directly past the city of Philadelphia, some 80 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to Trenton, where the Delaware turns too shallow for a creature its size to continue upstream.
A right whale -- named Waldo the Wrong-Way Right Whale by Philadelphians -- straggled into the Delaware River in 1995. The whale beached itself at an oil terminal in Pennsauken, New Jersey, but disappeared after about 10 days. It was found two years later swimming near Canada
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/13/nj.whale.ap/index.html
Hundreds gather to see beluga
Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Posted: 7:42 AM EDT (1142 GMT)
TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- A beluga whale that apparently took a wrong turn and wound up in the Delaware River drew hundreds of camera-toting onlookers to the riverbank, but all the excitement was doing more harm than good, experts say.
"Right now, our major problem is harassment by boaters," Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, said Tuesday. "It'll never get out of there if they harass it with boats."
The 10- to 12-foot whale was spotted downstream from the city's famed "Trenton Makes The World Takes" bridge, which spans the river at the uppermost reach of its tidal waters.
The whale spent the afternoon and early evening swimming in a loop between the bridge and a marina about a mile downstream.
"Four news helicopters are hovering overhead. The train is stopping on the train trestle, people are lining up along the river. It's like the city has gone mad," said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office who watched the scene unfold from his office. "They might rename the bridge 'The Beluga Whale Bridge."'
Schoelkopf said the whale may be a juvenile that wasn't seaworthy or an adult that chased a school of herring up the river. Typically, beluga whales travel in large groups but spread out when feeding.
The whale had to swim directly past the city of Philadelphia, some 80 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to Trenton, where the Delaware turns too shallow for a creature its size to continue upstream.
A right whale -- named Waldo the Wrong-Way Right Whale by Philadelphians -- straggled into the Delaware River in 1995. The whale beached itself at an oil terminal in Pennsauken, New Jersey, but disappeared after about 10 days. It was found two years later swimming near Canada
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/13/nj.whale.ap/index.html
