Whale Update II

According to The Sacramento Bee, thousands of people drove over to the Port in West Sacramento today to view the whales. The initial rescue attempt on Friday was unsuccessful; a new try will be made on Tuesday.

From The Bee:

Whales continue to draw crowds
By Bobby Caina Calvan and Dorothy Korber
Saturday, May 19, 2007

On Saturday, thousands of spectators lined the levee to catch a glimpse of Delta and Dawn, the humpback mother and calf who swam through the Delta to wind up in the deep water shipping channel just south of Sacramento.

The whales obliged, surfacing every couple minutes and inspiring oohs and aahs from their admiring watchers.

Police were out in force to provide traffic and crowd control.

"We're geared up and everything seems to be running OK," said Sgt. Trent Tyler of the West Sacramento Police Department. "But we're not really encouraging people to come - we'd rather have them watch the whales on television and read about them in the paper."

The lure of the awesome creatures themselves proved irresistible. West Sacramento police estimated that 10,000 spectators showed up Saturday, and said they expect a similar crowd Sunday.

Rolando Perales, who arrived shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday, planted his folding chair atop the levee, then settled in with his iPod, cell phone and digital camera to watch the show.

"To be honest," Perales said, "I'd rather see these guys go home. Not to be mean - this is a once-in-a-lifetime event - but they don't belong here. ... I sure hope they find their way back, but while they're here, we have to enjoy the view. This is not their place to die."

A sense of history and witnessing a historic event swirled through the crowd.

The scene on the levee was festive, with frolicking children and dogs of all sizes. Babies in strollers snoozed under beach umbrellas. A few entrepreneurs seized the chance to sell cool drinks to folks who had made the dusty quarter-mile trek to the best viewing spot.

One mystery was the unexplained appearance of portable toilets stationed along the levee, two per station. Throughout the week, authorities have made a point of not providing such facilities to discourage the public from showing up.

"Those are unexpected," Tyler said of the toilets. "We didn't know who ordered those. Maybe somebody jumped ship and decided to start accommodating people."