Scare Tactic Used on Wayward Whales

Scientists hope recordings of orcas attacking a mother whale and her calf will persuade a pair of ailing humpbacks meandering in a freshwater river to head back toward the ocean.

The tactic is just the latest that increasingly concerned marine biologists have come up with to coax the two lost, injured whales back to the ocean. They have spent more than a week in freshwater, which they are not physically equipped to inhabit.

"I wouldn't say there's a lot of optimism right now," said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The humpbacks apparently took a wrong turn during their annual migration to feeding grounds in the northern Pacific. They traveled 90 miles inland to the Port of Sacramento before turning around. They were making progress Monday until they reached a Sacramento River bridge about 70 miles from the Pacific and began swimming in circles.

For a third day Wednesday, the whales _ a mother and calf _ did not respond to a gauntlet of boats that tried to herd them past the Rio Vista Bridge.

Boat crews resumed playing underwater recordings of humpbacks feeding _ a method tried last week _ after attempting to startle them by banging on metal pipes.
Source :http://www.foxnews.com