Rare sighting of whale in Washington river caught on video. ‘You don’t ever see this’
A group of fishermen testing equipment in a Washington river dozens of miles from the ocean never expected to come within feet of a whale.
The group from Brad’s Killer Fishing Gear was part of the rare whale sighting in the Columbia River this week and was shocked by what it saw.
Warning: This video contains language that some may find offensive.
“Has anyone ever heard of a whale being this far upriver?” the group asked on Facebook. “We were between Willow Bar and Ridgefield.”
The fishermen shouted in excitement and disbelief when the gray whale emerged from the water, video shows.
“It’s right here. It’s right in front of us,” the group shouted in the video. “There it is! Oh my god.”
Many people couldn’t believe the group saw a whale that far up the river.
“What the heck! How bizarre, you don’t ever see this,” one Facebook commenter said. “At least I haven’t ever seen this. This is crazy.”
JT Kaul, one of the people on the boat, told King 5 News that the group was about 70 miles from the ocean, and it’s uncommon to see whales that far up the river.
At first, the group thought the creature was a large sea lion, KATU reported. It kept getting closer and closer until the group realized it was a whale, according to the news outlet.
“After an hour, it got about 50 yards away and that’s when we noticed it had a blow hole, and was way too big to be a sea lion,” Colton Reed, one of those on the boat, told KATU.
Experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told King 5 that it’s uncommon to see gray whales so far up the river. An expert at the Oregon Coast Aquarium told KOIN that the Marine Mammal Stranding Network may keep an eye on if the animal is stranded.
“It’s hard to move a whale and it’s hard to coerce a whale to go the other way so really hoping that the whale decides to go back downriver,” Jim Burke, the director of husbandry at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, told KOIN.
The gray whale is an endangered species, according to NOAA. They can weigh up to about 90,000 pounds and be nearly 50 feet long.
Gray whales are also known for having a curiosity toward boats, NOAA said.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 8:24 AM with the headline "Rare sighting of whale in Washington river caught on video. ‘You don’t ever see this’."