Humphrey the Whale in No Rush for Home

SAN FRANCISCO —  Humphrey, the wrong-way whale who keeps getting into trouble in Northern California’s inland waters, lolled around in San Francisco Bay early today in no apparent hurry to return to the Pacific Ocean.

Scientists were keeping a close eye on his progress.

“Our last reliable sighting was near Alcatraz, and he was meandering,” said Denise Springer, spokeswoman for the Marine Mammal Center. “He might be foraging.”

Springer said such behavior is normal for humpbacks and does not indicate that Humphrey cannot find his way out of the Golden Gate and into the Pacific Ocean.

Should Humphrey veer off course again, sea mammal specialists will lower metal bars into the water and pound on them to try to steer him in the right direction.

Humphrey, a 40-ton endangered humpback whale who caught the world’s attention in 1985 when he led rescuers on a 25-day sojourn through Northern California’s inland waterways, was freed Tuesday after spending two days stranded in San Francisco Bay.

With a crowd of several thousand people looking on, including entire classes of schoolchildren, Coast Guard boats and volunteers in dinghies slipped a harness over Humphrey’s massive body Tuesday and--with the help of high tide--pulled him tail first out of the muddy tidal flat and into deeper water.