By Dave Hurley
RIO VISTA – It’s been 41 years since the famous, ‘Humphrey the Whale’ traveled through San Francisco Bay into the California Delta before being turned around in a dead-end slough past the Rio Vista Bridge on the Sacramento River, 69 miles from the Golden Gate. It’s been 19 years since Delta and her calf, Dawn, spent around 20 days in the Sacramento River Delta before heading back to the ocean. In 2007, a mother calf pair known as Delta and Dawn spent about 20 days in the Sacramento River Delta before making a similar trek back to the ocean. but now another whale, nicknamed ‘Rio’ was captured on video by boat angler Denny Glover breaching in the Sacramento River near Rio Vista on Wednesday, September 16.
According to media reports, Rio is formally known as CRC – 11620, and it has been documented 15 times in the past 24 years with the first recorded sighting off California in 2022. Multiple humpback whales have been sighted within San Francisco Bay within the past month, normal for this time of year, but to travel past the Carquinez Straits requires a unique whale. Scientists don’t know why whales travel east into the Delta, but while the whale remains in the river system, marine mammal experts are urging the public to give Rio plenty of space since ‘if people chose to approach this whale, it could change the situation, making it unsafe for the whale and for people.’
