Humphrey the Whale

Humpback whale famous for visits to San Francisco Bay

Humphrey the Whale is a humpback whale that twice deviated from his Mexico to Alaska migration by entering San Francisco Bay. This behavior is unusual for a humpback whale, and Humphrey attracted wide media attention when entering the bay in both 1985 and 1990. Both of his bay incursions resulted in rescue by the Marine Mammal Center, based in Marin County, California, assisted by the United States Coast Guard and hundreds of other volunteers. The last sighting of Humphrey was in the vicinity of the Farallon Islands in 1991.

The humpback whale is a mammal which belongs to the baleen whale suborder. An adult usually ranges between long and weighs approximately , or It is well known for its breaching, its unusually long front fins, and its complex whale song. The humpback whale lives in oceans and seas around the world. Humpback whales have a stocky body with well defined humps and black upper elements. The head and lower jaw are covered with knobs called tubercles, which are actually hair follicles and are characteristic of the species. The tail flukes, which are lifted high in the dive sequence, have wavy rear edges. Individual humpbacks have unique patterns on their long black and white tail fin and pectoral fins that allow scientists to positively identify them.

In 1985, a 40 feet (12 m) humpback entered San Francisco Bay and was followed closely on the evening news by Bay Area television stations. After a few days in the bay, the whale, nicknamed Humphrey, swam up the Sacramento River into a freshwater habitat. The whale, first spotted at Oakland's Outer Harbor October 10, 1985,

Numerous attempts to coax him back to the ocean failed. One initial attempt involved playing sounds of orcas to frighten Humphrey into leaving. The town of Rio Vista later erected a commemorative granite marker at City Hall at the east end of Main Street. A restaurant in Antioch was named Humphrey's in the whale's honor. The restaurant has since been remodeled and its name changed to 'Smith's Landing Seafood Grill'.

Humphrey stayed a considerable time in 1990 in the embayment immediately north of Sierra Point in Brisbane, California where occupants of the Dakin Building could observe his antics. Humphrey became beached on a mudflat in San Francisco Bay to the north of Sierra Point and to the south of Candlestick Park. He was extricated from the mudflat with a large cargo net and support from the Marine Mammal Center and a U. S. Coast Guard boat. This time, he was successfully guided back to the Pacific Ocean using a combination of "oikomi" simultaneously with the broadcast of attractive sounds of humpback whales preparing to feed from a boat headed towards the open ocean. Researchers Louis Herman and Bernie Krause led a team of scientists who used sound recordings of natural whale feeding vocalizations to guide Humphrey back to safety. These sounds were produced for a swimming trajectory of 50 mile (80 km) until Humphrey reached the Pacific Ocean, sometimes attaining speeds of .

Cascadia Research Collective spotted Humphrey in 1986, 1987 and 1988 outside the Bay. Humphrey has been seen only once since the second misadventure, at the Farallon Islands in 1991.

A film, Humphrey the Lost Whale, was produced and opened at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center, Savannah, Georgia on September 24, 2005. MC Lars has a song entitled "Humphrey the Whale" on his 2003 album Radio Pet Fencing which repeats the lyrics "Humphrey the Whale should get GPS". Golden Gate Transit had a Rapid Transit Series bus with a painting of Humphrey (by George Summer) nicknamed Humphrey the Whale Bus (officially named Pollution Solution). The bus entered service in February 1993 and retired in 2004 after logging more than 500000 mile (804670 km) of service. Golden Gate Transit auctioned the bus on eBay in June 2004. A new Humphrey the Whale Bus, manufactured by Orion International and also painted by summer, was unveiled in August 2005. Humphrey the Lost Whale: A True Story is a 1986 children's picture book written by Wendy Tokuda and Richard David Hall and illustrated by Hanako Wakiyama. Humphrey the Wayward Whale is a 1986 children's picture book written by Ernest Callenbach and Christine Leefeldt and illustrated by Carl Dennis Buell. A song, "Humphrey the Humpback Whale", was composed by Stone Valley Elementary School teacher Ann Fox and performed by her students during assembly.