Aloha Kakou - Upon my arrival in Rio Vista I saw immediately that Whales have the same profound impact on people here (in California) as they do in Hawai'i. They cause traffic jams, positive cash flow to local businesses, excited children, and lots of smiles on peoples faces. Many people have been 'camped out' here for days, just enjoying these beautiful whales. And a virtual armada of boats and people have been deployed to coax them back to the ocean.

Whether they are lost or here for good reason is very debatable. We are told that 200 years ago Whales naturally ventured up these waters. The landscape was different then, and there were no natural enemies. Later, whaling stations were reportedly established in nearby Albany and Richmond. These waters became dangerous places to venture, and they are evidently still dangerous waters, if you are a whale.

It has been quite an adventure for me here in California. When I arrived, the rescue team, headed by U.S. Coast Guard, had tried a number of approaches to getting the mother and baby to move back towards the ocean. The more gentle approaches, such as playing feeding sounds of Alaska humpbacks to draw them towards the ocean, had not worked. More aggressive approaches, such as banging pipes and playing Killer Whales sounds to drive them to the ocean, were also not working. The condition of the whales was deteriorating. Early during their inland adventure, a boat struck them, inflicting wounds. Evidently due to high bacteria counts in the river, the wounds have become infected. Their skin color and tone is reported to be
deteriorating. Everyone is concerned, and a waitress at the coffee shop in town expressed what a lot of us are feeling. 'What are we going to tell the children if they die?'

I'm very impressed with the outflowing of love and concern by the local community, and people who have traveled here from far away to offer help, prayers, support to the rescue team. Everyone here is making valiant efforts to save these whales. I appreciate this deeply.

And I became very concerned when I saw how stressed the Whales were. They
just don't seem to want to cross the Rio Vista Bridge, just as Humphrey the Whale didn't want to cross it twenty something years ago. When trapped between the bridge and seventeen boats banging pipes and/or playing Killer Whale and auto alarm sounds, they became very agitated. Some distressed tail slapping ensued. This is a protective mother with her child, and she is stressed.

After much thought, we decided to suggest playing a whale song that we recorded, of a male singing while accompanying a mother and calf. We felt this might be a comforting melody for the unescorted mother and baby, and that it might possibly be attractive enough to lure mother and baby downstream. We also brought a variety of other songs and sounds that we have seen attract whales during our Hawai'i Whale experiences. Understandably, the rescue team is very busy here, and we had great difficulty making contacts.

I arrived at the Coast Guard Station at 6 AM to make an attempt in person. Now under The Homeland Security Department, the station was guarded, and I was turned away with a promise that my card would be given to the research team.

In a perhaps naïve attempt to help the situation, I decided to try playing these songs in the river on the ocean side of the bridge that she doesn't want to cross, in an attempt to lure her from the other side. I put a hydrophone in the water there, and realized right away that it wouldn't work under the current conditions. The sound of the pipes clanging was very loud from two miles away, and the sounds from the bridge itself were also loud. My tiny speakers could never compete with this 'wall of sound.' I packed up my gear and headed out to try again to speak with someone on the rescue team.

By then I was in hot water. A local policeman stopped me on the street and told me to stay off the dock and to not put anything in the water by order of the Coast Guard. I suggested to him that when the whales got close to the bridge, to stop traffic and try to lure them through with the whale songs. Well, he obviously had a lot on his plate, and he didn't care to pass on my suggestion. So I was still on the outside, and the Whales did not look happy.

Sad, rejected, short on sleep, concerned, kicked off of the dock, I was probably quite a sight. That's where Sally Patrick stepped in. She is a 'local', sat on a nearby City Council, and seems to know everybody in Rio Vista. She listened to my ideas, and they made perfect sense to her. Either we were onto something, or both a little tilted. But before I knew it I was talking to the Mayor of Rio Vista, a wonderful gentleman who was very sympathetic. While talking to the Mayor, my dear friend John Vasconcellos called to check on me and the whales. John was our State Senator in Silicon Valley for 37 years, and contributed greatly to the State of California during his tenure. John now lives part time on Maui, where his Grandfather established the first theater, in Kahului. He is founder of a great project, The Politics of Trust, and is an advisor to The Whalesong Project. Sally told John that the whales would die if he didn't do something.

An hour later I was on the banks of the delta pondering what to do. Suddenly the two whales surfaced in front of me. The phone rang simultaneously. 'Dan, this is John Geramendi. John Vasconcellos asked me to call and see if I can help you out with the whales.' John Geramendi is the Lieutenant Governor of California, and he gave the names that these two now carry. 'Wow, thank you for calling,' I said. 'The whales just surfaced in front of me. Which one is Delta and which one is Dawn.' I should have known and could have guessed, but I was short on sleep. The mother is Delta, the calf Dawn. 'Beautiful and appropriate names,' I commented. John is a warm human being, obviously cares about these whales. He gave me some numbers and I was in touch with the research team. They are understandably concerned and running out of ideas, but not interested in our idea.

I was a bit stunned. Between 6 AM and 11 AM I had been turned away from the Coast Guard, kicked off the docks, and now doors were opening again. But not wide enough for me to get permission to play some songs in the delta, and see if the whales responded positively. I was starting to think about playing some delta river blues myself.

I headed to SF Airport to pick up friend and Whalesong Project Volunteer, Lesley Michaels. We returned to Rio Vista to find a lot of discouraged people and whales under stress. And Cornell of the Fox 40 News network informed us that a dead Gray Whale had shown up in SF Bay.

After catching up on a little sleep, we were back at the delta this morning. I ran into the police officer, who let me know he was keeping his eyes on me.

Wow, I really didn't want to go to jail over all of this. As large freighters, jet skis, cabin cruisers, sped around the whales, it seemed absurd that I was banned from putting a few miniscule watts of songs sang by a protective male in the presence of a female and baby whale. It was both sad and comical to me, and I decided to comply with it.

Lesley made friends with a group of children who wanted to hear what whales sound like when they sing. We played the song that we were offering to the rescue team on a small portable speaker system. It had the same effect on these children that the songs have on children everywhere. There were big smiles and lots of excitement. Before long we were surrounded by large cameras as the local TV stations zoomed in to capture this for the evening news. And suddenly Delta and Dawn showed up just below us, which again caused great excitement.

Before I knew it, I was talking to Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS, NBC, Fox, KCBS, a blur of media. Everyone wants to know what these whale songs are all about, and all I can tell them is how they are a mystery even to the experts. Reporters asked if we had any ideas, and we shared them. The reporters here are a great bunch of people who each seem to personally care about what happens with these whales.

We were encouraged by the sympathetic reporters to attend a 3 pm news conference, and we were given a personal escort there by the CBS Bureau Chief, who also pointed us towards the people we needed to talk to. Talk to them we did, after the conference. There was no interest in putting us on the water, or allowing us to play the songs from shore. They told us they had a great team which included Dr. Jim Darling of Maui. This excited me, as I am a great fan of Jim's work. He knows you can't explain a lot of things about whales, has a healthy respect for the mystery. And he's a great guy who has spent many years observing them. I asked what Jim suggested and was disappointed to hear that they hadn't talked to him yet. I had this sinking feeling that we were late in the game and some of the best players hadn't been called in yet. Everyone knew that time is running out for these whales, and discussions were going towards how to administer antibiotics, etc.

After great but gentle persistence, I was able to get nowhere on the issue of trying a test underwater broadcast of our songs. After some more gentle persistence, I was given permission to give them our recordings with no promise that they would be used. They didn't want my ipod and equipment, just a CD. We drove to Radio Shack, made a copy and returned to the Coast Guard Station to find it closed.

We were exhausted by now, rejected, discouraged. But we knew we had done
everything we possibly could as individuals and representatives of all of you who support The Whalesong Project. A bright spot in the afternoon was a visit from Gail Nickerson, Whalesong's Treasurer and Secretary. She lives near Sacramento, and was the first to alert us to the situation with Delta and Dawn.

We passed our baton, the precious recordings (by our sound engineer Kent Noonan), to Sally Patrick. She promises to get them to the Coast Guard. Thank you, Sally, for treating us so kindly, and for caring so much for the whales and the environment there in Rio Vista.

We hope and pray that Delta and Dawn will return to the ocean in good health, that the children can smile when they remember the upstream visit of these two, that the Sacramento River can once again become a safe place for whales to visit when they decide to, for whatever reasons they might have.

Dan Sythe
Whalesong.net
Maui, Hawai'i