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Probably the
most famous humpback whale is "Humphrey," who was rescued twice by
The Marine Mammal Center and other concerned groups. The first rescue was in
1985, when he swam into San Francisco Bay and then up the Sacramento River to Rio Vista. Five years later, Humphrey
returned and became stuck on a mudflat in San Francisco Bay near 3 COM Park. He was pulled off
the mudflat with a large cargo net and the help of a Coast Guard boat. Both
times he was successfully guided back to the Pacific Ocean using a "sound net" in
which people in a flotilla of boats made unpleasant noises behind the whale
by banging on steel pipes, a Japanese fishing technique known as
“oikami.” At the same time, the attractive sounds of humpback
whales preparing to feed were broadcast from a boat headed towards the open
ocean. Since leaving the San Francisco Bay in 1990 Humphrey has been seen only
once, at the Farallone Islands in 1991.
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