2 Wayward Humpbacks Swim Toward Ocean

SAN FRANCISCO - Two whales lost on the Sacramento River swam 14 miles toward the ocean on Sunday after lingering for a week near a bridge about 70 miles from the sea, officials coordinating the rescue said.

The mother humpback and her calf passed under the Rio Vista Bridge and were spotted near the city of Pittsburg, near a confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, said Greg Hurner, a senior adviser with the California Department of Fish and Game.

As efforts to coax the mother and calf back to the Pacific Ocean dragged into a third week, veterinarians earlier Sunday swabbed samples from bumps resembling blisters or lesions on the whales' skin.

The humpbacks' long exposure to fresh water has led to serious skin damage, biologists said, making them vulnerable to germs they would not face in their saltwater habitat.

"We really need to try to get them back into a more appropriate environment so they can start healing," said Trevor Spradlin, a marine mammal biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Officials weren't sure why the creatures started heading downriver again.

The whales were first spotted in fresh water May 13 and drew large crowds to the Port of Sacramento before swimming about 20 miles downriver.

Veterinarians think antibiotics injected into both whales Saturday could slow infections in deep gashes both whales suffered - likely from a run-in with a boat. It could take several days to determine whether the medicine worked, Spradlin said.

On Sunday, biologists also planned to capture exhalation vapor from the whales to help get a better sense of their health and show whether the calf is still nursing, but those attempts were abandoned after the whales started moving. The lack of the saltwater food shouldn't hurt the mother since humpbacks typically don't eat until the summer feeding season, scientists said.

"Whales are not people. They don't need three square meals a day," said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for NOAA.

The pair appeared to respond to Friday's effort to push them downriver by spraying them with fire hoses. Scientists planned to use three to five fire boats shooting streams of water Tuesday to drive the humpbacks at least 15 miles downriver, where saltier water could help their health.