Photos show East Bay man’s close encounter with gray whale on North Coast beach

An avid amateur nature photographer who was visiting the North Coast last month witnessed an unusual whale sighting and captured it in stunning photos that were shared with The Press Democrat.

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Michael Salvaggio of Fremont and his wife, Francine, arrived at Trinidad State Beach north of McKinleyville early in the morning of May 21 with plans to photograph some rocks, he said in a phone call.

“When we got to the beach, somebody said something about, ‘the whale is still in the surf,’” he said.

Assuming the person meant that a dead whale had washed ashore, Salvaggio joined a crowd of about 100 people, including several students from a local school on a field trip, gathered around small gray whale about 25 feet long that was stranded in the surf.

“Even when we got up to it, I wasn’t sure it was alive until it spouted and its tail kicked,” he said. “And there was no doubt, it was still alive.”

People in the crowd told Salvaggio they believed the whale, a juvenile, was escaping an orca attack when it swam into shallow water and became caught by the low tide.

According to Jenifer Piccinini, a longtime researcher who trains and oversees the volunteer docents for the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods’ Whale Watch Program, gray whale calves migrating north in the spring to the Arctic Sea from the breeding waters of Baja are hunted by orcas and great white sharks.

“It’s pretty much a gauntlet for them,” she said in a phone call. “The moms keep them very close to shore to prevent attacks.”

After viewing Salvaggio’s photos, Piccinini said that the whale’s size indicated it was born this year. She added that it was rare for calves to strand themselves while fleeing attacks. More often, whales become stranded because of vessel strikes or starvation, she said.

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“What’s happening in the Arctic, with the sea ice melting, is really impacting the quality and quantity of their food sources,” she said.

For several hours, the crowd — which also included volunteers from at least one whale rescue group — watched the whale, facing south on the beach, repeatedly attempt to realign itself toward the ocean, only to be pushed back by the waves, Salvaggio said.

He estimated only 25 percent of the whale’s body was in the water. Although the animal appeared to be weakening and struggling, it kept moving.

“It was sad in one way because you could see her tiring, but knowing the high tide was coming, it was just a matter if the tide would get high enough,” he said.

The whale made its way back into the water shortly after 2 p.m. to the cheers of the crowd, Salvaggio said.

“Every time she would try, people got so excited. And when she finally kicked she made it out to the surf line and we couldn’t see her anymore.”

Salvaggio has shared photos of the whale’s fluke to global citizen science and research platform happywhale.com, which identifies and tracks individual whales based on submitted photos of their unique fins.

“If I am the first person to submit (the whale), I may be able to name it,” he said.

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