. California fish and game. Fisheries -- California; Game and game-birds -- California; Fishes -- California; Animal Population Groups; Pêches; Gibier; Poissons. 490 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME KILLER WHALE IN CARQUINE2 STRAITS On the afternoon of July 24, George Peters was with a party in a launch trolling for striped bass in Carquinez Straits off Benicia. The writer was in another launch nearby. Peters and some others were swimming when the whale was first sighted about one hundred yards from their boat. "We thought it was a shark as all we could see was the long dorsal fin and part of the
. California fish and game. Fisheries -- California; Game and game-birds -- California; Fishes -- California; Animal Population Groups; Pêches; Gibier; Poissons. 490 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME KILLER WHALE IN CARQUINE2 STRAITS On the afternoon of July 24, George Peters was with a party in a launch trolling for striped bass in Carquinez Straits off Benicia. The writer was in another launch nearby. Peters and some others were swimming when the whale was first sighted about one hundred yards from their boat. "We thought it was a shark as all we could see was the long dorsal fin and part of the back as it appeared on the surface for a few moments. The swimmers boarded their boat and followed it. Peters had a rifle on board and whenever the whale appeared on the surface he fired at it, firing about twenty shots in all. When it did not appear again, all came ashore, not believing any of the shots had taken effect. About an hour later another fisherman found the body floating on the surface and towed it to the G. W. Hume wharf, where we hoisted it up on a pile driver. There were many con- jectures as to its identity at first, but, it was positively identified through a descrip- tion in the National Geo- graphic Magazine and veri- fied by two old whalers, who later A'iewed it, as a killer whale. It was twelve feet six inches long, and, as nearly as we could estimate, weighed about 2500 pounds. It had sharp, pointed teeth in both the upper and lower jaws. The dorsal fin was about two feet long, and it Avas black with white under- neath and over the eyes. There were several others reported seen in the vicinity and there had been rumors that some large sharks had been seen in the straits, so it is evident that a school of these killers found its way into the bay and had been mistaken for sharks. We exhibited the whale for two days—two or three thousand people viewing it. It was exposed to the hot sun and spoiled rapidly, so on the third day we towed it up in the tules an
Size: 1246px × 2006px
Photo credit: © Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorcaliforniadeptoffishandgame, bookauthorcaliforniafish
