On a sunny, clear Tuesday, marine scientist Douglas McCauley surveyed the cobalt-blue waters of the San Francisco Bay from a public ferry headed to Angel Island.
He kept watch for gray whales breaking the surface of the water to breathe, traveling and hungry, near the boat’s path.
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“ Five or 10 years ago, it would be unfathomable,” to be concerned about whales being struck by ships in the San Francisco Bay, said McCauley, the director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
But recently, the ferry’s path has become a feeding “hotspot,” the scientist said — putting the 90,000 lb., migratory mammals directly in harm’s way.
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