A gray whale swam into Tokyo Bay on Thursday, surprising nearby holidaymakers who got a rare view of the creature as it spouted water.
The lone whale, about 10m long, was seen swimming close to Sodegaura, an industrial city on Tokyo Bay, said Kazutoshi Arai, deputy curator of nearby Kamogawa Sea World aquarium.
”The whale might have wandered into the Tokyo Bay for unknown reasons while migrating off Japan’s Pacific Coast,” said Arai.
It is rare for gray whales to be sighted in Japan, much less in the capital’s congested waterways.
Only 12 sightings of the mammal have been confirmed around Japan since the 1960s, Arai said.
TV footage showed holidaymakers on nearby wharves cheering wildly as the whale came into sight and blew water high into the air. The Japanese are celebrating their annual ”Golden Week” holidays this week.
Gray whales travel about 20 000km during their annual migrations between waters off the coast of Vietnam to Russia’s far eastern Sakhalin Island — among the longest whale migrations known, Arai said. They feed on shrimps and other small fish on the sea bed, Arai said.
Arai said about 30 000 gray whales live in the Pacific Ocean. – Sapa-AP