iStockphoto / Jim Glab/cf2/Sofiia Potanina
Whale sightings in San Francisco Bay have become increasingly more common in the past several decades, particularly gray whale sightings. There were over 30 gray whale sightings last year alone and sadly, there were also instances of deceased gray whales appearing in the area, having died from old age, vessel strikes, and/or malnutrition with 21 documented deceased whales between the past two years.
A windsurfer in the San Francisco Bay found out just how large and in charge the gray whales are when they collided with one this week and got clobbered. And it was all captured in video that has since gone viral.
San Francisco Windsurfer Collides With Gray Whale
An adult gray whale can weigh between 30,000 and 80,000 pounds. Some have been documented up to 90 pounds. They measure 40 to 50 feet in length. Suffice it to say, they are massive. Heck, the newborn calves come out weighing up to 2,000 pounds!
Now imagine you are windsurfing in San Francisco Bay, where the wind can be ripping, and windsurfers can easily reach speeds of 25-30 knots, and then suddenly you collided with an 80,000 pound gray whale! That’s exactly what happened to this windsurfer:
Sadly, this collision came after a recent spat of gray whale deaths in the Bay Area. According to SF Gate, four deceased gray whales have washed up in the Bay in the past two weeks while six other gray whales were documented vising the San Francisco Bay over that time period.
One of them, an adult female, was hit and killed by a vessel in mid-March. The other three deceased whales do not have a determined cause of death yet. The one struck by a boat was found floating underneath the Golden Gate Bridge on March 17th.