[Jay]

Beluga's back - in the Schuylkill River (which runs by my place)

By Adam Fifield

Inquirer Staff Writer


The white whale is back.

Nine days after he was spotted swimming back to the ocean, a whale believed to be Hélis the beluga turned up again yesterday. And in the Schuylkill, of all places.

Last night, with a crowd watching from shore, a Philadelphia police boat gave the whale an escort at the Grays Ferry Bridge.

About 3:30 p.m., a tugboat and a pleasure craft had radioed the Coast Guard to report the whale beneath the Girard Point (I-95) Bridge.

The Coast Guard called in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency charged with protecting the animal.

"I wish he would go home," said NOAA spokeswoman Teri Frady, who is concerned for Hélis' safety. She also let drop that a refinery worker had reported a whale heading south Saturday in the Delaware River beneath the Walt Whitman Bridge.

Experts believe the emigre from Canada's St. Lawrence River took up residence on the Delaware for a week this month to feed on shad making their spring spawning run upriver.

The return visit must mean the eating is good.