The State - News from Jan. 4, 1988

A whale with a badly bitten or mangled tail was spotted about 35 miles inside San Francisco Bay near Palo Alto and heading in a southerly direction toward San Jose, the Coast Guard reported. The state Department of Fish and Game dispatched a boat to track the 35-foot-long whale. San Jose lies at the extreme southern end of the bay and is a dead end. There are numerous sloughs and channels in the area, and wildlife officials fear the whale could become disoriented and get trapped in one of them.