Whale Spotted In River

A whale has been spotted in the Delaware River near Trenton. A New Jersey State Police marine unit has been ordered to investigate and the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine has been notified, officials said today. "The water level is still very high from the flooding, so it is possible that it got confused and made a wrong turn," said Sgt. Stephen Jones, a state police spokesman. The whale - a 12- to- 15-foot-long Beluga - is heading south, apparently back to the Atlantic Ocean. The whale was last seen near Duck Island, south of Trenton. Officials urged boaters to stay away from the whale and warned that it is a federal offense to interfere with a whale. This is not the first time a whale has been seen in the Delaware. In 1995, one stray visitor that was nicknamed Waldo the Wrong Way Right Whale spent 10 days in the river, beaching himself briefly at on oil terminal in Pennsauken and apparently suffering cuts from tug boat propellers. Waldo was spotted two years later, doing well in Bay of Fundy, which is bound by Maine and the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.