"At 5 to 10 feet, there's no chance to even try to maneuver the vessel," the director of operations for the Washington state ferries system said.
ADVERTISEMENTA whale struck by a Seattle-area ferry Tuesday was thought to have been a juvenile humpback whale and likely did not survive, an official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
The animal was hit about three minutes into the Wenatchee ferry's 8:15 p.m. run from Seattle to Bainbridge Island, west of the city.
The whale was reported to have breached around 5 to 10 feet in front of the vessel in Elliott Bay, officials said.
The crew of the Wenatchee was not aware it had hit a whale until passengers alerted them, Gregory Faust, state ferries director of marine operations, told reporters Wednesday.
Even if they had seen the whale, the ferry would not have been able to stop in time, Faust said.
The ferry was traveling approximately 17 mph, Dana Warr, a spokesperson for Washington State Ferries, has said.
"It takes a little over a minute to go from full ahead to a full stop in the water," Faust said. "And at 5 to 10 feet, there's no chance to even try to maneuver the vessel."
Faust described the strike as an extremely rare occurrence and said that the department has been unable to find any records of a whale or other marine mammal being struck by a state ferry.
He said that if the ferry system receives reports of whales in the area, the ferries slow down, but "there were no reports of whales in the area yesterday."
"They're, you know, extremely remorseful and feel horrible about the situation, as we all do," Faust said of the crew.
NOAA spokesman Michael Milstein said in an email Wednesday that the whale was a juvenile humpback whale.
"Based on information provided by passengers it is likely the strike was fatal," Milstein said.
Faust said passengers reported that they saw a whale surface in front of the ferry and a blood trail behind the vessel. There were no injuries to anyone on board the ferry.
Of 23 recorded ship strikes in Washington State involving whales since 2000, only two involved humpback whales, Milstein said.
Humpback whales are thought to live between 80 to 90 years, and they can reach about 60 feet in length and weigh up to 40 tons, according to NOAA's website.
One population breeds along the Pacific Coast of Central America and feeds off the west coast of the United States and southern British Columbia, which is near Seattle, according to NOAA.
Humpback whales are vulnerable to inadvertent vessel strikes, and the risk to the marine mammals is much higher in coastal areas with heavy ship traffic, the agency says.