A small minke whale spotted swimming in the harbour of the City of Long Beach, just south of Los Angeles, has been drawing crowds of onlookers and seems reluctant to leave.

Nicknamed by locals and experts as 'Bob', the whale could be seen swimming in the harbour's shallow waters after boat crews failed to guide the small minke whale back out to sea earlier in the day.

"What we have here in the basin of the Catalina Express boats is a minke whale, which is the smallest of our baleen whales," said Marine Biologist Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who has been photographing the mammal since it was spotted in the harbour.

"This one's a subadult, probably about 18 to 20 feet long. And it's been in the Port of Los Angeles for five days now, three days in this particular basin, which is very shallow, only 15 to 20 feet deep

"We don't know what brought the whale here, we don't know if it followed a school of fish, we don't know if it came close to the harbour and took a wrong turn...

"It could stay here for a fair amount of time but its going to need to find some schools of fish, its primary prey... so we really need to get the whale back outside the harbour." 

The common minke whale is the smallest of all baleen whales, reaching 8-9 metres (26-30 feet) long. The whales prefer cooler temperatures and enjoy a varied diet of krill and schooling fish, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation group.

"No boats are moving fast here, but this isn't a good place for it. It needs to get back to the open ocean," Schulman-Janiger said. "These minke whales are resident, they aren't migratory, and they eat fish right outside of our harbor. We've been seeing them out here.

"There's only an estimated 509 minke whales between California, Oregon, and Washington combined as of 2023. "So we're really hoping this minke whale who we've nicknamed Bob - Bob the minke whale - leaves the harbour. "