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. The whale could be seen swimming in the harbour's shallow waters on Friday 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.

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," said Marine Biologist Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who has been photographing the mammal since it was spotted in the harbour. 

"We don't know what brought the whale here, we don't know if it followed a school of fish, we don't 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," she added. 

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. 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)