Update from the beach: As of 11:45am, there is no sign of the whale at San Carlos Beach. But for those hoping to see the whale, worry not: Workers are preparing the the grass near the beach—apparently the whale won't be on the sand-and expect it to be fully inflated by 2pm.
"This is latest I've ever done an inflate," says Michael Fishbach, director of Great Whale Conservancy, the environmental nonprofit supplying the whale. "But BBC wanted to shoot in the afternoon sun."
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It may not be as awesome a real humpback whale, but it's still pretty awesome: This weekend, Aug. 22-23, a life-size, 85-foot-long inflatable whale will reside at San Carlos Beach in Monterey.
The whale is part of the runup festivities for "Big Blue Live," a three part television series from BBC and PBS that focuses on the incredible recovery of the Monterey Bay in the 23 years since it was declared a national marine sanctuary in 1992. The series airs 8pm-9pm from Aug. 31-Sept. 2.
As for the whale, Monterey Assistant City Manager Hans Uslar says it takes hours to inflate, a process that will begin early Saturday morning around 3am. Fully inflated, the whale will rise to 15 feet in height, and be 28 feet wide, he says.
Uslar also chuckles at the irony of the whale's material, given that it's celebrating a marine sanctuary's resurgence.
"It's like a giant plastic bag," he says. "If it explodes, it will end up in the bay."
(He's joking, it will be tethered to the beach.)
To the see the process of setting up and inflating the whale, check out this video: