Officials hope to reunite whale family
GOLD RIVER, British Columbia — Fishermen and boaters may be glad to see a rambunctiously social young killer whale relocated, but area Indians don’t want him to go.
Members of a local band have come to view Luna as the reincarnation of a chief, Canadian Press reported, and paddled out into Nootka Sound to bid him goodbye.
“I hope that they drop the (relocation) plan,” said Chief Mike Maquinna, of the Mowachaht First Nation.
“There is a nuisance factor, for sure, but it’s not the whale. It’s the humans.”
Canadian fisheries officials and experts from the Vancouver Aquarium hoped to embark today on a plan to reunite the 5-year-old whale with his U.S. relatives.
They hoped to use a boat to lead Luna into a net pen where he will be given medical tests to determine if he’s healthy.
If he passes the tests, Luna will be coaxed into a sling, crane-lifted into a container, then trucked 185 miles south down the Vancouver Island coast to a bay near Victoria.
Luna will stay in another net pen there until his pod swims by. Once he hears them, scientists hope to set him free to join them.
A portion of L-Pod, including Luna’s mother, has been in and out of the waters of northwest Washington state’s nearby San Juan Islands since the whales’ annual summer return from the Pacific about two weeks ago.
Members of the Mowachaht paid their respects to Luna on Monday evening. Singers in two dugout canoes drummed and paddled into the harbor while the 14-foot-long whale frolicked beneath them.
Canadian fisheries officer Ed Thorburn was invited.
Thorburn has been protecting Luna from human interference for two years, but said he was awestruck by the experience.
When the two canoes rafted together, Luna surfaced and forced the boats apart.
“We couldn’t hold on, that’s how hard he was pushing,” Thorburn said Tuesday, adding the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
“Then we rafted again, but he stayed with the canoes.”
Thorburn said it seemed appropriate to allow band members to make their spiritual connection with Luna.
Luna has been by himself in Nootka Sound area on Vancouver Island’s west coast since 2001. Officials originally decided to leave him there because he appeared healthy and happy. But he has become increasingly attracted to people and boats, and officials worry the whale could be harmed or harm others.
He routinely bumps up against boats and last week, surfaced in front of a landing floatplane.
Area residents routinely gather at the dock to watch him. One person tried to brush Luna’s teeth. Another tried to pour beer down his blowhole.
Two net pens have been attached to a large pier in the Gold River harbor. Once corralled in the first pen, Luna will be moved into a cradle and lifted by crane into the second, deeper pen, where he will undergo the medical tests.
A commercial fisherman has been hired to catch the 75 pounds of live salmon Luna eats every day.
Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard, a Vancouver Aquarium zoologist, said the net pen is low enough for Luna to jump over easily.
“But Luna hasn’t seen the movie ‘Free Willy’ and that’s not something killer whales do in the wild,” Barrett-Lennard said.
Clint Wright, who is managing the relocation for the aquarium, said Luna is “extremely smart.” He said he is confident Luna will join his pod when given the opportunity.
“This is going to be his best chance to get back with his family,” Wright said.