Effort to move whale sparks cultural clash

GOLD RIVER, B.C. – Luna the killer whale happily swam in and out of a net pen prepared for his capture and relocation, then went to join some nearby Indians paddling traditional canoes.

Fisheries officials hope to move the overly-friendly young whale from Nootka Sound on the west side of Vancouver Island to a reunion with his U.S. pod.

Officers on an inflatable police boat looked on as the orca moved about 500 yards from where he’d been playing just outside the net pen Tuesday evening.

Federal fisheries and Vancouver Aquarium officials suspended their efforts for the night, planning to start again Wednesday.

“We’re getting reports every day that his family is swimming past the mouth of Pedder Bay,” Clint Wright, aquarium operations vice president, said of the area where scientists hope to reunite Luna with his pod.

“Every day counts, really. If we can get it done safely, quickly, get the medical over, get him to his family, that’s really the goal,” Wright said.

The crew allowed about 10 days for the capture and has used about half of that, he added.

Fisheries and aquarium officials held back from closing the gate to the pen late Tuesday to try to make sure Luna was comfortable.

“Right now we’re just working with him to get him used to the idea of swimming around with the boats and coming in and swimming into the net pen,” said Marilyn Joyce of the federal fisheries department about an hour before Luna bolted.

The orca, born into Washington state’s L-pod, has been living in these waters since he became separated from his family in 2001. As the whale grows, authorities say his coziness with humans poses a risk to boats and float planes.

Since the capture effort started last week, Luna has swam back and forth, attracted both by the boats of those who want to catch him and Indians in canoes who want him to remain.

Some of the Indians believe Luna is the reincarnation of a dead chief.

Members of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht band of Indians say Luna turned up a few days after the 2001 death of their chief, Ambrose Maquinna, who had said he hoped to return as a killer whale.

The Indians pound paddles on the bottom of their canoes, sing and pet Luna when he approaches.

“Hopefully he’s made the choice to come with us, rather than be led into a pen,” the band’s current chief, Mike Maquinna, said Tuesday night. “We’ve been blessed and honored in his presence and that he’s (decided) to come with us.”

The whale has learned that “when he hears banging in canoes, he gets a lot of attention from people and it’s not the kind of attention that’s good for him,” Joyce said. “In the long run, this is really going to compromise his success at being a wild whale.”

Supported by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, Canadian officials decided last year that Luna should be moved before his comfort with humans caused an accident. Earlier this month, he surfaced in the path of a float plane that was about to land.

The two agencies have committed about $350,000 to the move. Two years ago, they cooperated in the successful relocation of a Canadian whale called Springer to her home waters east of Vancouver Island after she strayed into Puget Sound in Washington state.

Authorities planned to keep Luna in a net pen for a week of medical tests. If he’s as healthy as he appears to be, he would then be placed in a water-filled container, trucked about 220 miles down the coast to Victoria and placed in another net pen.

When his family comes into acoustic range in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which divides the two nations, he would be released to join them.