Deal aims to cut Luna’s contact with people

SEATTLE – Canada and a Vancouver Island Indian band have signed an agreement to keep tabs on a lonely, rambunctious young killer whale who has been separated from his U.S. relatives for three years.

The whale called Luna has made his home in Nootka Sound, on the island’s west coast.

Apparently seeking contact, the 5-year-old whale has recently damaged and disabled several boats.

Under the agreement signed Thursday, the Canadian Fisheries and Oceans department and the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation will cooperate to reduce human interaction with Luna and advise boaters on safe boating practices around the whale. Both parties will monitor the whale and his interactions with the public.

The Canadian fisheries department is providing $10,000 for the stewardship plan, which does not address future plans for the whale, such as removing him from Nootka Sound.

The fisheries agency will try to determine whether reports of more aggressive interactions by the whale reflect changes in his behavior or that of the boaters approaching him, fisheries spokeswoman Lara Sloan said Friday.

Adult male killer whales can grow to more than 30 feet in length.

In June, Fisheries officials tried to capture the whale as part of an effort to reunite him with his U.S. relatives as they swam past the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Those whales spend the summer swimming near Washington state’s San Juan Islands.

The plans were scuttled after canoes filled with Indians lured the whale away. The Indians, who believe Luna could be the reincarnation of their late chief, were uncomfortable with the capture plan.

Whale activists applauded the monitoring agreement.

“We believe that … is vital for Luna’s survival,” said a letter signed by 11 activist groups, including the Free Willy Keiko Foundation, the Orca Conservancy and the Center for Whale Research.

The groups also hope Canadian Fisheries and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service will try to reunite Luna with his family this fall, when summer boating activity has died down and L-pod may travel north near the opening to Nootka Sound.

“We’ve been ready since early last summer” to work with the Canadians in relocating Luna, said Brian Gorman, a Seattle spokesman for the U.S. fisheries agency. He said Friday he was not sure where L-pod was or whether those whales would be in the vicinity of Nootka Sound this year.

He said he had heard reports that Luna was becoming more rambunctious.

“I think the history of animals like this that interact with humans is that they get more and more feisty, push the limit,” Gorman said.