Whale Tales - L98 Luna - Tsuxiit
A sad farewell to Luna~
~for Luna~
MAGIC WORDS
(from Mind in the Waters by Joan McIntyre, from Shaking the Pumpkin by Jerome Rothenberg)
In the very earliest time,
when both people and animals lived on earth,
a person could become an animal if he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people
and sometimes animals
and there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was the time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance
might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive
and what people wanted to happen could happen -
all you had to do was say it.
Nobody can explain this:
That's the way it was.
Film festival: Tale of orphan whale gets standing ovation
February 5, 2008 (Victoria Times Colonist) There's a great scene in Saving Luna where the endearing and outgoing orca of the title repeatedly surfaces to affectionately nudge a Department of Fisheries and Oceans official as she tries sternly to explain to boaters there's a $100,000 fine for touching the whale.
"This is not a watchable whale!" a steward says elsewhere, warning onlookers they could face fines for making eye contact with the most famous whale since Moby Dick. They were enforcing a DFO "tough love" policy deemed beneficial to Luna.
As passionate as these journalists were about Luna's story, they didn't expect to become so involved in it. The couple became advocates for human interaction, amazed by the benefits of the heart-rending bond between Luna and First Nations steward Jamie James.
Report from Nootka Sound,
March 14, 2006
Copyright 2006 by Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm
By Mike Parfit
I have no eloquence, no pretty words, no joy. But I have things to tell you, about beauty and blame.
Suzanne and I attended the Mowachaht/Muchalaht memorial ceremony on Monday. It was good. In addition to the members of the band with whom we share love and affection for this kakawin they called Tsu'xiit, the memorial was attended by Greg Rusel and Ed Thorburn, the fisheries officers who had spent so much time with Luna, and who had tried to lead him to the pen against the wishes of the band. There were handshakes between DFO and First Nation members. Ed knew Luna almost the very beginning, in late 2001, and though Ed's face did not betray him during that service, as ours did, we know his pain is huge. We can only hope that the ceremony brought him some kind of balm with which to start healing.
For us the most beautiful and difficult time happened two days before. On Saturday afternoon Suzanne and I went out on the water with Donna Schneider, the cook on the Uchuck III. Donna was Luna’s longest friend. She saw him when he first arrived, and has loved him since.
The day was clear. The sun shone. There was no longer a storm to drive ships and barges in off the open sea. We went straight from Gold River to Mooyah Bay, the place we always have called Luna’s “familiar territory” because it has been tradition not to be specific about his location.
We stopped the boat in the middle of the junction of several passages of water, between Anderson Point and Atrevida Point, if you have a chart. When I saw Luna, I usually marked his approximate locations on my GPS with electronic waypoints, which showed up on the GPS chart as little red flags. We stopped among many flags. We shut down the motor and drifted. We had all understood the news from Friday, and knew it was true. But our hearts did not believe it.
We sat in the boat, silent, each of us alone. Our own breath held, we waited for a breath to come from the sea.
None of us could speak. Little waves lapped on the hull. Sea lions barked, from far away on the log booms over in the southwest corner of Mooyah Bay. The boat’s motor cooled, making little ticks. They were not like the sound of echolocation. All three of us believed that Luna was going to make another miracle in his life and would do what we always called stealth whale. I think he had learned that boats that saw him coming tended to speed away, so he had developed this technique of approaching boats with a long, invisible, underwater swim. We believed he was already on his way to us, and would suddenly pop up right next to us with a blast of spray.
He did not. I looked across the expanse of water, as I have so many, many times. Luna was always elusive, except when he was completely in your face. You could look for an hour and make up your mind that he was not there, and your mind would populate with worries. Then, poof, there he was and things were OK again. Surely that would happen again. Surely.
No. It wouldn’t.
We had flowers with us. Slowly we began to throw them into the sea. They floated away behind us on the easterly breeze as we were carried west by the current. I had told a newspaper reporter that we would throw flowers and say goodbye. But we only managed the first part.
And whom shall we blame for this great loss? The heart weeps and the heart seethes, and the heart demands to exact a price from those who have caused it pain, in the vain hope that some kind of relief can be purchased by what the broken heart imagines is the more deserved pain of another.
In the press and on websites we have seen a pouring out of recrimination. We find that both terrible and understandable. We are often overwhelmed by waves of anger and desires to blame. Our pain at this loss is greater than we had ever imagined it would be, and the bursts of anger we feel are more intense than is in any way justified. In fact, I found to my dismay that I threw some of the flowers hard, as if hitting out at the water for withholding our friend.
I am afraid I know why I seek to find blame. Yesterday, in the middle of one of those spasms, while I was lashing out in my mind, I realized I was doing something really weird. Although my rational mind was simply seeking to find lessons in tragedy, my wrecked heart was doing something entirely different. It believed that if I could find out that someone had really done something wrong, I could take my grievance to some kind of a magical judge who would decree that because such injustice had been done we would get Luna back.
Grief is deep and complex, and I am afraid that sometime it will make me say something that will unnecessarily hurt someone who is also in pain over this loss. I may have already done so. If so, please forgive me. That is terrible. Because, when I look at it carefully and try to be honest, it comes down to something very hard for me to deal with. For all my anger at outside forces, I am as much at fault as anyone.
For those who aren't familiar with the last few months of Luna's life, I must explain. Last fall, after the First Nations stewardship ended when the funding ran out and the permit expired, Suzanne and I believed that Luna still needed attention. We took on providing that. We were not asked to do this by anyone. We took it on because, on the rational side of things, we believed it was inappropriate for us to be writing a book and doing a documentary about a being whose life was in danger, without attempting to help save that life. On the emotional side, we simply cared too much about Luna to watch tragedy unfold. We stepped in because we couldn’t help it.
As the weeks and months went by, the system worked out fairly simply. Our boat was too small for both of us, and we had a lot of work at home that had to get done. So Suzanne worked at home and I went out on the water. I fitted a desk where the second seat would be, so I could write while I was out there. I put a tarp over our leaky canvas roof so the computer wouldn’t drown. Then I spent days and nights on the water near Luna. Many of you have read the reports that came from this work.
One thing must be said now. You did not read about everything I did. I could not be altogether honest, because I was afraid that if I was I would be officially forbidden to continue. I will be honest now. I did not make a habit of playing with Luna, but on several occasions I led him away from problem encounters. Most of these were with fish farms. In the last few months he has caused damage and concern at those places, and when I came past and saw Luna engaged in that kind of activity, and then saw Luna come toward my boat, I did not speed away. I let him follow. Usually I then led him across the bay, then motored slowly up Zuciarte Channel toward the open ocean, to see if he would follow.
Usually, when I got into Zuciarte, Luna chose not to go any farther. Once, however, he followed me up Zuciarte to within two miles of open water, which I found hopeful. I had many daydreams about a reunion at the mouth of the Sound if he could just learn to headquarter out there instead of behind stone acoustic barriers in Mooyah. But after that one time he didn’t go that far again.
Once I did lead him to the sea. He was far out of Mooyah, around on the west side of Bligh Island. I had been looking for him for hours and was quite worried. Do you remember the photos of his recent breech? It was that day. I saw a spout and then the breech. What a relief it was! When he came down from the big jump he did stealth whale right over to me and started playing with the boat. I could see the edge of open water in the distance, and decided that I’d just leave the motor turned off. I drifted at about two knots all the way out to Yuquot. I was looking straight up at the lighthouse when he finally left and headed back into the Sound.
This told me that getting him to the sea regularly would not be hard. Unfortunately I felt that I had so pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in leading him out those two times that I did not seriously try it again. Now I wish I had done differently. But there are many wishes.
The point of all this is that I found it extraordinarily easy to get him out of troublesome situations. Although I didn’t do this very often, I knew how straightforward and effective it could be.
One of those events included an incident that occurred starting about 11 p.m. one night, in which he was out in the middle of a very active log-loading operation, and was playing around a big tug much like the one whose prop killed him.
Luna was very determined to hang out with these powerful boats. He loved the energy of their work, and he would pursue them far across the bay when they showed up. I even think that on several occasions I heard him call exactly when the first distant sounds of their engines murmured into the waters of the bay. Was he welcoming their presence? Who knows? I never worried about these big boats, because he loved them so much and because he seemed to be so agile in his movement around them. We marveled at his precision in moving around everything in the water, including props.
I have learned from a newspaper article that the crew of the General Jackson sometimes played with Luna, and I am very concerned that people may imagine wrongly that this is why he was with that boat to begin with. I can say with certainty that it was not. It was the boat's energy that drew him. Even when no one paid attention to him all day, he would work with these boats, pushing logs, playing in the wakes, going underneath to feel energy blasting from the props. The crew did not attract him to the General Jackson; the boat did.
That's what was happening on the night I remember. Luna was having a great time in the frothy water. But what concerned me in the case of the loading operation was the logs. Luna would sometimes show up underneath the area where cranes were picking up logs and hoisting them into the barge, and I knew that Luna would not be able to get out of the way if a log fell from a crane. So, when Luna zipped over to my boat shortly after midnight, I thought, "I'm going to get him out of here." I motored slowly away and he followed. I took him all the way out into the middle of the junction of passages opposite Anderson Point. He didn’t go back to the tug until it was towing the barge away and there were no more logs to fall from the sky.
The point of all this is that I know I might have been able to head off the accident that killed him. After all, I was the guy who had taken on keeping him safe. I knew how to do it, and had done it before, and was concerned about the risks. And I had made a commitment to our own hopes for Luna. I had also made at least a moral commitment to all of you who have read our reports and had your own hopes for a long life for this boisterous sweetheart whom Lisa Larsson, in her grief, calls our brave little whale. Though I was constrained by law from doing all that I wanted to do for Luna, I had promised that I would be around to give Luna help when he needed it, and was willing to bend the law when necessary to get that job done. I was the one on watch.
But on the day that mattered, I wasn’t there. I had tied up the boat and had gone down to our home near Victoria for a few days. There were things we had to get done at home and I thought it was going to be more important to be around all the time later in the season. There are few sadder words to me right now than these: I wasn’t there.
So I am as much to blame as anyone. What was happening elsewhere in the Luna world at the time was OK and hopeful. DFO was talking to both the First Nations and the Gold River community about plans to take care of Luna during the summer. Our own proposals and those of several others were still on the table and we had indications that some successful combination of approaches would have been undertaken. So the process was working, though slowly.
What happened was not a consequence of big things. It was a fluke, an accident. In that case, only individuals who might have prevented it are to blame. The skipper and crew of the tug are not in that category, because they could have done nothing anyway. Again and again I've seen how close Luna goes to props. The crew could not have kept him away. But I do fit the category. He could have been with me instead.
Many friends have assured me that I should not take blame. And I know that in many ways, this kind of guilt is self-absorbed and is a distorted form of vanity. To imagine that I, above others, had the wisdom and power to have prevented this catastrophe is, in fact, claiming more competence than in fact I had. But the bottom line for my heart is that I will never get over these what ifs.
I think that in learning to accept whatever blame is legitimately mine, and in shedding the vanity of taking on too much, I find that I cannot escape my pain by laying blame on others. The reality of this tragedy is that it was a specific event, an accident, which had no direct cause in policy or negligence. It could have happened anywhere at any time, even after a reunion. I can absorb some of the blame, because it indeed happened on my watch. Beyond that, blame is just guesswork and slander and unworthy of the character of the loved one we have lost.
We can surely seek lessons, as Fred Felleman has done so calmly in his essay. And we have to accept that we all share responsibility here. We all cared, but we failed to find agreement, and we failed to learn what Luna really needed. We just failed. But we have to accept also that one of the costs of freedom is risk, and Luna was free and took risks. Could we have lessened those risks? Perhaps. But wherever he was we could not have eliminated them, even by taking away his freedom, where a different set of risks would have come into play. You can lock your child in the bedroom away from fast cars, but then he dies of loneliness or the flu you bring him.
I'm sure assessments will be made. But after we're done with crying and guilt and anger and lessons, none of which will solve our sorrow, we can get on with the more important stuff: remembering one who will always be good and beautiful and utterly blameless: Luna.
On Saturday afternoon at just about sunset, Suzanne, Donna, and I threw our last flowers on the water. We were gentle with the last ones. They all drifted away, and we could no longer see them. The moon began to gather strength in the darkening sky. We had flung flowers, but none of us felt closure. We still expected stealth whale. We always will expect him, on whatever water, and I am sure he will come to us like that in our dreams, a breath from the sea to give us back our joy.
Thank you for reading our words here from time to time, and for loving this whale. We must ask one another for forgiveness, then get on with living. But please, always remember the brave little whale we knew as L-98, Luna, and Tsu’xiit. Think of him flinging himself from the water in that exuberance of life that he always seemed to have, and making a splash you could hear all the way across the bay, and around the world. What a survivor he was! Bereft, solitary, inexperienced, desperately young, he nevertheless forged a worthy life. We will remember that for a very long time. May we be worthy of him.
Mike Parfit
Gold River
Learning from Luna
Fred Felleman, MSc.
Ocean Advocates
March 14, 2006
So many people contributed time and resources on the lone orca (L98) Luna’s behalf that his loss is widely felt. As a whale biologist and photographer I have tried to minimize the impact of my presence on my focus of study and have only encouraged intervening with nature during a few extraordinary circumstances. This was one of them.
When whales strand themselves, people make heroic efforts to guide them back into the water. The stranding of the Transient orcas on Dungeness Spit was one such successful occasion. When Springer (A73) was found sick in the Vashon ferry lanes, the public rallied for her successful reunion with her family to Johnstone Strait.
It is easy to point fingers for why we were not able to afford Luna a similar opportunity, but the following insights are simply offered to try to make sense of some hard lessons. There was disagreement between the various official and unofficial trustees of Luna as to whether to intervene on his behalf in the first place. While Canadian Fisheries officials (DFO) came to Washington with great interest in Springer’s precarious position in Puget Sound, they initially kept Luna’s solitary existence in Nootka Sound a secret. Once the word was out there was still disagreement as to what to do about him.
The successful repatriation of Springer included the positive engagement of the Namgis First Nation welcoming her back to native waters. Unfortunately, due to a long simmering conflict between DFO and First Nations in Nootka Sound over the sighting of salmon pens and treaty negotiations, such communications were not forthcoming. In fact, I was in contact with Chief Maquinna through an introduction afforded me by his Makah cousins before DFO contacted him about what they intended to do about Luna. During my meeting with the hereditary chief at his campsite on Friendly Cove overlooking the Pacific, he made it clear that any efforts to reunite Luna with his family should be done in a way that afforded the whale the ability to swim freely and that he not end up in an aquarium. While he favored “letting nature take its course” he expressed a willingness to allow Luna to follow a boat out of Nootka Sound to reunite with his family.
There were many potential benefits associated with giving Luna such a chance in addition to those to him personally. Returning a whale to the endangered southern resident community was one given the potential for Luna’s disappearance being associated with an inexperienced mother and his obvious capability of meeting his own physical needs. Alternatively there was the possibility that he was intentionally abandoned and that we were simply watching the “hostile forces of nature” at work. However, after 30 years of study, such behavior had not been observed before and we could only offer the opportunity for reunion, the rest was up to the whales.
There was the protection to the boating public in Nootka Sound. However, NMFS officials expressed concern that we would be bringing the problem to Washington waters rather than assume the whale would prefer his kin over people. They required that a satellite tag be bolted through his fin as if he would be hard to find if he continued making mischief with boats. While the tag posed potential physical impacts to Luna, it also required that he be kept in a net pen for extended periods while he was fitted. Such excessive handling of Luna and holding a healthy whale captive for over two weeks was a major source of antagonism to Chief Maquinna and many in the environmental community. It was important to draw a blood sample to verify that he did not pose a health risk to his family, but it was hoped that could have been done while Luna was still free swimming giving his inclination to approach boats.
In preparing to lead Luna out of Nootka Sound efforts were redoubled to try to track the fall to spring movements of L Pod which was a goal of the NMFS orca recovery efforts. The US Navy even provided several sightings of orcas along Vancouver Island. Extraordinary efforts were made to acoustically monitor Luna’s calls that streamed briefly on the web. It was also hoped that having a joint “project” would help DFO and NMFS put down some of their professional differences while rallying to Luna’s assistance. There was also the potential for the whale huggers and the aquarium industry to work together after so many years of distrust over the early capture operations. Unfortunately, documents surfaced indicating that the aquarium industry had agreed to undertake the reunion efforts for DFO as long as they had the first dibs on Luna if he did not successfully repatriate. This opened the door for the appearance of conflicts of interest and questions were being asked about who makes the determination as to whether the reunion was a success and if Luna had to be captured.
Whether you preferred a “hard capture” or a “boat follow” it appears that DFO would have been better off starting with the less invasive approach as a show of good faith to the First Nations that they were willing to try working with their concerns. Considering such an approach after being thwarted from their preferred alternative by the First Nations only seemed to embolden their distrust. If First Nations were asked to help lead Luna out prior to their demonstrated ability to engage him with their canoe to thwart the capture, perhaps DFO would have opened a working relationship that could have resulted in a less tragic outcome.
The most important lesson to learn is that while we admire the intelligence and prowess of orca, they are vulnerable mammals just like us and we all make mistakes. Luna’s plight can be broadly blamed on a failure of governance. DFO did not have the benefit of the Prescott stranding funds that were used by NMFS to help Springer and NMFS was restricted to only using those monies in US waters. Instead DFO was reliant on the aquarium industry to manage Luna and their vets were more comfortable treating Luna as a patient than a wild whale. Underlying all this was the strained relations between DFO and First Nations. While they did establish a science advisory panel to receive input from representatives on both sides of the border, it was clear their input was not fully embraced.
Managing an endangered population of free-swimming, large brained mammals across an international border is not an easy task. Add to that the complexity associated with the co-management authority Treaty Tribes have in the United States and is being sought by First Nations in Canada. Such challenges exist in the management of salmon and halibut as well as in the operation of ships passing through our shared waters. However, unlike the management of our orca, the management of these other resources is not left to ad hoc advisory committees, but to international treaties.
Given that no one government or person can lay claim to Luna, his family, or the marine environment, it is time that elected officials from both sides of the border call for the creation of an Orca Commission. The Commission should be comprised of researchers, bureaucrats, tribes, environmentalists and elected officials to address the ongoing challenges associated with bilaterally managing our totem orca population. In this way Luna may live on to help us all be better stewards.
By Fred Felleman, MSc.
Ocean Advocates
Seattle, WA
Fred Felleman is a whale biologist and photographer. He is the NW Director of Ocean Advocates and former Board Member of Orca Conservancy felleman@comcast.net.
A Death in the Family
by Susan Berta and Howard Garrett
March 11, 2006
March 10, 2006 was a sad day for all of us who have been following his story and hoping for a much happier ending. From what we've gathered so far, the accident happened at around 9 am, in Mooyah Bay. A 100' tugboat had pulled into a cove to get out of rough seas, & was idling when Luna approached it. As in recent reports from Mike Parfit, Luna commonly approached the wash of props (see photo below), & was apparently sucked in to the props of the tug. Though Luna had been around many tugs, this was a larger tug than he was accustomed to. It is believed he died instantly, and his body apparently sank, though fisheries staff were headed out today to the scene to look for evidence.
We remember mourning Luna's death when he first went missing and was presumed dead in June 2001 (never before had a resident orca gone missing and showed up again, with or without its pod). Luna was always special to us, because we had met him shortly after his birth in Sept. 1999. Howie was back on San Juan Island for the first time in two years (he had been in Miami working to get Lolita home). Just before we had to leave the island, L67 swam by the Center for Whale Research with her new little calf, L98/Luna, swimming along behind her - we were all so surprised & excited! Luna's story was full of little mysteries from the very beginning - when L67 swam by with her new calf, she was alone, L pod was nowhere to be seen.
Later in the day she had rejoined L pod, and K pod was around as well - but then the new calf showed up with a K pod whale (K 18) instead of L67. For several weeks researchers wondered just who L98 really belonged to, as he was seen often with K pod rather than his mom.
But then he ended up back with mom/L67, & seemed to be a normal little guy, staying with his mom & pod until his disappearance in 2001. It has been speculated that maybe he strayed from L pod when his uncle, L39, disappeared - the theory being the uncle was dying & fell behind the pod, & Luna stayed with him, losing track of the rest of the pod, then wandered up to Nootka Sound. No one really knows for sure, but we know that adult males and their young nephews often travel together for long periods. And we know that Luna's mom sometimes strayed away from him, even on the day he was born. However it happened, he was a lost soul, apart from his family, looking for attention and companionship in the people he met in his chosen home.
He was discovered in Nootka Sound in July 2001, & his presence was made public by Canada's DFO in late January, 2002. We remember that day so clearly - as we had mourned the loss of this special little whale when he disappeared, we now celebrated with great joy the miracle of his "re-birth"! Then came the many ups and downs of his life in Nootka Sound: the belief of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation that Luna embodied the spirit of their deceased Chief Ambrose Maquinna, the attempts to keep Luna away from people & boats, & the attempts to keep people & boats away from Luna, the making of plans to relocate him, the fear of marine parks lurking by to take him in, the attempted capture & relocation of Luna by DFO & NMFS, the interception of Luna during the capture attempts by the First Nations people who didn't want Luna captured, & the stories of all who provided monitoring & stewardship in Gold River & Nootka Sound over the last five years, trying to keep Luna safe.
We are especially thankful to Mike Parfit & Suzanne Chisholm for their amazing dedication at monitoring & observing Luna from a safe distance, & reporting on his behavior & his welfare in a very heartfelt way. Their regular reports on Luna have helped us all understand a bit more about Luna's life in Nootka Sound, and we all came to know and love him even more through their eyes and words. We also appreciate the efforts of the folks at Reunite Luna, all those who worked on the various stewardship projects during Luna's stay in Nootka Sound, & all who worked on the LunaLive project, attempting to set up a system of listening in to Luna & listening for L pod in the hopes of facilitating a natural reunion. Volumes of photographic and acoustic records will help tell his story for years to come.
We will always remember Luna as a special little whale, who touched many hearts around the world and gave a personal face and story to the plight of his family, the endangered Southern Resident Orcas. We can only hope he is now again swimming alongside his uncle L39, wherever their spirits reside~
Susan & Howard
Orca Network
Below are more first person reports of encounters with Luna sent by Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisolm
LUNA REPORT & UPDATE:
Report from Nootka Sound
March 6, 2006
Copyright 2006 by Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit
By Mike Parfit
More adventures and a new injury
Last week Luna made an appearance at the Gold River dock for the first time in some weeks. He followed the Uchuck III in from his familiar territory, and hung out at the dock for one night. While he was there he visited several of his favorite boats, including a dozer boat working among the logs and a tug he often follows out in Nootka Sound. The next day he found his way back to his territory, no doubt hitching a ride on another slow boat.
I had a firsthand chance on Sunday to see how he works a boat's wake. I was out in his area for a couple of days. I spent most of the time listening to him echolocate and occasionally call, and watching him feed and visit fish farms. On Sunday I had a problem with my bilge pump, and got a fair amount of water in the boat. As a result, when I tried to go fast, there was too much weight in it, and I couldn't get it on the plane. Usually the boat can go about 20 knots, but with its belly full of water it could manage only about 7.5 knots, even with 5,500 rpm on the tach.
I decided I'd better try to get the pump fixed before my bunk in the cuddy was awash, so I headed back toward Gold River from the anchorage where I'd been listening to Luna. As I crossed the bay, the motor roaring but the mass of hull and water just wallowing through the waves, suddenly a fin popped up in the wake.
The noise and motion at the stern seemed tumultuous. It was hard to imagine any being managing to control his body in that heave of foam and splash. But there was Luna, careening along like a kid in a waterslide.
It was amazing. I stood at the helm, looking ahead for logs and back over my shoulder at Luna. He wasn't out to the side of the boat in the shaped waves, where I would have expected him to be. He was directly behind the outboard, where the water was all white and flung about. He was just surfing along, head down near the motor, dorsal slicing the foam.
He had that rough wave just where he wanted it. He must have been sliding down its steep edge, using the energy of the boat to carry him along. Several times he showed just how easy this was by lifting his flukes right out of the churning water. Once I saw him slide slightly to the port side of the stern of the boat, and through a smooth rush of water I could see his head under the surface. His had his mouth open. Not just a little bit, either. It was open big, for all the world like a kid on a bike careening downhill, no hands, mouth open, yelling with joy or fear or a glorious combination of both.
To me that open mouth was amazing. You'd think that big grin would be like a sea anchor and would yank him right out of the flow. But it didn't. He just kept surfing.
He would surf for quite a long time - thirty seconds at least, perhaps more. I was in such awe of his control in that tumult that I forgot to time him. Then he'd slide farther to port, porpoise once to get a breath, and go right back into the wake.
Finally, after about a kilometer of this, he broke away and went back into his fishing area. I continued to mush noisily along, eventually got back to Gold River and spent some productive time with my head down in the bilge, thinking about pumps and salt water and Luna.
I thought about him with both awe and worry. He's showing more damage. Sometime after the last time I saw him up close, in late February, he was cut by a prop. This is the first real multi-cut prop scar he's had.
He appears to have been run over by a relatively small boat at high speed. He has about ten parallel cuts on his left side. At one end of the batch of cuts the slices are closer together, indicating that the boat was accelerating at the time. This indicates to me that the operator was in a relatively light boat that had swift acceleration, and was trying to get away from Luna by slamming the throttle forward.
Most of the cuts are through to the white blubber. They are healing well, and do not look dangerous. There doesn't seem to be any swelling. Orcas in the wild get plenty of cuts and scrapes, including tooth rakes that can be at least as deep as this, so this isn't too much of a worry.
Obviously, given Luna's little demonstration of energy and playfulness when he chased me down and rode the wake, I don't think the injury in any way limits his activity. It's just ugly. But it does serve as a warning. Luna needs care now. The prop injury could have been prevented, because it's very easy to keep him away from problem encounters. It doesn't make sense to let these unnecessary risks continue.
We have had recent conversations with people at DFO, and have learned that plans are in the works for a meeting soon with members of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation to discuss the past year's stewardship program and look at options for the future. We were also glad to hear that after that meeting, DFO is planning to meet with the whole Gold River, Nootka Sound, and MMFN community as one group, to gather suggestions and make plans. That's great. We believe the best stewardship will involve everyone.
Solving the immediate situation for Luna is not complicated. Active engagement has been shown to work again and again when used sporadically in previous Luna stewardships. The only change necessary is to accept the fact that Luna makes contact with people regularly and with great determination, and that a workable solution does not need to change the amount of his interaction. It would just improve it by making it more consistent and much safer.
Obviously, Luna would be best off with his family. Although the option of trucking him south is no longer feasible for political, financial, and logistical reasons, there is a real chance that he may have a shot at a reunion at the mouth of Nootka Sound. His life in the interim is not perfect, but as he demonstrates every day, this is not a tank. He has freedom, food and a social life he has chosen to cobble together out of sea lions, boats, and people. The key is to keep him safe in this makeshift lifestyle until the opportunity to get back with his family occurs. This new injury shows how important it is to have a system in place as soon as possible.
Mike Parfit
Gold River
Mountainside Films
Report from Nootka Sound, November 15, 2005
By Mike Parfit
Copyright by Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm
This was the weekend of the Maquinna Potlatch at Tsaxana, near Gold River. It was the potlatch to honour the passing of Ambrose Maquinna, former chief of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation, who died in July, 2001. We attended the potlatch from about 10 a.m. on Saturday morning until 7 a.m. on Sunday morning when the batteries on our cameras and in our sleepy minds ran out. The potlatch continued until about 11 a.m. Sunday.
It is often reported that the reason the First Nation opposed the capture and move for Luna last year was that the band members believe that Luna, whom they call Tsuxiit, carries the spirit of Ambrose Maquinna. As we understand this, the belief is more complicated and intricate than what has been described simply as reincarnation, and most people who have followed this story know that the First Nation's opposition to Luna's capture and relocation is also based on very fundamental cultural ties that the First Nation has with all orcas.
Nevertheless, many people outside Gold River expected that after the Mowachaht/Muchalaht people said a formal farewell to their chief, their opposition to the capture and move plan for Luna might end. In the past we have seen no evidence of that, and we saw no evidence of it at the potlatch either.
The ceremony served as a powerful reminder to us that even this very small First Nation has a rich, complex, and subtle culture. In the internal structure of the potlatch there were many formal, detailed protocols that were followed, and in the individual events of the potlatch - the many dances and songs - there was variety and complexity that we found extraordinary.
In some other indigenous cultures in other parts of the world the outward manifestations of the culture such as singing and dancing are maintained mainly as something to show visitors as reminders of past glory. This is not the case here. It is an indication of the power this culture retains that the songs and dances here are in no way designed for the entertainment of the outside public; they are in no way a show. They communicate culture both inside the individual First Nation and between it and other First Nations. To us outsiders what was being communicated sometimes seemed obscure, but that is how intricate cultures always look to those who have not grown up in their embrace.
In addition to the dances and song, elaborate speeches in which elders and chiefs spoke at length about the ways their families were related to the Maquinnas offered us a glimpse of how important these extended blood relationships were and are to many First Nations. Because of the depth of their history here, the Mowachaht/Muchalaht people know far better than the rest of us - to paraphrase Mike Maquinna - who they are and where they come from, and they go to great lengths to hang onto that knowledge by passing the most subtle links of family, described in the context of the grander subtlety of their linked past, across the generations.
It seems to us that the First Nation believes strongly that Luna is connected in that web of relationships that the Mowachaht/Muchalaht and their First Nation neighbours have taken such efforts to recognize and sustain. That must be an important part of why they relate to him as they have. The indications are that the potlatch has not changed that relationship. If anything it made the power of the relationship more vivid: many of the shawls of the women and the vests worn by the men were decorated with magnificent images of orcas.
As people both in this area and beyond it consider Luna's future, we think it's pretty important to recognize that the relationship that the Mowachaht/Muchalaht people feel toward Luna is stronger than just something political. We - Suzanne and I - come from other cultures, and it is neither accurate nor appropriate for us to say that we can understand this First Nation's world in all its complexity, but we respect it as a part of a culture that, as the potlatch showed, remains strong in the face of much stress.
On Saturday afternoon, while Suzanne stayed at the potlatch, I went out on the water for a while. Luna appears to have moved away from the Gold River area to make his base back in his more familiar territory quite a distance from the docks. We've been told that he has spent time with the large landing craft that is one of his favourite vessels, but only when that ship came through the territory. And we have had heard reports that he spent some time near fish farms in the neighbourhood. But when I went out on Saturday, people hadn't seen him for a couple of days. I stopped in at several places along the Sound and asked about him, but there were no reports.
But any anxiety was lifted as I watched from near the edge of the familiar territory. There Luna was, foraging out in the middle. It was good to see him, independent guy that he is, getting along as always. I watched for quite a while, and after darkness fell, he took a bit of a cruise with a Coast Guard ship that came in from the rough seas outside to anchor for the night in one of the bays near Luna's territory.
I talked briefly by radio to someone on the ship, then left the area well after dark, driving along with prickles of rain on my face, cold but happy, thinking fancifully that on this night of a celebration that included him among those honoured, Tsuxiit had found the chance to be a host himself to storm-tossed travelers from another world. It seemed oddly fitting with the many ironies in this story that the people whom Luna hosted on this evening of the potlatch were, as members of the Canadian Coast Guard, employees of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
If there was a symbolic moment on the water in this day of symbolism on land, we would like to think that it was this: Maybe Luna can teach us how, in spite of the huge differences in perspective between peoples, there may still be common ground when it comes to figuring out how to live both with one another and with the complex and wonderful other lives with whom we share our world.
I went out on the water again on Monday with Keith Wood, of Anon.org, to try to fix the Luna Live research hydrophone. Keith was able to find the problem and repair it, which was great. It was also great to see Luna foraging and playing nearby. We saw him tail slapping several times, once again out in the middle of the place to which he has always returned. He also romped around the turbulent wake of a tug that came rumbling through the bay. Then, when Keith got back to Gold River and listened to the Internet link to the hydrophone, he immediately heard six short Luna calls.
From our human perspective, it looks to us as if Luna, like the Mowachaht/Muchalaht people, dances and sings to hold on to who he is. But what those songs and dances fully mean is beyond us.
Michael Parfit
Suzanne Chisholm
Gold River
October 17, 2005
Copyright 2005 by Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm
Luna is still in the Gold River area, dividing his time between working in the timber industry and being a fisherman. When not fishing at length in the Sound, he has been playing either with the boom boats in the log sort areas, or with tugs that pull logs from one log sort area to another. It’s about the same kind of activity that we described in our last report.
Recently he also spent time with one of the larger working boats in the Sound. We saw him there playing with a tire fender, which seemed to provide a lot of entertainment. He spent some of his nights near that boat, resting next to its black hull. On another night he rested between that boat and another large vessel, which were rafted next to each other.
On Monday (Oct 17) I went out in our Zodiac, Blackfish. Luna had apparently been at the dock during the night, and headed out in the early morning with the same large work boat that he’d spent the night with earlier. He rode the wake to a nearby logging camp, where he jumped ship and went to work with a blue boom boat that was roaring along among the floating logs. When I got there I climbed up on a point of land to watch. He charged along beside the boom boat as it lurched and shoved among the logs, sorting bundles into groups. I couldn’t tell if Luna was helping or hindering in the operation to push the bundles around, but from what I’ve often been told, I’m sure he gave a few of the bundles a shove here and there.
I watched him from the point and later from the wheelhouse of the work boat, whose operators are very fond of Luna. He was with the boom boat for about two hours. Then the work boat finished its job at that camp and started up with a rumble and a froth of turbulent water, and Luna came zipping back to it. The big boat left the camp and headed for another camp, and as it went I saw the telltale burst spray as Luna crashed up out of the wake for a breath.
Most of these tugs and larger boats are vessels that Luna has known since his earliest days in Nootka Sound. We cannot know for sure whether or not he finds their familiarity reassuring. But we can hope so.
Michael Parfit
Gold River
Report from Nootka Sound, October 9, 2005
Copyright 2005 by Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm
Maybe one of the reasons people respond to Luna with so much affection is that he seems to have such a zest for life. It’s probable that all orcas are like this, but most of them are a bit more distant from people than Luna is, so maybe we don’t see as much of the play. And Luna sure does play.
Last week, for instance, Luna spent a lot of time with a tug that he has often played with in the past. The tug has recently been towing large rafts of logs across Nootka Sound from one log sort area to another. When towing it moves quite slowly but with a substantial output of power, and Luna seems to like this. When we saw him he was mostly playing around the bow, sometimes rubbing against the tug’s rough hull. But often he would do something we’d heard about before but didn’t quite believe. Now we’ve seen it, and it’s true.
What he does is simple, but not quite what one would expect. He comes up to the bow of the tug, where there’s a large sawtooth-shaped steel leading edge, designed to help the tug get a grip on logs. These blunt teeth get a good grip on a whale, too. Luna rolls on his back, puts his flukes up against the teeth, and just lies there, pointing forward, letting the tug push him along. Sometimes he does this when he’s upright in the water, too, but usually it’s upside down, showing his white belly, with his pec fins sticking part way out of the water as if to prove that he’s doing no work at all. Sometimes when he’s lying there on his back, moving along at the tug’s sedate speed, he blows bubbles, which come frothing up around his upper body. Who knows what he’s thinking about, but it sure looks like fun.
While Luna wasn’t occupied with the tug, he kept busy elsewhere. He’s still spending time in the Gold River area, though his visits to the dock are few. When he’s been at the dock he has spent time pushing parked gillnet boats and other boats, mostly by rubbing on their hulls. We aren’t aware of any damage that’s been caused, and we asked one of the fishermen about that. He said that Luna hadn’t given him any trouble, and had just played for a while with a hose that was running over the side. We also saw Luna shepherding a large purse seine boat that was in the sound surveying the fishery for DFO. The operators of that boat also told us that they did not have problems with him.
One of the people who work in the area said that Luna spent most of one night resting beside one of the larger working boats. The skipper, who often sleeps aboard, woke occasionally to the sound of Luna’s measured breath just outside the window.
Luna would have good reason to rest. He had very active days. On one of them, he started off by working during the night and early morning hours with a loading operation conducted at a log sort by a huge barge that hauls logs from Nootka Sound to destinations up and down the BC coast. This operation is very active, with lots of splashing and the roaring of engines, and involves cranes lifting bundles of logs from the water onto the barge, supported by dozer boats that dash around below the cranes, moving bundles into their reach. We haven’t seen this, but we’ve been told that Luna loves this activity, bustling from dozer boat to log bundle, and sometimes shoving the bundles around himself.
After the barge was loaded, Luna followed it out of the Gold River area west down the Sound for miles, and apparently got all the way back to his familiar territory, many miles from Gold River. That morning he was heard making calls on the hydrophone in the area. But he didn’t stay long. Another tug that he enjoys came past towing yet another of his favourite tugs, which had been disabled during an operation some distance away. Luna hopped into the wake of this combination, and we saw him still porpoising along with the two boats an hour or two later, back up the Sound near Gold River.
He followed the two tugs all the way to one of the commercial docks in the Gold River harbour, where he alternately assisted and opposed the efforts of the towing tug’s crew to dock the disabled tug. Then when the job was done and the towing tug headed back out at speed, Luna hopped into that white wake and took off westbound again. Finally, two or three miles from the Gold River docks, he dropped off and did a little foraging. By now he'd covered 30 or 40 nautical miles of Nootka Sound already that day, so a salmon sandwich wouldn't have been out of order.
His enthusiasm for action didn’t diminish, though. We were watching from a distance in our Zodiac, and pretty soon he appeared to get an idea about something going on somewhere else, and he headed out in what looked like a very purposeful journey back up the sound toward Gold River. This time he did something we haven’t seen often: he slapped his tail frequently as he went. We started marking the slaps in a notebook, and counted 19. During this trip, he appeared to be headed directly for a small boat that was stopped in the sound. We thought he was going to try to interact with it, but he didn’t. He came charging up to it, slapping his tail as he went, then swam directly underneath it, and came up on the other side, still chugging along on the same precise heading he was steering on before, slapping away.
After another kilometer of this, he finally came to a sort of a stop, where he did some foraging, but his boating day wasn’t over. Shortly, along came the Uchuck III, which is also a favourite ship for him. He charged over to surf its ample wake, and rode it all the way to the Gold River docks.
At that point, the Kakawin Guardian boat came along and led him away from possible trouble at the dock. The guardians ushered him back out to an area where he seems to like to fish, and watched him go to work in the salmon fields. After they left him there, we got up on a nearby point of land and watched through binoculars as he foraged back and forth. A busy guy.
Michael Parfit
Suzanne Chisholm
Gold River
Report from Nootka Sound
October 1,2005
By Mike Parfit
Copyright 2005 by Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm
Luna has been mostly near the Gold River end of the Sound. He has been working with the boom boats at the log sort near the docks, spent some time resting near one of his favourite boats, and hung around the dock itself a few times, though usually not at times when people were there to watch. We have talked to several visitors who have wanted to see him, but haven’t. He has also been spending his time with other boats that have been working within a few kilometres of the docks.
On one of the days when we went out recently, he was working with a tug that was hauling logs. This kind of boat must be particularly to Luna’s liking; lots of power blasting out of it, but it is not fast enough to get away from him. When we went over to the tug to talk to the skipper, Luna came popping out from behind it, zipped over to our Zodiac, Blackfish, gave a big pec slap right next to our boat, then zipped right back to the blast of water at the stern of the tug.
I was looking elsewhere at the time, and I was startled by the slap, because it sounded exactly like a big balloon popping, and anyone who runs an inflatable is somewhat sensitive to popping noises. When I thought about it later, it made me remember once when we were talking to the people on the Kakawin Guardian boat and Luna came up near Blackfish. Once again, I hadn’t noticed him approach, and wasn’t looking, and he made a sound I didn’t find amusing at all. Through his blowhole he was making the sound of hissing.
On Friday there was a lot of activity on the Sound, and for a while the Kakawin Guardian boat led Luna away from the dock area. However, he was reluctant to leave that part of the Sound, and simply wouldn’t go farther than a very few miles from area. Since he did something similar last year, the theory is that the salmon have gathered, as usual, at this end of the inlet to go up the rivers, but until now the rivers have still been quite low, and not many have started the climb to their spawning grounds. So Luna can feast. No wonder he doesn’t want to leave.
We have recently had substantial rain here. The waterfalls that come down the cliffs near the road to the dock have gone from trickles to thunder. And the rivers have come roaring back to life. So the salmon will begin their ultimate ascent. I’ll be curious to see whether Luna heads back out to his familiar territory soon.
At the end of the day on Friday I sat up on a rock near the Gold River docks and watched Luna forage in the distance. He was just close enough so I could see his plume and occasionally the shine of low sunlight off his dorsal fin. I was there for about two hours, and during the whole time he worked back and forth in less than a square kilometer, throwing his breath up to be caught in that low sunlight against a dark backdrop of water and trees. He would dive for a minute or two, then come up and breathe three times in fairly quick succession, then go back down. Not much splashing around or anything showy, but every once in a while he would move quickly along near the surface for a hundred metres or so, as if shuttling over to a slightly new fishing ground, before going down again for a longer dive.
From where I was on the rock, the sun sank almost directly into the gap in the mountains where the water lies. I sat and watched while the sunset bloomed like a rose. A few crew boats came in from various work camps on the Sound. The air was misty, and softened the details of the trees and rock on the far side of the water, near where Luna was. There was a final gust of sunlight through the gap, which cast the day’s last shadows in the canyons and threw highlights on the ridges, and lay a soft line of glitter along the water. Then the light faded swiftly and the backdrop became just a silhouette of mountains in the darkest shade of blue. Luna’s plume submerged in the tide of nightfall.
But as the evening breeze grew calm, sounds came across the water. I heard a truck start up at the distant docks. A squirrel chirred a long way up the hillside. I think I heard the faint burst of Luna’s breath, as he went on fishing.
Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm
Gold River
Luna sees the sea
Report from Nootka Sound, September 16
copyright 2005 by Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit
Yesterday (September 15) something good happened with Luna that hasn't happened for more than a year, and holds promise. With a little help from his friends in the Mowachaht/Muchalaht stewardship program -- the Kakawin Guardians -- he made it out of Nootka Sound to the edge of the open sea, and stayed there for a while.
Many of those who want Luna to reunite naturally with his pod have been hoping that he'd have the chance to learn to use at least nearby parts of the open ocean as well as the tight confines of Nootka Sound. As early as the spring of 2003 scientists advised DFO to encourage Luna's use of the open ocean in order to facilitate a reunion. Out there he is exposed to a far wider acoustic window than he is in the Sound. If his pod approaches he'll be able to hear them, and perhaps call to them, from much farther away. Luna got to the edge of the ocean a few times during pre-capture training exercises in the spring of 2004, but it hasn't happened since. It did on Wednesday.
Here's how: Early in the morning the stewardship personnel saw Luna breaching and tail slapping in his familiar territory. This often seems to signal that one of Luna's favourite boats is coming. Moments later the Uchuck III came around a point and steamed through Luna's area. Luna hopped a ride on the wake and rode it a few kilometres. He left the boat near a group of kayakers, but the Kakawin Guardians, using their DFO interaction permit, intervened and led him away.
Because the Uchuck had already led Luna in the direction of the sea, the Guardians kept going. The Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation has never opposed a reunion for Luna; the members simply do not believe he should be captured and moved to try to force one to happen, and they are suspicious that a capture might lead to permanent captivity rather than to a reunion. But as we understand it, they have always been comfortable with giving Luna the choice of what he wants to do with his life. They see him as a sovereign being who can make his own decisions and may in fact be wiser than humans are about many things, but we don't think they are opposed to helping him look out of the Nootka Sound window at the options available in the big sea.
The Guardians gave him the chance to do just that. Luna followed them all the way past a group of islands that sit in the middle of the entrance to Nootka Sound, and finally out to where the Pacific swells are no longer broken by arms of land, and the horizon to the west is just a long straight line. Luna seemed comfortable there. We were out there watching from our little boat, and when he moved away from the Guardians, he did not immediately flee back into the rocky embrace of the Sound. Instead he foraged for at least an hour among the gentle late-summer swells.
It was a big moment. To see Luna out in these vast waters made him look smaller, but also made him seem less alone, as if the barriers that lie between him and his family were reduced. The walls of stone were gone, and so, it seemed, was some of his reluctance to explore. Now the separation was just water and distance. We couldn't help but look out at that horizon for other dorsal fins, for other puffs of orca breath. It was a magic hour, in which L-pod's presence at the edge of Nootka Sound might emerge from the dream people have had for so long and become real.
For today, though, it remained only a hope. After a while, Luna made his choice for the day. He moved slowly away from the ocean toward more familiar places in the Sound. He didn't go very far, though. In the evening, when we last saw his small black fin in the distance, he was only a few kilometres in from the broad opening of the Sound, still close enough to hear calls from afar.
The Kakawin Guardians have told us that they are hoping to help Luna make a habit of using the open sea for foraging -- and for listening.
Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm
Gold River
LUNA REPORT Report from Nootka Sound Sept 22, 2005
By Mike Parfit
Copyright 2005 Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm
Luna has had some active days.
Recently, he's been visiting a small marina a few nautical miles from his home territory. As far as we know he hasn't done any damage there, but he has pushed boats around there enough so people have requested assistance.
On one of the days the Kakawin Guardian boat, the Wi-hut-suh-nup, led him away, and on another day the Coast Guard ship Atlin Post helped lead him out. On the evening of the second day, the Atlin Post anchored for the night in Luna's home territory, and the crew saw a highly unusual sight: On one side of the ship was Luna, generally taking it easy, and on the other side was a fur seal - rare for these parts - behaving, well, like Luna: playing with the ship. Nootka Sound is an unusual place.
The past few days have been busy for us, too. I was out on my own on Tuesday and Wednesday and we both went out Thursday. All three days were active for Luna.
On Tuesday he seemed to be hiding out much of the day, but popped up at a sportfishing boat in the afternoon in one of the inlets where he doesn't normally spend a lot of time. We just put our lines out and there he was, as one of the fishermen said later. He didn't do any damage, but the boat's skipper called the Coast Guard for assistance when it was obvious Luna was settling in for a long play session.
The Coast Guard ship Atlin Post sent a Zodiac and the Kakawin Guardian stewardship boat also came, but by then the fishing boat had followed Coast Guard instructions on the radio to zoom away from Luna and was in the clear.
I was watching all this from a shoreline hillside where I'd jumped ashore, tied up our Zodiac, Blackfish, and clambered up some boulders to the tree line. About the time that I saw Luna off by himself, I heard an odd little sound behind me. I looked behind, then up. In clambering up the shoreline, I had inadvertently treed a bear. There it was, perched like a very big crow right above me, staring down. I am not sure whose eyes were larger.
Up the tree, the bear couldn't leave. I could. I did. For a little while, therefore, I wasn't watching out for Luna, and he slipped away around a point somewhere. After that, neither I nor the Kakawin Guardians saw him the rest of the time we were out there.
Luna apparently spent the night not far from where we'd last seen him. On Wednesday Luna started off hitching a ride from that area with a big tug that's often used to pull rafts of logs. The tug's destination was a log sort area, and Luna got off the wake there and played with the boom boat that was working among the logs. When I showed up, the sun was still relatively low, and all I could see of him were big silver plumes of his spout coming up from behind log bundles. The boom boat operator came over to Blackfish and we discussed Luna as Luna lay near the boom boat. The operator said that he likes Luna but that he's afraid of hurting him, so he's always looking around to make sure he isn't about to run over the little whale. This particular boom boat has a jet instead of a prop, which makes it unusually attractive to Luna. The operator said that Luna loves to get right up to the blast of water and let it wash over him.
I gave the Kakawin Guardian boat a call on the radio, and the guardians came over and encouraged Luna to stop hogging the boom boat's jet. Eventually they led him back to his familiar territory.
Today was similar. In the morning, Luna was foraging in his home territory. Then he apparently heard his big friend the Uchuck III coming. To greet the ship, he breached several times (as often happens when the Uchuck III approaches), then rushed over to play alongside the lovely old ship as it was unloading cargo next to a fish farm. When the ship left the fish farm Luna rode the wake for several miles through a passage to another inlet. I was following, and noticed that he porpoised a few times almost near the bow of the ship, which is a little unusual; most of the time he rides farther aft in the broadening wake.
Once Luna and the Uchuck III reached the other bay, Luna left the big ship in favor of a sport fishing boat. After the fishing boat disconnected itself by zooming away, the Kakawin Guardians kept Luna away from a large group of kayakers that needed to cross the passage where Luna had just been cruising through with the Uchuck. Once the kayakers were ashore, the guardians led Luna home through that same waterway.
Over the past few days I've talked to a lot of people in boats and on docks about Luna, and have been glad to find that virtually all of them - workers, boat operators, and sport fishers - have been sympathetic toward Luna. A few are worried that someone may shoot him or that he'll get hurt or killed accidentally, but not many seem to be worried these days that he'll hurt someone.
A few people have said something that is well-meaning but troubling. Because Luna likes people so much, they have said, "Why don't they just take him to an aquarium so he can have people around him all the time?" I can understand how someone who has just seen Luna come up and touch a person's hand can say that, but we disagree very strongly. The way we look at it, it's exactly like saying, "My daughter likes to talk on the phone, so let's lock her in a phone booth the rest of her life." Just like people, orcas need a social life, but for both species, the social life of a jail is a disaster. Luna's a good kid. No jail.
The other, more important thing people have said to me and Suzanne is how gentle Luna seems. These are folks who have accidentally met up with him on the water or, more commonly, have seen him at one of the small marinas. They have remarked on his gentleness, and have not used the word that has appeared so often in the press: "attack."
Two things are going on here to account for what they're saying. First, Luna is far gentler and more easygoing in general than he appears to be in the news. The reason for this is simple: People report when they have an unpleasant experience with Luna, because it's legal to be "attacked." However, when Luna is gentle and playful and people have a good time with him it is illegal to have done that, so it is never reported. Never.
But those gentle events happen almost every day on Nootka Sound. These happen mostly with work boats that can't outrun Luna; the numbers of individual pleasure boats seeking Luna for interaction are now very few, possibly because of so many "attack" reports in the papers. Far fewer damaging events happen compared to gentle ones, but they are the ones that get reported to either DFO or the press.
So the impression of Luna that comes out - even to the offices of DFFO - is highly distorted. The whale we read about and hear about from people who aren't here much has an entirely different personality from the one we have seen over the past year and a half.
The second reason people aren't talking about "attacks" much may be that while Luna has an active stewardship program he may indeed be more mellow. It may have something to do with the regular presence of the Kakawin Guardians on the water and their continuing efforts to lead Luna back to his home territory away from trouble or to lead him out toward the open ocean.
Not only have the guardians reduced the incidents in which Luna has interacted with people who don't want him around, but we also think it's possible that this relative consistency of the company in Luna's life actually makes him more mellow.
Don't get us wrong here. Luna is not getting more attention than normal with the presence of the guardians. If they weren't here he'd be getting it from other boats and people, many of whom might not want it. A good example was Thursday. When Luna jumped off the Uchuck III's wake and headed right for that fishing boat that was trolling nearby, a long and troubling interaction might have followed. The people on board were curious about him but were also nervous. But a guardian boat was there almost immediately. The people were glad. They just needed to be told that it was OK to zoom away from him. With Luna temporarily distracted, they went. But with no stewardship on the water they would clearly have been afraid to do that - having read whale-watching guidelines for other places --- and they might have had a long encounter that they would not have known how to handle.
But in addition to stopping problem interactions, the guardians may actually be positively affecting Luna's emotional state. This may be because Luna sees the same boat and people regularly and is less often meeting up with people who are scared of him or who interact with him inappropriately. We think that the consistency of the relationship with the guardians may be very calming and reassuring for Luna.
This seems to have happened last year, too. A man who works on a boat on the Sound almost every day said last year, after a week or two of the 2004 First Nation's stewardship, that Luna appeared mellower.
But as with all things about this friendly but mysterious little guy, no one really knows the answers to so many questions. These are just guesses. But what we do know from talking with people over this past week is that when people don't feel threatened by Luna they react to him not just with curiosity, but with affection.
Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm
Gold River, British Columbia
A whale of a solution: Give Luna human link
August 11, 2005 (Toronto Globe and Mail) Luna the dangerously sociable West Coast killer whale needs a human "foster" family because it prefers people to whales, say two writers studying the six-year-old marine mammal.
Three years after the giant, 1½-tonne creature swam solo into an inlet off the tiny Vancouver Island village of Gold River, Luna shows no signs of ever leaving the busy waterway, said Michael Parfit, who pitched his unorthodox plan to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. If anything, Luna is more drawn than ever to human activity on the seas, Mr. Parfit said.
The whale, which was nicknamed Luna by Gold River residents, has no qualms about approaching and giving a boat a nudge with its nose. It also toys with float planes in busy Nootka Sound on the west side of the island.
All attempts to limit human interaction with Luna have failed, Mr. Parfit said, so he believes a drastically different approach is needed. He thinks Luna needs human guardians because area boaters -- especially sports fishermen -- are fed up with the whale and might harm it. "Half of the fishers think he should be shot," he said.
Mr. Parfit isn't the first person to take note of Luna's powerful personality. Last year, a Vancouver Island fisherman and his son were held hostage for six hours while Luna tossed their gill-netter around like a toy. At the time, the whale looked eerily human when it splashed along his father's fishing boat, David Alhous said. "What kind of a whale interacts with boats and humans?" Mr. Alhous asked. "You should have seen him lying beside our boat, looking up at you with his eyes, like he wants you to pet him."
Luna’s Archived Reports
Luna's Story - Luna Forum - Luna Fact Sheet
L98 (Luna) News Clips, Sightings Reports and Forum comments
Comments and news releases from January 30, 2002 to March 11, 2006 from interested observers.
Mom L67 with newborn baby Luna close behind, Sept. 1999. Photo by Susan Berta
Map of Luna's location compliments of John and Rene Halliburton
Tsu'xiit (Luna) dies in boat propellor
March 11, 2006 (The Westcoaster) Mowachaht / Muchalaht Tyee Ha'wilth Mike Maquinna looked out across Muchalaht Inlet, hoping news reports about Tsu’xiit were wrong.
The 237 tonne, 29-metre American tugboat General Jackson had come into Nootka Sound the night before, seeking shelter from gale-force winds off Nootka Island.
Towing a fully loaded log-dumping barge, the ship resumed its southward voyage early the next morning (Friday, March 10th) when the captain heard a loud thump.
According to a report from Fisheries Officer Ed Thorburne, the skipper looked back, saw a blood-red wake, and knew immediately what had happened.
He radioed the Canadian Coast Guard station at Amphitrite Point and advised them that Luna had been sucked into the 6-foot diameter ship propeller.
Local fisheries and RCMP officers jumped into their Zodiacs and raced to Conception Point on the southeast corner of Bligh Island to investigate, but could not find any trace of Luna, dead or alive.
A Mowachaht / Muchalaht boat in the area also joined the search.
When Mowachaht / Muchalaht searcher Sam Johnson Jr. arrived back at the Gold River dock, he immediately walked silently towards Maquinna. As he shook Maquinna’s hand, Johnson broke in to sobs. “It’s never going to be the same out there,” he said.
Three days after his arrival, Mowachaht / Muchalaht Tyee Ha’wilth Ambrose Maquinna died, but not before telling ha’wilth (Chief) Jerry Jack that he would return as a kakawin. Luna was named "Tsux'iit" in honour of the late Chief.
In June 2004, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) claimed that Tsu’xiit was a danger to boaters, and attempted to capture and relocate him to Puget Sound.
Mowachaht / Muchalaht, who were not consulted on the relocation plan, blocked DFO’s attempts to capture the whale.
“Nature must be allowed to take its course,” Maquinna said repeatedly in front of cameras broadcasting the story around the world.
Documents obtained through the federal Access to Information Program clearly show that many within DFO were suspicious of the move, as the department was already in discussion with aquariums in Ontario and California.
“The Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation is extremely saddened by the death of a killer whale, believed to be Tsu’xiit. He was a part of our community, and we hold him in very high regard,” said Maquinna. “In our culture, the killer whale is very significant, and everyone is saddened by the news a kakawin (killer whale) has died in our territory,” he said.
The Mowachaht / Muchalaht First Nation will celebrate the life of the kakawin at a special ceremony on Monday morning at Tsu’xiit’s favoured feeding area in Mooya Bay.
Famed killer whale dies in B.C.
March 10, 2006 (Toronto Globe and Mail) The wild, lonely ride of Luna the killer whale is over.
The boisterous six-year-old, black-and-white orca was well known for trying to find friends among ships plying the waters of Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
But yesterday, Luna got too close and was sucked into the two-metre-long propeller of an idling tugboat seeking shelter off Bligh Island from a vicious storm.
But environmentalists and a pair of journalists who had tracked the animal said in the five years since Luna had been separated from his family, he had been flirting with disaster.
“We didn't believe it,” Mike Parfit said in a phone interview from Gold River, about 350 kilometres northwest of Victoria. “That's what happens when you hear something about a loved one. You don't believe it.”
Mr. Parfit and his wife, Suzanne Chisholm, have been following Luna's story since he first appeared off the coast of Gold River in 2001, and Mr. Parfit spent the past two years listening to Luna's calls in his boat.
Luna had been separated from his family, which usually swims off the south coast of Vancouver Island. He quickly made a name for himself, swimming in the wakes of ships, but eventually became notorious for damaging boats and seaplanes.
For the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation, he had a spiritual significance: their chief, Ambrose Maquinna, expected to return after death as a killer whale. Just days after Mr. Maquinna died, Luna surfaced.
In March, when ship traffic is minimal, the only boat looking out for Luna was Mr. Parfit's. Yesterday morning, he was devastated when he heard the news.
“I sat there through the night with speakers in my boat listening to [Luna] call,” he said. “He came up to my boat and looked at me. But I wasn't there this morning. It just tears me up.
Luna the orphaned whale feared dead after being hit by tugboat
March 10, 2006 (canada.com) Luna, the dangerously friendly killer whale, has been killed doing the same sorts of things that enraged some boaters, but endeared him to hundreds of others in British Columbia and around the world.
Dr. John Ford, a whale biologist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said Friday it appears Luna died after getting sucked into the propeller of a tugboat in the waters off Gold River, where the whale has been living for the past five years.
"There's really no blame,'' Ford said.
Luna loved to play with boats of all sizes and Ford said he appeared quite savvy around them, rarely getting more than a few nicks.
But he miscalculated this time.
"Luna was apparently interacting with the tug as Luna used to do,'' Ford said from Victoria.
"Luna was apparently drawn into the very large propeller. The impact was felt by people on the tug. There were blood and remains in the wake of the tug. It's very likely that Luna was struck with fatal blows by the propeller and probably died instantly.''
The tug had been idling in rough, stormy waters when the accident occurred.
A spokesman for the tugboat company, Great Northern Marine Towing Ltd., of New Westminster said the captain and crew of the vessel General Jackson are heartbroken about the incident, which was described as unavoidable.
"We're all very sad about it,'' said Barry Connerty.
"It's pretty tragic. It's unfortunate. It was an accident. We all tried to avoid it. We did everything we could to avoid that outcome.''
Luna the Killer Whale Believed Killed
March 10, 2006 (Washington Post) Luna, the juvenile killer whale from Washington state waters who got lost in Canada's Nootka Sound five years ago, apparently died Friday when he was accidentally struck by a tugboat propeller, Canadian authorities said.
Luna, known to scientists as L-98 and a member of one of Washington's three resident orca pods, or family groups, wandered into Nootka Sound on the west side of Vancouver Island in 2001 and stayed, worrying activists and annoying boaters and seaplane pilots with his friendly curiosity.
"We don't know 100 percent but we do believe it's Luna," said spokeswoman Lara Sloan with Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Transient killer whales, which range along the coast preying on seals and other marine mammals, occasionally come through the long, twisty sound, but tend to avoid human traffic.
The dangerously friendly Luna was part of the region's "resident population," which spends much of the year in U.S. and Canadian inland waters. They live and hunt in family groups and mostly eat fish, especially salmon,
The 1,700-horsepower seagoing tug had pulled into sheltered waters near Conception Point to escape rough weather in the Pacific. Luna, known to enjoy playing in boat wakes, "was swimming under the vessel and was hit by a propeller," Sloan said.
"It was a really big tugboat _ 104 feet," she said.
The vessel was idling when Luna approached.
"Luna came over as he does and was interacting _ disappearing under the hull and so on. ... He must have gotten drawn into the propeller," said government research scientist and orca expert John Ford.
The tug's big propeller, contained in a cylinder, "generates a lot of current. ... It would have been a sudden death."
"The skipper is reported to be greatly distressed. He called the coast guard immediately after it happened," Sloan said from agency offices in Vancouver, British Columbia. "A lot of people here are pretty shocked and saddened."
"It was one of our fears about what might happen to Luna," Ford said. "Of course he's been engaging in these risky interactions with boats for several years now."
Luna likely was not familiar with the size and power of this vessel. While the carcass was not immediately recovered, "it seems almost certain to me that this is indeed Luna," Ford said. "And it's almost certain it was fatal."
Ford last saw Luna in January, when Ford visited the sound in a 200-foot research boat. "He came over. He was always curious."
Luna the orca killed by tugboat
March 10, 2006 (KING5 TV) Canadian officials believe a killer whale struck and killed by a tugboat off Vancouver Island is Luna.
Luna, known to scientist as L-98, wandered away from the L pod in Washington state waters five years ago and stayed in Nootka Sound. Apparently lonely, it would bump into boats and play in wakes.
The Canadian Fisheries Department says Luna was swimming in Nootka Sound under the 104-foot tugboat today when it was hit by a propeller. A federal fisheries official said the incident was an accident.
An attempt to move Luna back from Canada to U.S. waters in 2004 was thwarted when Indian canoes lured it away.
In 2002, marine mammal experts had successfully had moved another lone orca, named A-73 or Springer, from Puget Sound back to her home pod in British Columbia.
Luna Generates Talk, Emotion
March 17, 2006 (Kitsap Sun) One week after Luna was killed by a tugboat, emotions are still pouring out for the young orca who lived alone for five years in Canadian waters.
"We will always remember Luna as a special little whale, who touched many hearts around the world and gave a personal face and story to the plight of his family, the endangered Southern Resident orcas," wrote Susan Berta and Howard Garrett in a tribute they published on Orca Network. To see their essay and others, go to www.orcanetwork.org and click on "Luna has died."
Luna, known to scientists as L-98, was killed by a the propeller of a tugboat that entered Nootka Sound last Friday to escape a storm whipping up the ocean. Luna approached the 105-foot tugboat, as he did many boats of all sizes. He became caught in the surge of the propeller and was killed.
Limited tissues were recovered and will be used to learn what Luna was eating in Nootka Sound and determine levels of contamination he may have picked up, according to John Ford, a researcher with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Some of the tissue was shipped to U.S. scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle.
Mike Maquinna, chief of the local Mowachaht/Muchalaht band of natives, tossed a cedar bough into the water in honor of the whale they called Tsu’xiit, reported David Wiwchar on the Westcoaster news site.
"He was part of our community, and we hold him in very high regard," Maquinna was quoted as saying. "In our culture, the killer whale is very significant, and everyone is saddened by the news that a kakawin (killer whale) has died in our territory."
The Mowachaht/Muchalaht are planning a formal ceremony for Luna in July.
Beyond Nootka Sound, emotions, including anger and remorse, have poured out onto Web pages.
Michael Parfit, a writer and video producer, spent much of the winter on Nootka Sound. He admitted this week that he led Luna out of trouble from boats on a few occasions. But he was not on the water when Luna was killed and says he cannot escape a feeling of guilt.
"After we're done with crying and guilt and anger and lessons, none of which will solve our sorrow, we can get on with the more important stuff: remembering one who will always be good and beautiful and utterly blameless, Luna," he wrote.
Parfit's reflections, along with a political analysis by Fred Felleman of Ocean Advocates, can be found on the Orca Network Web site.
A whale of a solution: Give Luna human link
August 11, 2005 (Toronto Globe and Mail) Luna the dangerously sociable West Coast killer whale needs a human "foster" family because it prefers people to whales, say two writers studying the six-year-old marine mammal.
Three years after the giant, 1½-tonne creature swam solo into an inlet off the tiny Vancouver Island village of Gold River, Luna shows no signs of ever leaving the busy waterway, said Michael Parfit, who pitched his unorthodox plan to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. If anything, Luna is more drawn than ever to human activity on the seas, Mr. Parfit said.
The whale, which was nicknamed Luna by Gold River residents, has no qualms about approaching and giving a boat a nudge with its nose. It also toys with float planes in busy Nootka Sound on the west side of the island.
All attempts to limit human interaction with Luna have failed, Mr. Parfit said, so he believes a drastically different approach is needed. He thinks Luna needs human guardians because area boaters -- especially sports fishermen -- are fed up with the whale and might harm it. "Half of the fishers think he should be shot," he said.
Mr. Parfit isn't the first person to take note of Luna's powerful personality. Last year, a Vancouver Island fisherman and his son were held hostage for six hours while Luna tossed their gill-netter around like a toy.
At the time, the whale looked eerily human when it splashed along his father's fishing boat, David Alhous said.
"What kind of a whale interacts with boats and humans?" Mr. Alhous asked. "You should have seen him lying beside our boat, looking up at you with his eyes, like he wants you to pet him."
Luna's rough love takes toll of Nootka boats
July 27, 2005 (Victoria Times Colonist) Hopes that Luna the lonely orca is losing his fascination with boats faded Friday.
The five-year-old whale, apparently attracted by the summer influx of boats in Nootka Sound, spent much of the day dismantling parts of vessels.
"He came into the marina here and spent about two hours beating up boats," said Cameron Forbes, owner of Critter Cove Marina on Tlupana Inlet. "He broke three boats. He's ripped the brackets off the kicker motors."
Forbes said he tried unsuccessfully for two hours to get help from the coast guard's rapid response boat at Friendly Cove and from the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation.
Eventually, Luna was lured from Critter Cove by the MV Uchuck--one of his favorite vessels--which was on a regular run.
The Mowachaht/Muchalaht has asked the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to pay for a band vessel on the water constantly during fishing season to steer Luna away from trouble.
However, negotiations for the "stewardship" agreement are moving slowly. In the meantime, the Mowachaht/Muchalaht say they are already doing the patrols that they are funding themselves.
www.ReuniteLuna.com
December 02, 2004
Luna was last seen on Monday a few miles from Mooyah Bay (we do not post his exact location). His patterns are still consistent with the patterns that he followed last winter. Luna has not been near the Gold River docks now for a few weeks.
Luna seems uninterested in boats right now. We had a report that six boats passed him by last week, and he just continued to forage. Luna appears healthy.
Luna is a very vocal whale and continues to call on a regular basis.
*
Lunacy: When an orca gets up close and too personal -- and you can't do anything about it
Story and Photos by Greg Middleton
Re-typed from Pacific Yachting - December 2004 issue
It came out of the blue. I was below when I heard my crew yell there w
as a killer whale right beside the boat. "Oh no, it's Luna," I thought, rushing to grab the wheel. I felt a hard blow that nearly jerked the wheel out of my hand; then another; and another. At some point in those first few panic-stricken seconds the steering failed. I knew instinctively that the rudder was swinging free. I cut the engine. The whale was right under the boat.
It was mid-August and I was heading in to Gold River to reprovision and change crew on a trip around Vancouver Island. Little did I know this sudden encounter would stay with me for several days.
My only thought was to try to get away from Luna. I threw open the starboard side compartment and grabbed the emergency tiller. I slipped it into the hole in the rudderstock and started up the engine, hoping to get steerage back and escape. Within seconds the boat was again disabled and we were at Luna's mercy, under attack, being pushed around in circles with no hope of escape.
Again, the whale hit the rudder hard, shoving the emergency tiller around against my leg. I heard a bang below and thought the rudder had hit the prop. Fearing even more damage to my boat, I jerked the emergency tiller out and shut the engine off. The whale was shoving the boat around in circles. Every time he came up and blew, the cockpit was showered with spray. I knew the trip I had dreamed about for years had just run into a big problem.
NO WARNING
That morning I had talked to some of the half dozen sailboats anchored in Friendly Cove. There was talk about whether to take off to avoid deteriorating weather or not. I was planning to stay to fish so I decided to go into Gold River to wait out the bit of bad weather. No one mentioned any concerns about taking the boat in to Nootka Sound.
I had listened to the weather and to any Notices to Mariners and kept the VHF on Ch 16 during the day. I am pretty cautious. My crew and I had gone ashore at Friendly Cove and had not seen any notices warning boaters about Luna like the ones I later saw at Gold River. We were completely unprepared for what happened as we came out of Zuciarte Channel and around Anderson Point heading toward Hanna Channel.
I had been vaguely aware of Luna, an orphaned orca who had been hanging around in Nootka Sound, but I never expected this. I had heard that he disabled a sailboat the year before but thought it was a fluke, that they had been in some way trying to interact with the whale and he had accidentally hit the rudder. I was not looking for Luna and never expected Luna to come looking for me. I was stunned when Luna appeared out of nowhere. We had not seen him blow or surface until he appeared right in front of the boat. Now he was dogging the boat and going after the rudder.
HELP ARRIVES
I got on the radio and called Tofino Coast Guard for help. The radio operator told me they were trying to contact someone from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. We were fortunately opposite Mooyah Bay, which has a logging camp and fish farm, when it happened. Tim Elliott, from the Grieg Seafood fish farm, answered my distress call.
In the 15 minutes or more before Elliott arrived to help, I had to monitor my crew and boat's safety while the whale pushed us around like a beach ball. I told my crew to stay in the centre of the boat and away from the whale.
I had to form a plan of action if the boat looked like it might go down or onto the rocks. I did not want to harm the whale and knew that if I did I would probably end up in a lot of trouble -- no matter how justified my actions were. Despite Luna pushing my boat in circles we were able to rig up a towline.
Once under tow, I was better able to assess the damage to my boat. A quick check determined that the quadrant had broken. I figured that if we could get away from the whale, I could make my way into Gold River, and then on to Campbell River to find a welder.
I expected Luna to lose interest in my sailboat once I reached the dock at the logging camp at Mooyah Bay, and planned to make repairs to my boat and continue on my way. But over the next four hours I watched in growing horror as Luna continued to harass my boat, going back over and over again to swing the rudder around one way and then the other, banging it hard against the propeller. The whale, which is about five metres long and weighs over 1,360kg, would go out and push log booming boats around but always came back to my boat.
My crew caught a ride in with the loggers to Gold River and made their way back home. Staff at the logging camp allowed me to use their satellite phone to call DFO, my insurance company and the Coast Guard, who I asked to put out a Notice to Mariners.
DFO informed me that now that I was tied up to the dock, I was not allowed to do anything to Luna to get him to leave my boat alone. Later that afternoon, fisheries officer Ed Thorburn showed up and we watched the whale push the rudder over and over again. I was beginning to worry about the rudder coming out and the boat going down. Thorburn told me that while his heart bled for me, he could do nothing. I asked him if I had to just stand there and watch my boat sink if that is what it came to. He said yes and tried, unsuccessfully, to lead the whale away with his boat as he left.
The loggers said they would try to tow me out the next day if they could. They offered me a shower and coffee.
I learned that the whale was seen as a big pet by some and damned nuisance by others. Early that evening, the whale followed a tug with a tow off up the inlet.
TAKE TWO
The next morning, after being told Luna was probably up in another bay where the tug was, I decided to try to get into Gold River on my own. I rigged the emergency steering and headed out. I got no more than a few hundred yards when the rudder was again hit hard, and the emergency tiller bent. Luna was back and I was under attack again.
I didn't think the rudder would take much more of this and pulled the emergency tiller up. I got on the radio again. This time the crew boat from the logging camp towed me in -- the whale riding on the bow wave of the huge aluminum boat. For another 12 hours the whale was at the back of my boat at the rudder. When he was bored of the rudder, he'd start tossing my dinghy around until I pulled it out of the water. He would go off for a few minutes if another boat came in, but he always came back to my boat.
The loggers said they would try to get me out the next morning.
I was trying to get someone to come out from Gold River to tow me, but was later told that people were afraid of Luna -- the natives and the pro-Luna faction in town. Some people thought this incident might be the one that forced DFO to act and no one wanted to be part of it.
I was now hearing lots of other stories of Luna damaging boats and some amazing stories, such as the one about Luna dropping a salmon in a fisherman's skiff. At one point someone from the logging camp came down and borrowed my deck brush to scrub Luna's back. The Uchuck, the little coastal freighter that plies this part of the coast, came by and the tourists gawked, oohed and ahhed as Luna put on a show for them. They were thrilled to see such a magnificent animal up so close, and in some ways I couldn't blame them.
But I was now just about beside myself with frustration and despair. It looked to me like my rudder was starting to wobble. Some of the loggers expressed sympathy and made plans to haul my boat over to the beach if it started to go down. Others told me they would kill me if I did anything to hurt the whale. This is all starting to seem like some kind of surreal lunacy to me.
I called Coast Guard again to find out why there was still no Notice to Mariners and was told their officials were in meetings with DFO. Finally I was told the owner of the logging camp would come get me with his towboat in the morning. I was beginning to realize how political all this was. Later that day the Notice to Mariners was on the radio warning boaters to avoid the area.
Donn Cox, the owner of Spirit Lake Timber, the company logging at Mooyah Bay, arrived in his tug and we rigged up a side-by-side tow. There was no sign of Luna during the two-hour tow into Gold River. As I arrived in Gold River I had to deal with a TV reporter and calls from other reporters. The next day boat surveyor Laurie Langill arrived and suggested trucking the boat out.
FOUND AGAIN
Over the next couple of days I watched Luna, who has turned up at the dock, rubbing against and shoving around boats tied up in Gold River. He left my boat alone until I and the crew from Nautech Industries tried to move it. He hit the rudder hard again a few times. We used ropes to haul the boat around, being careful Luna didn't manage to push the boat away from the dock.
A commercial fisherman showed up looking for me to tell me Luna disabled his fish boat. Everyone in Gold River who has a boat seems to have stories about Luna doing damage to it. No one has depth sounders that work -- Luna has ripped off all the transducers. But there are also those thrilled to have Luna there; tourists keep arriving looking for a way to see the internationally famous "friendly killer whale of Nootka Sound." I watched the whale try to knock the outboard off a small speedboat.
The boat movers finally showed up and my boat got hauled to Comox for repair.
Later, after a meeting with DFO where I showed them a video I took of the encounter, John Ford told me he had seen orca attacks and believed this was just play -- dysfunctional play by an orca that has no other orcas to play with. He admitted the whale's actions were more focused and dangerous than he had seen in the past.
I heard more stories about boats being damaged -- about five that week alone, some quite seriously.
The damage to my boat was much more serious than we thought. The prop, prop shaft and the strut were all bent. DFO announced they will put up more signs, put out a brochure and pay the natives $5,000 a month to monitor the whale. A few days later another commercial fish boat was damaged.
I hear from sources within the DFO that the plan is still to try to move Luna to Pedder Bay and I am told it will take a "serious incident" before they will consider the next options -- capture and an aquarium or, if that does not work, euthanasia. More than a month and $10,000 later, my boat is repaired and back in the water. I arranged to do a few speaking engagements at yachting groups to warn people to give Nootka Sound, or wherever Luna is, a very wide berth.
Response to Vancouver Sun Op-ed below by Howard Garrett, Orca Network
Craig McInnis' treatment of the problems surrounding Luna, the not-so-little orca, (Let's face facts: Luna is a danger to human beings) has a ring of common-sense and thoughtfulness to it, and I think it fairly represents prevailing opinions on what to do about Luna. The analogy of the nuisance bear is the model most people think of when they try to assess the situation.
The problem with that line of thinking is that orcas are far different from bears in some crucially important ways.
I understand that Luna is dangerous right now, even though there is no doubt he is just desperate for company, and sometimes a bit frustrated without it. The primary difference between orcas and bears, which may seem too subtle and invisible to appreciate, is that whereas bears operate largely on instinct and conditioned responses to food etc., orcas are members of specific cultures replete with traditions, social controls and rules of behavior. And Luna knows who he is. He just doesn't have any family members to guide his behavior, so he immobilizes helpless boaters for attention.
Here's where the solution to the problem comes in. That portrait of Luna may be hard to take in, but if Luna's cultural identity is accepted, a way to reduce or remove his mischief can be accomplished. He needs company, so give it to him. He won't "lose his fear of humans" because he never had any fear of humans, nor do any orcas fear humans. Certain, selected and trained people could be designated to keep Luna company, hold his interest and entertain him. I'm sure he'll be very creative, so it could be a challenge, but I'm sure people are up for it.
At some point there will be an opportunity to get Luna close to his family. Because he is a family member and will be remembered as such, there will be acceptance. I'm stating this as certainty fully aware that nobody really knows what might happen, but the vast weight of opinion is that it's too late for Luna to rejoin his family, or it will soon be, especially if we give him the company he craves. This is all based on the bear analogy, now known to be inadequate when trying to understand the behavior of an orca.
Thank you,
Howard Garrett
Let's face facts: Luna is a danger to human beings
Vancouver Sun (Canada.com)
Craig McInnes
September 02, 2004
If Luna were a bear, he would have been shot and killed long ago. Bears that lose their fear of humans and become a nuisance or a danger to the public are routinely dispatched in British Columbia by the hundreds each year.
But Luna is not a bear. Luna is an orca, which is the more socially acceptable name we have given killer whales in the past couple of decades.
Luna has not killed any humans yet, but the rapidly growing young whale has scared the bejesus out of more than one fisherman in Nootka Sound, while mauling their boats in the process.
The remarkable tolerance shown by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans toward Luna's dangerous behaviour reflects the radical makeover that has occurred in the public image of killer whales. No longer are they feared as the most efficient killing machines on the planet, capable of hunting in bloodthirsty packs to bring down the largest creatures in the ocean. Now the resident pods are viewed as docile, even fragile creatures that graze contentedly on salmon, while maintaining a life-long commitment to their families.
Marine mammal regulations that keep whale-watching boats from operating too close to pods are not there for the protection of bite-sized tourists, but to keep the whales from being overly harassed. In the same way that early studies of orcas quickly dispelled the stereotypical view of them as simply vicious killers, Luna may now be doing us all a service by stopping the pendulum of public opinion from swinging too far in the other direction.
Through his familiarity with humans, Luna is reminding us that killer whales are immensely powerful, wild creatures that should not be mixing with people, no matter how inspirational or awe inspiring they may be.
As a solitary juvenile whale, Luna is an oddity on the coast, where every resident whale has been catalogued over the past couple of decades. Luna was a member of the L pod. His mother is believed to be L67, known as Splash. He was born in September, possibly the 19th, in 1999. Two years later, he showed up by himself in Nootka Sound in July of 2001.
One theory is that he was with his uncle, Orcan, who died and he subsequently got lost. Since leaving his family, Luna has turned to people and their boats, apparently for amusement and companionship. It has not been a good surrogate, even though Luna seems quite satisfied to remain where he is.
Lately Luna has amused himself by smashing the rudders on boats and pushing them around. The boaters, some reasonably fearing for their lives, have not been so amused. Luna's solitary existence and his increasingly dangerous behaviour have severely tested our notions of how to react to resident killer whales.
A spokesman for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans says there is no protocol for killing a killer whale that has become a menace to people. That sad end has been made more probable by arguments over how to deal with the solitary whale. After blocking earlier attempts to capture and reunite Luna with his family, the local First Nations band has now signed a "joint stewardship plan," under which they will be paid to try to keep Luna and people apart.
The band believes the lonely whale embodies the spirit Ambrose Maquinna, a former chief of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht who died shortly before Luna appeared. The stewardship plan, which was obtained earlier this week by the CBC, may lessen tension between the DFO and the local band, but it will not solve the problem posed by Luna.
As it stands, DFO is warning boaters to watch out for a hazard they really can do nothing about. If Luna wants to play, he can outrun almost anything afloat and even a gentle caress from the giant mammal can make a pretzel out of a rudder. But even without malice, Luna is a threat to people in boats. He is now so accustomed to humans that simply relocating him so he can be reunited with his pod may not be enough.
As with bears that learn to like dining out on garbage, Luna may now have habits that will make him a menace wherever he goes.
It's time to take action on Luna
September 2, 2004 (Victoria Times Colonist - Op-Ed by Ryan Lejbak) Ryan Lejbak is with the "reuniteluna" group. He wrote this with the support of Anon.org, Earth Island Institute International Marine Mammal Project, Free Willy Keiko Foundation, Luna Stewardship Project/Veins of Life Watershed Society, Orca Conservancy, orcagirl.com/ocean-society.com, Orca Network, OrcaLab/Pacific Orca Society, The Center for Whale Research, The Humane Society of the U.S., and The Whale Museum/Soundwatch.
Luna, the lone, friendly orca of Nootka Sound, is in trouble and needs help. Sensational news stories which focus on his encounters with boats have recently been published worldwide. They make much of the fear Luna has aroused in a few boaters. As a result, some people have called for Luna to be sent to an aquarium, or even killed.
Those options are neither acceptable nor necessary.
Many groups involved in the Luna saga believe there are better choices for Luna than captivity or killing.
Luna's friendliness toward people is unusual, but not unique. Whales and dolphins are social beings, and in the absence of their own kind they seek or accept substitutes, including humans.
Most stories about "solitaries" have disastrous endings. However, research shows that programs using boats with trained personnel to monitor the situation and prevent inappropriate human interactions are successful in protecting both people and solitary whales and dolphins.
Fortunately for Luna, the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have at last agreed to establish a full-time monitoring presence on the waters of Nootka Sound. We believe that such a presence is vital for Luna's survival.
However, we are concerned that the level of funding committed by the DFO is inadequate. Given the urgency, we hereby announce our willingness to assist in raising funds, and contribute equipment, volunteers, and scientific expertise to help make that effort successful.
Months of research we recently conducted on Luna's behaviour clearly indicate that he behaves pretty much like other orcas. He is a great hunter and he has a fabulous voice. He is not, in other words, abnormal. He is healthy, strong, playful. Certainly, he is missing the rich social life he would normally get from his family and community, but it is unfair to characterize him as "malicious" or to use words like "attack" in stories about him.
We believe that in the short term a strong monitoring and enforcement program will help address the immediate problems in Nootka Sound.
Additionally, we strongly urge that all organizations and individuals who care about Luna work together toward reuniting him with his family as soon as possible.
The southern resident community of orcas, to which Luna belongs, is also in serious trouble. Many of its members were captured in the 1970s for public display, and their numbers have declined significantly over the last decade. They are listed as endangered in Canada and in Washington state. Today their numbers stand at just 83.
Being endangered, Luna's community needs him. As a social creature, Luna needs his community. "Resident" orcas are among the most social beings on the planet. Individuals spend their entire lives within the family ("matriline") to which they are born. Luna's voice clearly identifies him as a member of the "L2" matriline, named after his grandmother. Knowing this, we fully expect that if Luna and members of his family hear one another, they will reunite.
This opinion is based on more than 30 years of orca observation, as well as the success of Springer, another solitary orca who was moved from the Seattle area to her home waters of northern Vancouver Island in 2002. Springer was welcomed back into her great aunt's matriline soon after her relocation. She is still with this family today, and has largely lost interest in boats. Last spring, before DFO's attempt to capture Luna in a net, we spent time and money attempting to achieve a more natural reunion, in which Luna would have been led toward his pod if it came near Nootka Sound.
First Nations approved our efforts. That attempt did not succeed, because Luna's pod did not come near Nootka Sound. However, we believe that such a natural reunion should be attempted again this fall, when Luna's pod travels back to the north.
This approach to reuniting Luna with his family simply holds the door open and offers him a choice. Orcas can hear each other through many kilometres of ocean, so if Luna's pod passes Nootka Sound it would be simple to offer him a choice by leading him just a short distance.
That lead-out might best be conducted by First Nations paddlers who have already established a powerful bond with Luna.
The Mowachaht-Muchalaht believe that Luna chose to come to Nootka Sound. He may choose to remain in Nootka Sound. But the door should not be closed on giving him the option of rejoining his family whenever the opportunities occur. Our conviction remains that Luna's survival depends on reuniting with his orca community.
A natural reunion will rely on both planning and luck. In order to improve the odds, Luna's pod should be tracked this fall as it leaves its summer waters.
It will not be easy to accomplish this, but for Luna's sake it should be tried.
The effort could also provide critical information that will help the recovery of the endangered southern resident population. We therefore urge DFO, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, and others to make the required effort.
We also urge the Mowachaht-Muchalaht people, who have shown courage and resolve in protecting Luna's freedom, to give him the additional freedom of choice if the opportunity arises.
As Chief Mike Maquinna said in a speech to his paddlers shortly before they took to their canoes to prevent Luna's capture: "It's not about us. It's about the whale."
Petitions supporting Luna's reunion, and urging DFO and First Nations to work together to protect Luna in the meantime, are at www.reuniteluna.com and www.anon.org.
Maturing orca endangers boats
August 28, 2004 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) 'Stewardship plan' aims to ease contact between Luna, public
Days after Luna, the lonely killer whale, damaged three boats during separate encounters off Vancouver Island's west coast, a Canadian fisheries official said yesterday that his agency will issue a formal "stewardship plan" early next week that spells out ways to ease contact between the public and the wayward orca.
In late June and early July, the Canadian fisheries agency's efforts were thwarted by the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation, a local band that regards Luna as the embodiment of its late chief. During efforts to lead the orca into a holding pen for capture, members of the band paddled canoes nearby, leading the whale out to sea.
Since scrapping its plans, the fisheries agency is now negotiating with the tribe on a cooperative agreement for the whale, which remains undecided.
To some, though, such as environmental activist Fred Felleman, president of the Seattle-based Orca Conservancy, the Canadian agency "should have had active management in place" to deal with such issues much earlier.
Radford, the fisheries manager, yesterday disputed criticisms such as Felleman's, saying his agency and the tribe have made great efforts to educate the public about Luna. He noted "there have been a number of non-interactions" between Luna and boaters because of such action.
The tribe has posted warning signs, has restricted some dock access and has distributed brochures to the public about the whale, Radford said. And Fisheries and Oceans continually issues radio broadcasts over maritime frequencies, he said.
Still, Luna continues to seek out contact. And his latest encounters were highly publicized in Canadian media reports.
The Victoria Times Colonist carried an Aug. 21 story headlined, "Growing ever more wild, Luna menaces gillnetters." And The (Vancouver) Province characterized the whale's recent 12-hour encounter with a sailboat as an "attack."
August 20, 2004
Hello Chief Maquinna,
In light of the recent information that has come out this week concerning Luna and his interactions with boats, I'm sorry to say that I don't believe that monitoring and public education will be enough to keep Luna safe. Clearly, his loneliness and want for social interaction is an additional issue that monitoring alone cannot solve.
I truly understand your concern and wish that Luna reunite with his pod on his own. For everyone who cares about Luna, and more importantly for Luna himself, this would be best. For whatever reason or circumstance, this hasn't happened. Luna cannot find his way back to the pod on his own, they haven't found him on their own and each year that Luna has spent in Nootka Sound has cost him more of his wildness. I am concerned and frightened that any more time away from his own family, his own culture and all that can teach and remind him what it is to be wild and truly free will be lost to him forever. It's an awful reality that we've come closer to as these last 3 years have passed. That along with the time that's yet to come for Luna living without the nurturing family structure that is natural to him, brings this reality closer still.
I also understand the importance that your family and your people feel for Luna in your traditions. The majesty and grace of these animals is a true gift to behold and you are so privileged and blessed to have such a rich history with them. Their role in your culture is honorable and profoundly moving but in saying this, I cannot help but feel a deep sadness. Your people have such high regard and respect for Luna and all Killer Whales but in traveling your path of sorrow for the loss of your Father, a path I have traveled myself, Luna's culture and his need seems to have become secondary to your own. I say this with no disrespect to you or your people but with genuine concern for Luna and what is happening to him. Your thoughts and beliefs of what brought Luna to Nootka Sound differ from my own but the reverence for him that we both feel, is the same. The bond and familial uniqueness these animals hold for one another is the foundation of their lives, what keeps them continuing and filling the ocean with their own songs. With all due respect to you, I believe deeply that this is more important than any feeling that we can have for them. They enter our world for a moment, but they are the world to one another for all time.
Human emotions have run high, angry words have passed and feelings have been hurt over the difficulty that Luna has found himself in and what can be done to help him. With much sadness, the importance of Luna's existence has become lost in the struggle of opposing opinions. As time for discussion passes for us, Luna's need for companionship, attention and affection increases, often putting him in great danger. He has obvious physical and emotional need for what we as humans cannot give him, while his family lacks the rich contribution that his inclusion to their society would bring. Luna has a role to play within that society that's more than simply additional genetics. It's the strength of their life bond that keeps them together through generations and their inherent need for one another that gives them the natural, peaceful rhythm of their lives. As difficult as it is for us to know what fills Luna heart and mind we do know that the life he leads now, alone and without the companionship of his own kind, is not a normal or healthy existence for a Killer Whale who was born to the culture and society that he was.
I sincerely ask that you join together with DFO and the NGO's to help Luna by returning him to the life he was meant to have, to the society he needs that also needs him. Luna cannot find his way back to his family on his own. It's not a path he knows to travel alone. His life is worth this effort and the sooner he can be reintegrated with his pod, the more stable and natural his life will be. I understand if you cannot join in the effort but I beg you, if you can't, please don't stand in opposition of it. Luna grows bigger, stronger and bolder just as a healthy male Killer Whale should. But in doing so, he also finds greater danger by depending on the companionship of human beings. Luna's need should be the most important issue that's considered. We have our families and each other from which to draw strength and solace when we are in need. Right now, Luna has no one. Please, reconsider your desire that Luna remain in Nootka Sound and that he have no assistance to find his way back to where he belongs. It will be devastating to us all if Luna should perish when we had the chance to help him but didn't. Returning Luna to his family is the right thing to do, for Luna, if not for us.
Peace be upon you.
Luna SHALL Be Free@Sea!!
Growing ever more wild, Luna menaces gillnetters
August 21, 2004 (Victoria Times Colonist) Fears are growing that Luna the lonely orca will be harmed by an angry or frightened boater or that the whale will accidentally hurt or kill someone on the water after a week of orca mayhem.
A gillnet fishery in Nootka Sound, off Vancouver Island's west coast, was thrown into disarray and two gillnet boats disabled by Luna Wednesday evening.
The thousands of dollars of damage to the commercial fishing boats and loss of fishing time for the owners came the day after Luna broke the rudder off an expensive sailboat and continued to play with the disabled vessel for 12 hours.
But, so far, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it has no plans to embark on another capture attempt and a yet-to-be-signed joint stewardship program with the Mowachaht-Muchalaht band will continue as the main method of managing the wayward whale.
Greg Savard, DFO director of conservation and protection, said he hopes the stewardship agreement will be signed next week, but in the meantime, some elements are already in place.
A brochure is being distributed on the Gold River dock by First Nations, more signs have been put up warning people to stay away from Luna and marine advisories are going out on the vessel traffic channel and the weather channel, he said.
Gillnetters in the area have had only five days fishing this year so far, so the loss of the day's fishing for the boats broken by Luna is a huge hardship, said Les Rombaugh, president of the Area D Gillnetters Association.
The next fishing opening for the gillnet fleet in Nootka Sound is likely to be in October, for a chum salmon fishery.
More has to be done to protect fishermen, recreational boaters and the whale, Rombaugh said.
"I think we have a very serious problem here. I'm afraid someone is going to get killed or someone will kill him," he said.
Most fishermen realize the orca is playing, but, financial consequences are escalating and people in small recreational boats may feel they are threatened, Rombaugh said. "It would be along self-defence lines."
The chinook fishery this week was a good one and anyone who missed out is probably looking at a $10,000 loss in addition to the cost of repairing the boat, he said.
Most of the gillnet boats are about 13 metres long and travel between 12 and 15 knots, but Luna was able to keep up, said one observer. Boats would set off at top speed attempting to get away, but Luna apparently regarded it as part of the game, said Rombaugh.
In June, DFO and scientists from the Vancouver Aquarium teamed up in an effort to catch four-year-old Luna in a net pen and truck him to Pedder Bay to reunite him with his pod.
But the plan was scuttled after members of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht, who believe the whale embodies the spirit of their dead chief, led Luna away from the net pen with canoes.
Chief Mike Maquinna could not be contacted Friday.
Savard said the question of Luna's future will be revisited this fall, although no date has been set. Options could include another shot at relocation.
In the meantime, although DFO is concerned about the safety of the whale and the public, liability does not fall on any particular group, he said.
"We look at this as a wild animal that we don't necessarily have any control over," he said. But, as Luna's love of boats intensifies, the chance of a successful reunion with his family is shrinking and fears are growing that he could end up in an aquarium.
Clint Wright, Vancouver Aquarium vice-president, who helped organize the aborted relocation, said he does not believe it is viable for Luna to remain in Nootka Sound, but it is increasingly unlikely he will give up his boat habit, even if he is with other whales.
"Whales don't live in a Disney sort of world and people who know whales say he will keep doing these behaviours over and over again," Wright said.
Wright is worried that Luna or a boater will get hurt. "It really is an accident waiting to happen . . . We all want a happy ending, but it's beginning to look like a dead end," he said.
B.C. First Nation proposing plan for Luna
July 8, 2004 (Globe and Mail) A B.C. First Nation is proposing a stewardship plan for a nuisance whale in Vancouver Island's Nootka Sound.
The Mowachaht-Muchalaht band wants to take the lead role in keeping Luna the lonely killer whale from interfering with boats and floatplanes.
Natives envision daily canoe patrols of Luna's habitat until mid-September.
Band leaders plan to meet tomorrow with the RCMP and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to discuss the orca's future.
The natives have been involved in a tug-of-war with the department over its plans to relocate the whale.
The DFO wants to capture and truck the whale to southern Vancouver Island, with the aim of reuniting Luna with his U.S.-based pod.
The natives believe the five-year-old whale embodies the spirit of a former chief.
A whale's story begs good ending
July 5, 2004 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial) We see the makings of a nautical soap opera: A lost orca and its pod.
In every episode there's a dramatic new twist to what was once a simple plot -- help a lost orca find its way back to its pod.
The story so far:
Luna, the overly friendly killer whale, has been declared a danger to himself and to the public. So, Canadian fisheries officials have been trying to relocate the 5-year-old orca some 200 miles south where he can hook up with his pod.
This plot -- simple as it sounds -- has become awfully complicated.
First there's the issue of a Native Canadian band because they don't want the whale captured. A native band believes Luna, who appeared in Nootka Sound in 2001 after separating from his pod, embodies the spirit of its late chief.
Then there's the love interest. Too many people "love" Luna in inappropriate ways. Just last week the friendly whale broke off a sailboat rudder in Mooyah Bay. Before that, Luna surfaced near a landing floatplane -- and he has become "dangerously friendly" with boats and people. All reasons to make the pod whole in far-off waters.
The problems raised by Canadian Native groups can be resolved -- and they should be, quickly. But that means true partnership -- listening to the concerns and finding solutions that work for Luna as well as for the other parties.
This story deserves a happy ending.
Danger issue grows after Luna damages boat
July 2, 2004 (Victoria Times Colonist) Luna, the orca in Nootka Sound who has been the subject of a tug-of-whale between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation, has disabled a saiboat in the middle of Mooyah Bay.
The solitary killer whale, who has developed an affinity for boats and planes because he does not have other whales to play with, broke the rudder off the Georgia Dawn on Wednesday morning, meaning the boat could not be steered.
The coast guard responded to the incident and the boat was towed into the nearby Tuta Marina by the Wi-Hut-Suh-Nup, an aluminium boat belonging to the Mowachaht-Muchalaht.
Luna's behaviour has again raised fears about how the playful orca can be controlled as boating season picks up in Nootka Sound.
DFO decided earlier this year that the four-year-old orca should be caught, transported to Pedder Bay and released when his pod was within acoustic range, because he had become a danger to himself and the public.
However, the plans went awry because the natives, who believe Luna embodies the spirit of their dead chief Ambrose Maquinna, lured the orca away from the net pen in their canoes.
The plans are on hold until DFO and the Mowachaht-Muchalaht come to some agreement on the future of the whale.
The natives want to lead Luna down the west coast of Vancouver Island in their canoes to rejoin his pod.
DFO spokeswoman Lara Sloan said Luna's disabling of the sailboat is a reminder to everyone why it was decided to move him.
"This is not unusual behaviour for him and it is the reason why we wanted to go ahead with the relocation in the first place," she said. "He is a public danger."
Sloan said DFO wants to remind everyone to keep as far away from Luna as possible and not habituate him to human contact any more than he already is.
Shirley Andrews, owner and manager of the Tuta Marina, referring to the sailboat incident, said, "This happened last year as well and it's why I would really like to see him reunited with his pod.
"He's a baby. He's just playing. He doesn't mean to be a danger, but he is."
Luna also dislikes fish finders, ripping them off boats even if they are turned off.
"They emit some kind of wave which he doesn't like," Andrews said.
However, there are ways to avoid Luna when you are out in a boat, she said.
"You simply accelerate out of there and get away. If you happen to be fishing, you crank your motor and back out of there."
Luna the whale breaks boat's rudder
July 2, 2004 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) An overly friendly young killer whale that Canadian fisheries officials have been trying to relocate has disabled a sailboat.
Luna broke the rudder off a sailboat in Mooyah Bay on Wednesday. The Canadian coast guard responded, and the boat was towed into a nearby marina by an aluminum boat belonging to local Indians.
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans decided earlier this year that, because Luna was a danger to himself and the public, the orca should be caught, relocated to a bay 200 miles south of here near Victoria, then released when his U.S. relatives were close enough for him to hear their calls.
But the plan was put on hold last week after a dispute escalated with local Indians who don't want the 5-year-old whale captured.
They believe the whale embodies the spirit of their late chief.
Luna's rescue turns into a tug of war
July 1, 2004 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) What started out as a well-intentioned rescue mission -- to capture a killer whale stranded in British Columbia and reunite him with his Puget Sound relatives -- has dissolved into a public-relations nightmare.
Forced to suspend the operation a week ago after running into stiff resistance from local Indians, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans is now being chastised by members of its own international advisory panel.
The plan to capture the orca, named Luna, was abruptly called off after a band of Vancouver Island Indians derailed the effort for more than a week by entering Nootka Sound in dugout canoes and drawing the whale to them by making a racket -- singing and banging paddles.
Critics say the aquatic tug of war waged by the Mowachaht/Muchalaht band with the government may have been averted had First Nation representatives been included in the planning process, as recommended.
"The band has a legitimate grievance here," said Paul Spong, a member of the advisory panel and executive director of OrcaLab, a B.C.-based research group.
The band's chief, Mike Maquinna, has offered to lead Luna down the Vancouver coast in canoes to reunite him with his family. He wants to see the original plan scrapped and the process started over.
Some of the advisory panel's scientists also supported the idea of leading Luna by boat.
"That was my plan from the beginning," said Ken Balcomb, executive director of the Friday Harbor-based Center for Whale Research. Catching Luna in a pen "wasn't the preferred way, as far as I was concerned. I don't think there was a consensus."
"I didn't see any threat to people," Balcomb said of past visits to see Luna. "He's in total control of himself and what he's pushing around."
Besides, he said, there are still relatives out in the ocean that could swim past Luna's location and possibly entice him back.
Luna rescue called off for now
June 25, 2004 (Bremerton Sun) Luna, the wayward killer whale, will stay put in Nootka Sound for the time being.
Maquinna said he hoped renewed negotiations would make things go more smoothly.
"The strength of our people was more apparent than anything," Maquinna said. "Our wish is that Tsuxiit is treated with respect."
The chief said he still supports the idea of leading the whale by canoe on a 140-mile journey down the west coast of Vancouver Island to meet up with his pod, but he is open to other ideas. His main objections have been to placing Luna in a net pen, moving him by truck and attaching a tracking device with pins through his dorsal fin.
"We'll get some rest and start talking next week," he said.
Plan to reunite Luna with whale pod is put on hold
June 25, 2004 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Plans to capture Luna and reunite the lone orca with his family in Puget Sound were postponed indefinitely yesterday by the Canadian government in hopes of settling differences with Indians opposing the action.
"We have had a number of discussions with them and have attempted to accommodate their needs and views in our operations," the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said in a statement.
"It is evident however, that further discussions are required, and in the interest of public safety and the well-being of the whale, we will be meeting with First Nations over the coming days to review options."
Members of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht band believe that a deceased chief spiritually inhabits the 4-year-old male orca, which arrived in their waters off Vancouver Island three years ago -- about the time of the chief's death.
Leaders of the band say they were not included in the planning of the capture and attempted reunification, which they find disrespectful.
Luna story takes on political overtones
June 24, 2004 (Bremerton Sun) Canadian government officials temporarily called off the tug-of-war involving Luna, a young killer whale on Nootka Sound. But the political and legal battle appears to be heating up rapidly.
Due to conflicts on the water, attempts to rescue Luna were halted Wednesday, but said Marilyn Joyce of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans the operations could resume at any time.
But local First Nations people say the whale, who they call Tsuxiit, should be allowed to swim free. Many believe Luna embodies the spirit of their dead chief, who passed away less than a week before Luna showed up in Nootka Sound. Keeping the whale in a net pen and moving him on a flatbed truck is especially offensive, they say.
With singing and drumming, the local natives of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht Band, or tribe, on several occasions managed to lead the whale away from the capture area, while fisheries officers keep trying to lure him back toward the pen.
Meanwhile, Mike Maquinna, chief of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht Band, has written letters the past two days to high officials in the Canadian government, asking that their aboriginal rights and beliefs be respected.
One letter specifically demands that Joyce be replaced as coordinator of the Luna relocation project. Maquinna said he has lost faith in her ability to communicate with him, the Mowachaht/Muchalaht people and the larger tribal government.
Maquinna said Joyce told reporters that the chief had agreed to a 500-meter exclusion zone for First Nations paddlers, but Maquinna says he did not.
"We are extremely concerned for the welfare of this whale that otherwise is perfectly safe in Nootka Sound if the public is kept away," he wrote.
Luna still elusive, stays near Indian canoes
June 24, 2004 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Luna continued to elude his Canadian captors yesterday, swimming with canoes paddled by Vancouver Island Indians who oppose plans to catch the wayward killer whale.
Members of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht, a neighboring band, claim the spirit of a deceased chief inhabits the orca. Since the capture attempts began last week, they have taken to canoes, singing and pounding their paddles to lure the orca away.
On Tuesday, officials with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans were able to repeatedly lead Luna with motorboats into underwater net pens.
But each time, the 4-year-old orca slipped out before the net was closed. It appeared that Luna, known scientifically as L-98, thought the exercise was a game. He would even push the lead boat into the pen and then escape.
At one point, he corralled three boats into his presumptive cage before slipping away.
Capture efforts are expected to resume today, and government officials and Indian leaders are still in negotiations.
Elusive Luna remains free
June 23, 2004 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Close, but no capture.
The elusive lone orca nicknamed Luna remained free last night, swimming in and out of an underwater net pen off the northwest coast of British Columbia's Vancouver Island before swimming off to join nearby Indians paddling canoes.
Canadian officials hope to capture him and house him temporarily in the pen before attempting to reunite the 4-year-old killer whale with relatives in Puget Sound.
Federal fisheries and Vancouver Aquarium officials called off their efforts for the night, but said they would start again today.
"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," said Wright, still wearing his wet suit. He said the crew allowed about 10 days for the capture and has used about half that.
Since the government set out to capture the orca a week ago, a local Indian band that opposes the plan has been out on the water, singing and pounding paddles on their canoes to lure the whale. The Native Canadians believe a deceased chief spiritually inhabits Luna, which arrived alone in their waters three years ago.
Canadian and U.S. government officials have been working on the relocation plan for months, driven by increasing concerns about the gregarious whale's safety. Film footage of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht band taken last week shows members patting and scratching the orca's head as it nuzzled up to their canoes.
"We've been blessed and honored in his presence and that he's (decided) to come with us," the Indian band's current chief, Mike Maquinna, said last night. "Obviously we are not going to stay here, we are going to head out in the opposite direction of the holding pen."
Luna plays hard to get
June 23, 2004 (Bremerton Sun) After a frantic day of cat and mouse on the wind-tossed waters of Nootka Sound, Luna swam away from the capture pen that he had entered several times late Tuesday afternoon.
In the end, Luna went back to a pair of canoes, in which the native paddlers were singing and drumming and doing their best to draw him away.
Luna seemed to be enjoying the game. He often pushed the lead boat inside and then escaped. Once, he had all three boats inside the pen before making his getaway.
"As we sat here and talked and regrouped, I told the people how proud I am," Maquinna said.
"Generation after generation," Maquinna said, "we have learned that you don't play with nature."
Luna still eluding would-be captors
June 18, 2004 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) For a second day, an orca stranded on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island eluded the Canadian captors who are trying to reunite him with his Puget Sound family.
Luna followed an inflatable Canadian fisheries department boat about halfway back toward a series of underwater net pens yesterday, but stopped to eat salmon in his favorite bay, said John Nightingale, president of the Vancouver Aquarium, which is conducting the operation.
Luna remained in the bay into the evening, Nightingale said.
On Wednesday, the 4-year-old killer whale was lured out to sea and away from the net pens by local Indians in dugout canoes. The Mowachaht-Muchalaht band opposes the capture, with members convinced they share a spiritual connection with the orca.
Local Indians lure Luna out to sea
June 17, 2004 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Luna headed out to sea off the northwest coast of Vancouver Island with a group of local Indians paddling dugout canoes.
Native Canadians claiming a spiritual connection to the lonely orca lured him away in an attempt to prevent his capture -- the first stage of a planned reunion with his Puget Sound relatives.
Local orcas have about 35 sounds -- screeches and moans -- in their vocabulary. Each maternal group, which includes mothers and their offspring, has specific calls and sounds are shared within pods, Osborne said.
The hope is that Luna will recognize their conversation as coming from his pod while it travels around the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the San Juan Islands and up around the mouth of the Fraser River and Georgia Strait. The animals swim about a hundred miles a day.
Scientists and orca enthusiasts closely track the resident killer whales when they're in inland waters, sharing information on the Orca Network. When the network observes Luna's pod within range, the orca -- which will be tagged so his movements can be tracked -- will be released.
Hey! Where you going with that whale?
June 17, 2004 (Bremerton Sun) As authorities were preparing to capture Luna, members of a local native band — believing they are protecting the whale — led him 20 miles away.
It wasn’t a protest, insisted Mike Maquinna, leader of the First Nations band.
“We’re with him to protect him,” he said. “It’s not about us. It’s all about the whale.”
The Canadian government’s rescue plan calls for Luna to follow a boat into a net pen. Following a medical evaluation, Luna was to be taken by truck to Pedder Bay, west of Victoria, where he would be released when his family group comes nearby.
But Maquinna said his people have developed a deep spiritual connection to Luna, who they call “Tsuxiit.”
Their tradition holds that their dead leaders may return to this world as wolves or killer whales. The former chief, Ambrose Maquinna, had expressed a desire to return to Nootka Sound as a killer whale and help deal with what he felt was an intrusion of commercial fish farms in the area. Ambrose was Mike Maquinna’s father.
Within a week of his father’s death, Maquinna said, Luna showed up in Nootka Sound.
“He’s here for a reason,” he told The Sun. “Maybe he’s meant to start a family of his own here.”
Canadian Indians use canoes to thwart scientists' efforts to capture lonely killer whale June 17, 2004 (Enviromental News Service)
Luna Capture Updates 12:07 PST
June 16, 2004 (ReuniteLuna.com) We have received reports that Vancouver Aquarium staff will attempt to lead Luna into the pen around 2:00 pm this afternoon (8:54 PST)
Canoes paddled by members of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation are out on the waters of Nootka Sound this morning. (9:57 PST)
The reason for the delay is to ensure the net pen is ready and to wait for one member of the capture team to get to Gold River. (10:00 PST)
CBC NewsWorld reports that First Nations have led Luna 7 kms down the Muchalaht Inlet - he is following their 2 canoes, away from the net pen (11:47 PST)
Capture likely put on hold for today because Luna is too far away from the net pen, according to CBC News (12:08 PST)
Note: We will do our best to update this page as we receive news. If there are no new updates for a while it is because nothing has changed.
June 10, 2004
LUNA (L98) UPDATE
The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre has been authorized to begin the physical relocation of Luna by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
After looking at the movements of L-pod over the past few weeks, and confirming that plans are in place to proceed, DFO approved the initiation of Phase II, the physical relocation. Public safety and the safety of the whale remain the priorities. Recent incidences in Gold River where L98 interfered with floatplanes and boats, affirms that the situation needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
Sightings of L-pod in the Juan de Fuca Strait and Haro Strait over the past few weeks indicate that the pod has returned to the area for the summer, and the chances for a natural reunification of L98 to L-pod are no longer viable.
Vancouver Aquarium staff continue to prepare the site and operational logistics for the safe capture, holding, and care of Luna (L98).
Although all required funds are not in hand at this point, DFO and the Aquarium agree there are sufficient funds to begin the capture and transport of Luna to Pedder Bay. Overall funding needs ultimately depend on how long Luna is held in Pedder Bay before acoustical contact is made with his pod, and he can be released. If this period is relatively short, the current funding provided will be sufficient.
The US and Canadian Governments have each committed $130K, $60K in cash has been donated, and there has been $290K in in-kind donations. Given the situation with Luna in Gold River, DFO and the Aquarium believe the operation must proceed immediately.
The plan involves leading Luna into a net pen; this is likely to take place over several days, as time is needed to allow Luna to get used to the log booms, boat and other parts of the operation. Success will depend, in part, on having a quiet and normal environment. For this reason, an exclusion zone for boats and aircraft will be in place.
A media update will be provided each day by the capture team describing what was attempted and accomplished that day.
While it is hoped that Luna will reunite with his family group and no longer be a risk to the public, scientists agree that, while a successful reintroduction cannot be guaranteed, this is the best approach to give Luna the opportunity to reunite with his pod, while protecting public.
The best way the public can help Luna is to stay away. If he is distracted by boats, aircraft or people, his chances for reuniting with his family group may be compromised.
For more information, please contact:
Angela Nielsen
Vancouver Aquarium
604-659-3516
604-735-4506
Lara Sloan
604-666-0903
604-868-3162
Orcas touch base in U.S., then leave again
June 1, 2004 (Bremerton Sun) About 30 orcas, including Luna's mother and his younger sibling, took a quick jaunt into U.S. waters Saturday, but by Sunday night they were headed back out to sea.
As a result, plans to reunite Luna with his family remain on hold, officials say.
Luna's family had not been seen in Puget Sound since last fall — which is fairly typical for two of the three Puget Sound groups, or pods. K and L pods spend their winters on the outer coast.
Luna, a 4-year-old killer whale, has been alone for nearly three years in Nootka Sound along the West Coast of Vancouver Island.
Ken Balcomb and Dave Ellifrit of the Center for Whale Research spent most of the day Sunday with the 30 members of L-Pod that came south along the eastern shore of Vancouver Island and approached the San Juan Islands. Lara Sloan, spokeswoman for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said a group of orca handlers has moved to the town of Gold River on Nootka Sound to prepare a net pen for Luna's capture, but that operation remains on hold. Everyone hopes the boat-follow method can succeed, she said.
Howard Garrett of Orca Network, a group that keeps track of whale sightings, said several organizations of orca supporters are expressing reservations about some elements of the capture-and-truck plan.
For example, tying a rope around Luna's tail to force him into the net pen — listed as a last resort in the rescue plan — could result in injury, Garrett said.
Also, attaching a tracking transmitter by inserting a steel pin through Luna's dorsal fin could cause him harm. And the idea that Luna might end up in an aquarium if he fails to take up with his family weighs on everyone's mind, he said.
Garret said several groups hope to clear up these kinds of issues before the rescue moves forward.
"Most of the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) find the capture option to be distasteful," Garrett said.
Canadian and U.S. officials have agreed that the rescue should move forward because Luna, who appears to be lonely, has been pushing against boats, which could lead to a serious accident.
Garrett said the 30 or so L-Pod whales that returned to the San Juans Saturday may have found too little fish for their needs. Salmon runs in the islands are expected to increase soon.
"We're still hoping they (Luna's relatives) will go by Nootka Sound and pick up a passenger," he said.
Keep an eye out for Luna's pod: officials
May 12, 2004 (Vancouver Province) U.S. and Canadian officials working on a whale reunification plan are asking boaters to keep an eye out for Luna's pod.
The killer whale has been living alone in Nootka Sound off Vancouver Island for more than two years.
The orca's relatives are expected to return from the Pacific Ocean to inland waters around Washington's San Juan Islands within weeks.
But fisheries officials told a meeting of about 50 whale advocates in Seattle last night that nobody has seen the pod yet.
Luna has managed to feed himself in Nootka Sound but has also taken to socializing with people, cozying up to boats and nuzzling sea planes.
The U.S. and Canadian Navy, along with coast guard vessels, are also being asked to report any sightings of the so-called 'L' pod.
It's hoped the reunion can take place by June.
If you have any information or a suspected sighting, contact 1-866-ORCANET (672-2638), or via E-Mail.
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Desperately Seeking L pod!
Report whale sightings to: 1-866-ORCANET (1-866-672-2638)
Orca Network would like to receive whale sightings, especially orca sightings.
Our Whale Sighting Network covers US & Canadian waters year-round, but at this time we are particularly looking for L pod sightings off the BC, Canada and Washington Coast. We are working with other organizations and agencies to get more whale reports from the west Vancouver Island and coastal areas to help determine the winter/spring travel patterns of the Southern Resident Community of orcas, and to help in the effort to rejoin Luna/L98 with L pod, who may be traveling those waters during the spring.
If you have or know of a business or public bulletin board where flyers could be posted with our whale sighting number, please email us and we'll email you a flyer to print out and post.
The lone orca calf Luna has been in Nootka Sound for several years, somehow separated from his pod. There are efforts by Canada's Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans and the US NOAA Fisheries to reunite Luna with his family this summer. The best plan would be to get Luna in acoustical contact with L pod if/when they are near Nootka Sound. However, we rarely get sightings from west Vancouver Island, and we have few reports on L pod's travels during the winter and spring, so we are asking for your help. Information on the winter travels of K and L pods are also the focus of recent research efforts in the US and Canada, so any orca sightings year-round are appreciated.
If you see any orcas, please call us toll-free at: 1-866-ORCANET or email us. We are also happy to receive sightings of any kind of whale, in any NW location as well! If you would like to be on our Whale Sighting Network Email list, contact us at the above email address, or sign up on our website.
For more information on Orca Network's Whale Sighting Network, go to: www.orcanetwork.org
Thank you for your help
Susan Berta & Howard Garrett
Orca Network
ORCALAB
May 6, 2004
For immediate release
Solitary orca Luna doing well in Nootka Sound
New fish farms could threaten natural reunion
A research project conducted over the past two months has been observing Luna, the orca whale who has been living alone in Nooka Sound for nearly 3 years, with a view to assessing his behaviour in the absence of summertime recreational vessels. The OrcaLab study has the approval of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation and operates under a Scientific Licence issued by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The project is supported by a coalition of Canadian and US non governmental organizations. Results show Luna to be a normal orca fully capable of managing on his own.
Luna is a great hunter and is certainly able to make a living by himself, said OrcaLabs director Dr. Paul Spong. He sounds like a normal orca and in most respects he behaves like a normal orca; he even has a social life though its an odd one in that its with sea lions and not other orcas. He knows every detail of the scene in Nootka Sound. Were it not for the summer boating season Luna would be fine living on his own and could take his own time finding his way back to his orca community.
The problem for Luna is that summer is coming. By the end of June Nootka Sound will again be crowded with recreational vessels. On them will be many people who want to see Luna, and among them some who want to engage Luna as if he were a pet or a captive whale. That’s the biggest problem Luna faces, said Spong. Were it not for people wanting to engage Luna, I think he could carry on by himself without getting into trouble. At four years old he is maturing rapidly and is definitely capable of handing himself around boats. If people could learn to leave Luna alone and just ignore him, he’d probably be ok. Of course, given what happened last summer, thats probably unrealistic.
OrcaLabs research approach with Luna is the same at that of its Johnstone Strait project, observation without intrusion. An observation camp site was established on a high cliff and two hydrophone stations installed. The hydrophones have enabled day and night monitoring of Lunas acoustics in the main areas he has been spending time. Over 60 hours of recordings have been made. Luna has a fabulous voice that echoes through the deeps of Nootka Sound, said Spong. His calls clearly identify him as a southern resident orca and more precisely as a member of the L2 matriline. That means with virtual certainty that L67 is Lunas mother, and because she is alive it gives great hope for the ultimate outcome of Lunas journey, should he rejoin his orca kin.
The winter whereabouts of much of the southern resident orca community are largely a mystery to scientists. The largest group, L pod, is often not sighted for months on end. During the winter and spring. However, the summer arrival of L pod is fairly predictable. The group of more than 40 orcas usually arrives in the waters off southern Vancouver Island in late spring, and their arrivals usually from the north via west coastal waters off Vancouver Island. There is a good chance the pod will be off the entrance of Nootka Sound sometime during mid to late May. If that happens, there is a possibility that Luna could hear the other orcas or they could hear him, and that a natural reunion could take place. Luna has been spending much of his recent time foraging in parts of Nootka Sound that have an acoustic connection to the outside ocean, said Spong. That means there is a chance that he and the other orcas could solve Lunas problem by themselves. If that happens, everyone will be happy.
Despite his positive view of Lunas behaviour and his hopes for a rosy outcome, Spong is worried by the imminent installation of 8 new fish farms in Nootka Sound. The farms are going to be placed in the exact area Luna has been using lately, said Spong. This means there will be a whole new set of industrial activities in the area that is now most important to Luna, and it is the area that creates such good prospects for a natural reunion. Luna is accustomed to industrial activity, but this will be a new part of his scene and because it is new it will be a distraction to him. I simply cannot understand why these fish farms have to be installed at this critical time. They could ruin Lunas chances of success.
Further information:
Dr. Paul Spong/Helena Symonds (250)974-8068, email orcalab@island.net
Audio clips and still photographs available for emailing on request.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mowachaht/Muchalaht meet with DFO
by Brian Tate
Ha-Shilth-Sa Northern Region Reporter
April 22, 2004
Tsaxana - Marilyn Joyce of DFO and Clint Wright of the Vancouver Aquarium met with Tyee Hawiilth Mike Maquinna and his council on April 8th in Tsaxana to discuss issues surrounding the plans to remove Tsuux-iit (Luna) in May or June.
"Over the past couple years we have had discussions on Tsuux-iit (Luna) and the plans to move him back to his family and we have been pleased on the work that has been done between our two groups," said Marilyn Joyce. "In your letter you have expressed that you are opposed to the plans and I very much respect that. As people we sometimes overstep our boundary in regards to wildlife," said Marilyn.
Jerry Jack then explains how the late Chief Ambrose expressed what he would like to come back as when he goes home. "When I go home, I want to come back as a Kaka win, Ambrose said to me," said Jerry. "That's what happened, this whale showed up shortly after his passing," said Jerry.
"This whale is not going anywhere as long as we are here, he is healthy and we would like nature to take its course," said Jerry with a heavy sigh.
Marilyn replied to Jerry's remarks with "Our first inclination was the same as yours to let him stay, once it was determined that he was healthy I agreed. But my concern is his safety and the safety of the people, you and I know better to leave him alone but there are others that would harm him. Who knows if he will be accepted or not by his pod. And who knows if he came here as your late chief to be with you, but he has done well by bringing us closer at the table," said Marilyn.
Questions of "What if" started to rise towards DFO and Vancouver Aquarium. "What if he doesn't take to his pod, then what?" asked Mike Maquinna. "What if he plays with the boats down there, then what?"
Marilyn Joyce responded with, "I have to come up with a plan if he does not take to his pod in the next couple weeks, and the final decision will be coming from the Ministry."
"With your plans of removing the whale you are infringing on their religious beliefs and they (Mowachaht/Muchalaht) have met the requirements in documentation. Can you lay out all the options you may have?" said Roger Dunlop of the NTC Fisheries.
"Our first option is to help him reunite with his pod if they go by here. Our second option is to let him swim into a pen on his own, or third we use a tail rope to get him into the pen or finally enclose him with a net," said Joyce. "Being a sensitive topic of using an aquaculture pen we have had discussions with Conuma Hatchery to use one of their pens," said Marilyn.
After Marilyn spoke, Clint Wright explained that the Vancouver Aquarium does not want, nor do they have an interest in having a killer whale in their aquarium. The aquarium is only there to lend expertise in the moving of the whale. "It would take approximately one hundred pounds of food per day to hold him in a pen, and I am hoping someone local or from the tribe would help feed him and catch food for him," said Clint.
Discussions around leading the whale down the coast arose, and it was explained that this type of removal is fraught with danger because it would take approximately 74 hours to lead the whale. In order to lead the whale you would have to train it to follow then you would have to untrain him and how do you do that?
"So you are going to do this regardless of what we say, aren't you?" said Jerry Jack.
Hesitantly Marilyn Joyce responded with a "Yes".
Frustration started to rise from the Mowachaht/Muchalaht side and it showed when the statement of "We have been through this process so many times with you DFO, Ministries, Fish Farms and while we are meeting, documents are being signed somewhere else. How can we trust you DFO? When are we going to be equal? When are we going to share information properly? When can we trust you?"
"You are right about one thing," aid Marilyn, "documents on Public Safety are being done," she said.
"Although you are interested in our culture and would like to know more, your policy dictates to you on what to do," aid Mike Maquinna.
Again the beliefs about the Killer Whale and wolves being one came up and explained and that former Chiefs came back as either, and that essentially DFO and Vancouver Aquarium are kidnapping a Chief. The Mowachaht/Muchalaht have unfinished business with the whale, and only when they let their tears go at a "Memorial Potlatch" will that happen.
Regardless of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht distaste for the removal of Tsuux-iit (Luna), DFO and the Vancouver Aquarium are going ahead with their plans to reunite L-pod and the whale.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), in collaboration with NOAA Fisheries (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) announced a plan to relocate the juvenile killer whale Tsuux-iit, also known as Luna, to its pod in the Juan de Fuca Strait two weeks ago.
Orca Network has received permission to distribute the above article
Copyright Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper, published by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. Reproduction of this article or photographs, in whole or in part, is illegal without the written consent of Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper
Two plans for reuniting overly friendly orca with pod
May 6, 2004 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Luna the lonely orca will be temporarily confined in a net pen in Pedder Bay near here if an attempt fails to reunite him with his pod at the entrance to Nootka Sound.
An attempt will be made to lead the whale out of the sound just as his pod is passing by, but even the most optimistic supporters of that approach know it is unlikely to succeed.
The killer whale pod, which spends its summers in Washington state's San Juan Islands, covers tremendous distances. Luna's pod is not usually seen in the waters off Nootka Sound, an inlet about 140 miles northwest of Victoria on Vancouver Island's west coast.
"Leading him out into the open water would be best for everyone, and especially for Luna, but the chances are pretty remote," said Ed Thorburn, a field supervisor with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
If that plan fails, the 4-year-old orca will probably be packed into a sling in a tank on a huge truck and, with police escorts and a contingent of veterinarians and scientists, be hauled to Pedder Bay.
Aquarium president John Nightingale said about $160,000 must be raised in cash and $51,000 in donated goods and services for the operation to proceed. That's on top of $95,000 from the Canadian government and $100,000 from the U.S. government.
But fund-raising is going slowly.
"If we don't have it by May 15 or 20 it will put a real crimp in things," Nightingale said. "It would stop it."
ReuniteLuna.com thanks Marilyn Joyce
April 29, 2004
For the past year or so, many people have dedicated themselves to the protection of Luna and the plan to move him closer to his family. Few have put more time and effort into this project than Marilyn Joyce, the Marine Mammal Coordinator for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
For the past two years Marilyn has been working with scientists, NGOs and the public to do what is best for Luna. Up until last summer, it was felt that Lunas best chance of survival was to leave him be, and not interfere with what may be a natural process. However, last summer, Lunas activity around boats and float planes was causing concern for public safety, and a new plan had to be crafted: a plan to attempt to reunite Luna with his Pod. Marilyn took the lead on this plan and successfully melded together the responsibilities of two federal governments, the advice of marine mammal scientists, and the needs of NGOs and the public to develop a relocation plan, which will be implemented later this spring.
Marilyn made herself available to the public from the very beginning of this project, and was ready to answer their questions. In September of last year, Marilyn took the time to address many questions put forward by readers of the ReuniteLuna.com web site. In addition, Marilyn read and responded to every letter and email she received regarding Luna. This is remarkable considering she received thousands of letters.
Despite her diligent efforts, many people viewed Marilyn as a roadblock to get Luna home. That is not the case. She has worked hard to make sure Luna was a priority for senior officials. She has put a lot of extra time into pushing this project forward and making sure that DFO is doing the best they can with the best advice and information.
No one has worked harder on protecting Luna than Marilyn. She has put a lot of sweat and tears into this project and receives little praise for it, though it is much deserved. She is a wonderful lady with a big heart and a bright mind.
Marilyn began her career as a biologist with DFO, and worked for many years in that capacity before becoming the pacific regions first Marine Mammal Coordinator. She works hard because she is passionate about protecting the environment and the preservation of species that share our waters.
ReuniteLuna.com would like to ask the public to stop writing and emailing Marilyn so that she has time to work on getting Luna home. Luna will be a competent hunter
from ReuniteLuna.com
April 15, 2004
Luna has spent much of his time lately engaged in long foraging sessions in various parts of Nootka Sound. It is likely that he is hunting the big winter spring salmon that are in the Sound at this time of year. At times he can be heard echolocating almost constantly as he hunts (click to hear audio). He often has seagulls flying above him, a sign that they are hoping for fish scraps and therefore that Luna is a successful hunter& on one occasion he was seen with a big fish in his mouth! Luna also calls quite frequently, using the calls of his southern resident orca kin as well as making his own unique sounds. There can be little question that when Luna returns to orca society he will be a competent hunter, and that he will easily be able to keep up with the other orcas. It will also be easy for researchers to identify him acoustically among the crowd of other southern resident voices.
At one point, about a week ago, Luna was not sighted for a period of 5 days, giving rise to speculation that he may have roamed as far as the mouth of Nootka Sound. Doing so would mean that he would have an excellent opportunity to hear L pod if they head south past Nootka Sound during May, and for L pod to hear him. That would of course provide a great opportunity for a natural reunion to take place. Though such an outcome is by no means certain, it is certainly one worth hoping for and putting effort into.
Another encouraging aspect of Luna's recent behaviour is that he is handling himself around vessels and aircraft very well. Perhaps because most of the vessels he encounters are familiar to him, Luna has been ignoring most of the vessel traffic around him and has been engaging vessels only when encouraged to do so. Thankfully, the sight of Luna interacting with people in boats is rare these days because local boaters are familiar with him and do not seek interactions. However, as we all know, the summer will bring many recreational boaters to Nootka Sound and that is cause for continued concern. Luna has not attempted to interact with an aircraft since an Acoustic Deterrent Device(ADD) was installed at the Air Nootka dock early in March. The device is intended for use only when needed and has not been switched on yet because Luna has not posed any problems for taxiing aircraft. This too is a good sign that Luna is managing himself well.
As previously noted, we continue to encourage all members of the public, including media, to stay away from Luna and give him the best possible chance of staying out of trouble. Canada's DFO Luna Page Update:
April 13, 2004
As a public security measure, DFO has put an Acoustic Deterrent Device (ADD) at the Air Nootka dock in Gold River to help mitigate any risk to public safety. This device consists of speakers that are suspended underwater and emit a sound that slowly increases in volume over time, giving L98 sufficient opportunity to leave the area before the device reaches maximum volume. This device will be activated by authorized personnel only if L98 is actively engaging a moving aircraft, and will be immediately turned off once the aircraft is safely airborne or tied up.
An activation report, including a description of L98's behaviour prior to and during activation, will be sent immediately to the DFO office in Gold River. Protocol for the use of the ADD has been developed to ensure that L98 is not harmed in any way.
It is highly unlikely that this device will be used, but we do need to be concerned about the safety of passengers in the aircraft during taxiing if L98 is interfering with the floatplane.
In the past week, L98 has spent very little time in the vicinity of Gold River and no incidents have been reported. L98 continues to appear healthy and active.
OPTIONS FOR LUNA'S FUTURE SHOULD INCLUDE A BAY PEN
SEPTEMBER 4, 2003
From Marilyn Joyce, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
August 28, 2003
Dear Susan:
I have been in contact with both DFO Enforcement Officers and the Veins of Life Stewardship personnel in Gold River this morning. I am pleased to advise you and your network that Luna is not seriously injured. The Stewards confirmed that Luna has a cut on his head but wound is not of a serious nature and is consistent with other minor cuts Luna has had in the past two years. I note that killer whale do regularly have cuts and abrasions. Luna was sighted on Tuesday swimming and acting very normal. Our Officers and Stewards are on the water again to day and will be looking for Luna and checking on the cut.
I am very much aware of the interest and support from the public to intervene to reunite Luna with his pod. We at DFO do want what is best for this whale. Reuniting him one option is currently under consideration and I will provide you an update once a decision has been made. We recognize that the window of opportunity is limited and are working very hard to ensure that the options before us do not become limited because of timing.
Marilyn Joyce
Marine Mammal Coordinator
Fisheries Management - Pacific Region
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
200 - 401 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 5G3
Telephone: (604) 666-9965
Facsimile: (604) 666-3341
Cellular: (604) 813-5314
Lone orca's injury in B.C. revives calls to return it to pod
August 29, 2003 (Seattle Times) (link expired) A lone orca living in Canada has been injured in an apparent collision with a boat on the west coast of Vancouver Island, prompting renewed calls to have the killer whale reunited with its relatives in Puget Sound.
L-98, nicknamed Luna, collided with a sport fisherman's boat in Nootka Sound last Thursday or Friday, receiving a deep 6-inch gash in the head. It's unclear whether the boat's propeller was moving or even if the orca hit it, but the impact was hard enough to break its mounting bracket, said Ed Thorburn, enforcement officer for Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
Thorburn has seen L-98 cut other times since it first appeared on the west coast of Vancouver Island in 2001, with the orca regularly playing with logs and prawn traps. The orca has been seen since the accident and appears in good health.
Marilyn Joyce, marine-mammal coordinator for DFO, said L-98's cut was small and "certainly is not impacting him at all."
Still, she said L-98's situation has changed since May, when the agency decided to hold off on a relocation.
At the time, the orca was swimming farther afield and the agency hoped it might reunite with the southern residents on its own. Also, the agency feared a failed reunion could lead to L-98 being placed in an aquarium.
But this summer, the DFO saw more people in Nootka Sound paying attention to the orca. DFO will ask its panel of experts to look again at relocation, said Joyce.
Reported injury steps up concerns for stray orca August 29, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Luna injured, hasn't been seen since
August 27, 2003 (National Post) Luna, the orphaned orca living alone in the waters off Gold River, was cut by a boat's propeller blade Monday.
The deep gash is above Luna's eye. It is approximately 15 to 20 centimetres long and about three centimetres deep - deep enough to reveal blubber.
The impact of the collision disabled the boat and it had to be towed.
No one has seen Luna since the incident.
Whale experts have warned from the beginning that the orca's love of humans and boats could put it in danger
Luna, the whale, still a loner
August 20, 2003 (Victoria Times-Colonist) The solitary orca living off Vancouver Island's west coast was a little different from the rest of the whales right from the start.
Immediately after his September 1999 birth, Luna, also called L-98 for his pod and birth order, split from his mother and spent a week with a female in another pod before returning to his mother.
This was "unprecedented" in what has been seen before among these whales, says Ken Balcomb of the Centre for Whale Research at Friday Harbor, Washington state.
Luna's mother may have had trouble lactating at first and another female may have nursed the calf, he said. "We don't really know what was going on."
For the next several months, everything appeared normal. But as Luna approached his first birthday, he was often more independent from his mother than is usual with calves.
Balcomb speculates this trait may have its roots in Luna's early days. "I guess you can have the parallel in human development where social changes or traumas in certain stages of life can affect the rest of your behavioural repertoire."
This independence might have led to Luna's isolation but it is only a hypothesis.
It's possible that Luna, who travelled a lot with an older uncle, became lost when that uncle died and did not know how to reconnect with his pod, Balcomb said.
Being alone threatens Luna and humans, too
August 17, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) It worked for Springer -- it's time for Luna. The Seattle Aquarium supports immediate efforts to return Luna, the wayward orca from northern Vancouver Island. Since 2001, this 4-year-old killer whale has been swimming alone in Nootka Sound on the island's west coast. This is considered beyond the normal range of its L-pod family members, one of three southern community pods commonly seen in Washington waters.
Without his natural companions, Luna has become dangerously comfortable with human contact and boats. This poses a threat both to his long-term health and to people. In addition, the Puget Sound population of orcas is listed as a "depleted species" by the federal government, with a population of about 82 whales presently compared with an estimate of 120 animals in the 1960s. The number of breeding males is critically low. As Luna reaches maturity in his teens, he will become an invaluable member of the Sound's orca gene pool.
Luna should return home
August 10, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial) Bring Luna home.
As Canadian authorities study what to do with the lone orca, returning him to Washington waters appears to be the best course of action.
It's a decision that rests partially in Canada with federal officials and, to an extent rarely mentioned, tribal nations on the coast. But Americans should have a voice, too.
The lost 4-year-old is from Puget Sound, where orcas number just over 80. We need every orca possible here.
Luna apparently became separated from his pod while swimming past Vancouver Island. Since 2001, he has been alone in Nootka Sound on the island's West Coast.
As a Post-Intelligencer news story reported Thursday, a lot of people look at the killer whale and see loneliness. Probably for good reason: Orcas are extremely social and maintain close family relationships.
They also worry that a return to Puget Sound might cause more risky encounters with busier boat traffic. If things got bad enough, they say, he might have to be placed in an aquarium -- a terrible option.
Online petition drive supports returning Luna to pod
August 8, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Activists have launched an online petition drive to persuade the Canadian government to try to reunite the orphan orca Luna with his whale family, or pod.
The 4-year-old orca, apparently lost, was separated from his pod about two years ago and has been in the back bays of northwestern Vancouver Island.
Because of his aggressively playful antics, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is considering a reunification attempt, along with other options, including putting the whale in an aquarium.
About 1,500 people have signed the petition so far, said activist Rene Halliburton of Campbell River, B.C.
Luna belongs to a pod that hangs out around the San Juan Islands this time of year.
Luna and his family
By Howard Garrett
Orca Network
August 7, 2003
The decision whether to help L98 (Luna) to rejoin his family rests with Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The decision-making process has involved a variety of scientists holding various viewpoints, but the final choice is up to the DFO. So far the decision has been to take no action except to assist in monitoring Luna's intrusive behavior and helping to educate the public to stay away from him.
We strongly advocate that Luna be returned to his mother, L67, and her family, the L2 matriline. We believe Luna can recognize his family and will rejoin them if given the opportunity. The central point made by DFO to justify the “no action” option appears to be the speculation that Luna would not rejoin his family, but instead would show up beside boats like he is doing now in Nootka Sound but among much more traffic, possibly causing an accident or injury to himself or others. On July 28 Marilyn Joyce of the DFO said in a televised broadcast: “We're very concerned that if Luna was brought down into the area that he has more opportunity to interact with people and boats which will become even more of a danger for him and the public.” The behavioral model Joyce is referring to appears to be the nuisance bear, rummaging through garbage cans, that has lost its fear of humans and is likely to become ever more aggressive.
We believe this opinion is based on the inability of the DFO to understand the implications of recent studies and events. The primary finding needed to assess Luna’s prospects if returned to his family, that has not been incorporated into DFO's thinking, is that the species Orcinus orca can be expected to act according to cultural influences. We cite “Culture in Whales and Dolphins,” Luke Rendell and Hal Whitehead's pivotal paper published in 2001in the prestigious Journal of Behavioural and Brain Sciences. From the abstract: ”The complex and stable vocal and behavioural cultures of sympatric groups of killer whales (Orcinus orca) appear to have no parallel outside humans and represent an independent evolution of cultural faculties.”
This cultural perspective on orcas opens a vast new field of knowledge on which biologists are ill-equipped to play. With the cultural behavior model now established for orcas, the perspectives of anthropology and sociology are needed to interpret and predict orca behavior. This would be just a fascinating armchair conversation if not for the need to help poor Luna, lost and lonely, clamoring for company far out of range of his family. Any decision on whether to help him and how to do so depends on how we understand the species, yet the biological advisors the DFO has consulted do not have backgrounds in cultural behavior, so they are challenged to make an adequate assessment of Luna’s capabilities, his memories, and the strength of his cultural identity.
Like humans, but unlike any other mammal known (with the possible exception of a few other cetacean species), each orca is born into and grows up as a member of a cultural community, bonded for life. This membership and identity are not lost, regardless of time spent away from the community. Knowledge of self as a member of a cultural community overrides the kinds of instinctual, stimulus-response behavior associated with other mammals, such as bears.
The conclusion is that Luna knows who he is in the context of his family and community. There is no reason to assume he has forgotten his family or the vocalizations they use to communicate, and there is no reason to believe he is somehow an outcast or is undesirable to his family. He remains a member of the L2 matriline. He’s simply out of reach, lost, and when that problem is resolved by bringing him close to his family, he’ll know them immediately and he’ll know what to do. He’ll rejoin them. A lost human child old enough to learn his family’s language would do the same.
Obviously, the most tragic and uninformed decision, now under consideration by DFO, would be to remove Luna to a concrete tank.
For guidance in helping Luna we have only to cast a glance at A73, Springer, who immediately recognized her family and has thoroughly reintegrated with them. There is no longer any sign that she once paddled up to boats, leaned on them, rolled upside down, and generally made a nuisance of herself. She’s an A11 pod whale again. Luna will surely do the same, if the DFO will just understand his capability to rejoin his relatives and allow him to be helped in his search for them.
Future of 'sad' orca presents dilemma
August 7, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Luna and the boat will be back. But the whale is lonely, say folks around here. He's following boats because they're the closest thing he knows to his own kind.
Canadian authorities decided two months ago to leave the 4-year-old orca alone. But now they are reconsidering and plan to announce a decision as early as this week.
If they decide to take action, they could put Luna in an aquarium. Or they may try to reunite Luna with his pod, which hangs out around the San Juan Islands this time of year.
The second look was prompted in part by accusations that a boater, frustrated when the orca prevented him from docking, smacked the animal with a board. Also this summer, the whale kept a fishing party from docking, forcing the men to stay on the water overnight. Then this week, the whale started interfering with salmon fishermen in the area.
"I'd say most people get it -- that he's separated from his family, lonely," Anderson said. "The odd person says he should be shot like a grizzly."
Anderson was at the dock on behalf of the Veins of Life Watershed Society, a Victoria environmental group under contract to the Canadian government to monitor activity at the docks and inform visitors about rules against approaching the orca.
Canadian Officials Dealing With A Whale Of A Dilemma
July 28, 2003 (Q13-TV) Canadian officials are dealing with a whale of a dilemma. What should they do with "Luna?" The young orca is removed from his family and is living in a remote BC inlet hundreds of miles away. Some believe the whale should be brought back to his home in Puget Sound while others say it's too late for that.
Everybody has a story about Luna and whale advocates say that's the problem.
Locals say Luna's gotten extremely friendly, drawing crowds and now more security and warnings from the government to keep your distance.
Paul Spong/Whale Researcher: "Luna's just a big kid, 4 yrs old, healthy from a physical point of view but he's a social creature and he's desperately lonely. His problem is he's seeking contact with humans."
Marilyn Joyce/Dept. fisheries & Oceans: "We're very concerned that if Luna was brought down into the area that he has more opportunity to interact with people and boats which will become even more of a danger for him and the public."
In June the Canadians said they would not move the whale. Now, they are reconsidering that decision in light of what they say is an increase in human-whale interactions.
Help bring Luna home to his family
July 24, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Springer, the once orphaned orca whale, has come home.
Yet as I celebrate Springer's return, I am saddened that another orca, Luna, lingers lost and alone in Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island's west coast. In recent days the news of a brutal attack on this trusting calf has come to light. Three days before he was beaten by a man working for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, I visited Luna in Gold River, the village he has come to call home. I watched as he snuggled up to fishing boats for a whale snooze and scratched his belly along the underside of sailboats and tugs tied up at the dock. These are the same behaviors he would experience in the wild with members of his family. Yet he is alone and, as a highly social animal, he has come to trust humans for attention. The trust seems misplaced.
Now, in Gold River there are rumors that Marine Land Niagara is looking to capture Luna for display in its aquarium. Should he be captured, Luna would be the first calf removed from the southern resident community since the devastating capture era of the '60s and '70, a dark time from which our beloved J, K, and L pods are still trying to recover.
For two years since Luna's mysterious arrival in Nootka Sound, the fisheries department, the government agency charged with protecting Canada's wildlife, has done nothing to help Luna, hoping that his pod would swim by and pick him up.
Luna is still a baby separated from his mother and family, who will protect him better than we ever could. The answer is clear. We must bring Luna home now to live as a wild whale.
Leigh Calvez is a naturalist and a nature writer living in the Seattle area. The Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans can be reached at 604-666-9965.
U.S. activists call for shipping Luna home
July 23, 2003 (Victoria Times-Colonist) U.S. environmentalists say it's time for Canada's orca watchdogs to stop being afraid of failure and to ship Luna, a young killer whale stranded in Nootka Sound, south to rejoin his pod in the San Juan Islands.
Fred Felleman, of the Seattle-based Orca Conservancy, said Luna is important to the biological future of the endangered southern resident population, which has shrunk to 83 animals.
"The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has an obligation to the recovery of the southern resident (orca) community," said Felleman.
A number of Canadians share Felleman's view. Ellen Hartlmeier of Victoria and Rene Halliburton of Campbell River have begun an Internet petition calling for the reunification of Luna with his family.
July 21 - Please sign the Reunite Luna petition
Excerpts from the petition:
Luna or L98 is a 4 year old Orca that has been separated from his pod since 2001. It is assumed that he has wandered into Nootka Sound with his Uncle L39, who then presumably died and left Luna stranded away from his pod, which is Lpod, one of the 3 pods that make up the Southern Resident Community.
If Luna stays where he is, it is only a matter of time before he gets hurt, or worse, killed up there. He needs a chance to get reunited with his family. We realize, that it will not be as easy as it looked with Springer - but we feel that he needs a chance. We have confidence, that when he hears and sees his family, his mother and siblings, that he will learn to forget about boats. He has been starving from attention from his kin for too long.
Some people might argue that the only option for Luna in the event of a reunion not happening, might be captivity... but we have to cross that bridge when we get there... CAPTIVITY IS CERTAINLY NOT AN OPTION!
July 19, 2003
The time has come to help Luna.
If someone finds a lost, lonely child off in the wilderness or on a city street, we'd want them to help the little tyke return to his family. The same applies to Luna, the 3½ year old L pod youngster who's stationed himself in Nootka Sound for the past two years. Somehow he got separated from his family and he's been out of contact with them ever since.
A rising drumbeat of plans and pleas have sprung from concerned people in the past week or so, partly inspired by Springer's success in rejoining her pod, and partly due to a series of increasingly risky encounters between Luna and human onlookers.
There are two ways to go about reuniting Luna with his mom, and we believe both would work. The first and by far the least risky, least costly and most expeditious method is to befriend Luna (no problem there!) from a fairly large, ocean-going vessel. Spend a little time building rapport with him by talking to him, playing music and perhaps L pod calls, and gradually lead him further and further out of the inner confines of Nootka Sound. If he turns around, go back and pick up where you left off and try again. If there's no incremental success in a few days, maybe the boat-follow method won't work, and there's no loss and little expense.
If he does follow the boat with his friends on board, simply travel out beyond the surf and down the coast and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca at a slow pace, probably 5-10 knots. Once in the Strait there's no hurry, because that's where L pod may appear at any time. When Luna first hears his family's live calls from ten or more miles away, he's likely to bee-line toward them, and the job is done but for the visual monitoring to see what happens.
The other method, which could be tried if the boat-follow fails to lead Luna out of Nootka Sound, would be to capture him in a sling á la Springer's capture, and hoist him aboard a boat or truck for transport to Haro Strait to await an encounter with L pod. That's a lot more hassle and expense, and would involve veterinarians and other specialists, but as a last resort it would probably work too.
The decision is up to Canada's Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and so far they've elected to wait and see. The chorus of opinion now ringing from both sides of the border and coast to coast is that we've waited too long and seen enough already.
DFO's inertia seems to be based on the impression that Luna is like any other wild animal — the nuisance bear analogy has come up more than once. The theory is that if he's brought into Haro Strait there will just be more boats and docks for him to make mischief among.
Our point is that Luna is not a "wild animal." Orcas don't behave like wild animals. There's not a single documented case of a non-captive orca ever harming a human. Orcas are not driven by instincts, nor are they prone to aggression. Quite the contrary, orcas are lifetime members of intricate, traditional orca societies. Luna is a member of L pod regardless of his long absence, and like a lonely little guy found begging for attention, he just needs to get home again. L pod is his home, and it's time to help him get there.
Howard Garrett and Susan Berta
Orca Network
Activists mobilize to transport killer whale back to U.S.
July 19, 2003 (Toronto Globe and Mail) Whale activists concerned about the future of a young American killer whale met in Seattle Friday, determined to press government officials on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border to help the orca rejoin the family he last saw more than two years ago.
The problem is that Luna - also known as L-98 for his birth order in L-pod - is drawing growing crowds of tourists to the town of Gold River on remote Nootka Sound, on the west side of Vancouver Island.
"The situation is quite desperate right now," said Mark Pakenham of Victoria, who heads a group working with Canadian officials to monitor the animal - and the humans.
Canadian fisheries officials decided last spring to leave the four-year-old whale alone and hope he rejoins his family members as they pass nearby. L-pod spends much of the year chasing salmon around Washington's San Juan Islands.
But officials are reviewing that decision due to the worsening situation, said Marilyn Joyce, marine mammal resource co-ordinator for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Canadian Official Accused Of Beating An Orca Whale
July 15, 2003 (KOMO-TV) There are new allegations that a government worker from Canada was caught beating an orphaned orca whale.
KOMO 4 News has learned that Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans is launching an investigation. The incident in Nootka Sound off Vancouver Island increases pressure to move Luna back home to Puget Sound.
Last year it was Springer, the orphaned orca in Puget Sound, so starved for attention she adopted a ferry and wouldn't leave boats alone. Springer successfully reunited with her Canadian orca family.
Orca advocates say it's time to give Luna the same chance and bring him home to Puget Sound.
Canada says at this point it is not considering any type of reunion for Luna. Instead the government says it's focusing on keeping people away from the whale.
West coast whale funding cut
July 15, 2003 (CBC) A Vancouver Island whale conservationist says federal fisheries officials want his group to watch over Luna the orphaned orca in Nootka Sound, but aren't willing to pay for the service.
Marc Pakenham of the Veins of Life Watershed Society says his funding has been cut, putting the whale's life in danger. "He is going downhill fast. And if we don't do something in the near future, we're looking at a tragedy in the making," he says. Luna has been living alone in the waters around Gold River for the last couple of years.
Who would want to hurt a killer whale?
July 15, 2003 (KING5-TV) Apparently Luna, the orca who likes to hang around boats near Vancouver Island, was the target of a bizarre attack.
Luna, also known as L-98, is notorious for snuggling up to boats.
Witnesses say, late last week, he approached a dock near Gold River in Nootka Sound, B.C.
A man motive unknown picked up a shovel and swung it at Luna. Then he yelled death threat at the whale.
"A person was observed beating Luna with a stick at the dock of Gold River. It was an unfortunate incident and that person is believed to have threatened Luna's life,” said Marc Pakenham, Veins of Life Watershed Society.
Although it seems like a freak incident, it’s a reminder of the dangers Luna faces by being too close to humans.
West coast whale funding cut
July 14, 2003 (CBC) A Vancouver Island whale conservationist says federal fisheries officials want his group to watch over Luna the orphaned orca in Nootka Sound, but aren't willing to pay for the service.
Marc Pakenham of the Veins of Life Watershed Society says his funding has been cut, putting the whale's life in danger.
"He is going downhill fast. And if we don't do something in the near future, we're looking at a tragedy in the making," he says.
Luna has been living alone in the waters around Gold River for the last couple of years.
Pakenham says while the solo whale appears fine physically, he is displaying symptoms of depression.
He says
the only solution for Luna is to reunite him with his family.
July 8, 2003
Is Luna Headed for Disaster?
Paul Spong, PhD
Times Colonist Comment Section
As a member of the scientific panel convened by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to provide advice about Luna (L98), the solitary male orca who has been in Nootka Sound for the past tow years, I cannot reveal details of our conversation.
However, I can say that the decision of the DFO not to intervene and attempt to return Luna to his family and community at this time was not based on the advice of the panel, as has been widely reported by the media.
Simply put, I believe Luna to be headed for disaster if nothing is done to alter the course he is on. I also believe that it is our collective obligation to give Luna an opportunity to rejoin his social group because we know where he belongs.
No one knows how luna came to be where he is, alone in Nootka Sound, thought there are various theories ranging from rejection and abandonment to inadvertently losing his way. I am partial to the thought that perhaps he had gone into Nootka Sound with his uncle (L39) who had then died, leaving Luna alone in unfamiliar space, but we cannot know if this is true.
What we do know from several prior instances is that when orcas find themselves in strange confined waters they sometimes get stuck and have difficulty making their way out. The cognitive or perceptual mechanisms involved are unclear, but the phenomenon seems real enough.
In January 2002 the orphan Springer (A73) showed up near Seattle and spent months within a tiny area between the city and Bainbridge Island; in 1997 19 members of L pod seemed trapped for weeks in Dyes Inlet, virtually in the heart of Seattle; and in 1994 a group of orcas became trapped in a confined ocean space known as Barnes Lake in Alaska and had to be driven out.
The ends were very different in these cases - some of the Barnes Lake orcas died of starvation, the L pod orcas eventually made their way out the Dyes Islet, and Springer was returned to her family and community via an extraordinary human effort.
Making appropriate judgements regarding intervention in cases such as these is not an easy matter. Let nature take its course is a common refrain. However I am sure that everyone involved in the Barnes Lake incident wished they had acted sooner, that a huge sigh of relief accompanied L pod as its members left Dyes Inlet, and that everyone involved in bringing Springer home felt buoyed by the outcome.
Luna's case is complex and in many ways quite different from Springer's. Luna is male and Springer is female; Springer is an orphan and Luna's mother is alive. But most importantly Springer was in poor health when she was found alone, whereas Luna appears healthy, and Springer was far from her home range whereas Luna is at least in theory within it.
The upshot is that the urgency evident in Springer's situation is not so clear in Luna's case. However, there is a common element which I regard as sufficient grounds for regarding Luna's situation as dire - his behaviour toward and around boats.
At the end of her sojourn near Seattle, Springer became increasingly fixated on boats, and it took great effort and discipline on the part of observers and the boating public to help her break the habit. Active intervention by other orcas helped too. Luna's fixation on boats is obviously a huge problem, one that comes from his existence as a lonely social being. Though there may be some amusement derived form Luna's habit of pushing boats around, preventing them from leaving the dock at Gold River or diverting them from their course, there are huge risks as well, for both him and for boaters.
Luna's body already shows minor abrasions and scars from encounters with boats and as time passes the risk of major injury increases. This is certainly a concern, but even more so is the risk his behaviour poses to boaters.
A large vessel like the Uchuck is impervious to the danger but tiny craft like kayaks are not. Luna pushes kayaks around in much the same way he deals with speedboats, and though his actions seem measured in that he applies much less force to kayaks; I cannot help believing that a tragedy is in the making.
The waters of Nootka Sound are cold and kayaks are not easy to climb back into.
At this point, given the DFO's decision not to intervene, Luna's fate seems pretty much up to him. If he manages to make it though the summer without being severely injured or injuring someone, or if he somehow manages to make his way out of Nootka Sound, he might have a chance of rejoining his proper society. But I doubt the latter and I fear the former.
In my view a plan must be put together as a matter of urgency which will give Luna the chance he deserves to find his way home. Whether such a plan is of the contingency "what if" variety of something to be implemented with a timetable is perhaps a matter for discussion.
I favour active intervention as soon as possible because I sense our obligation to Luna, and the experience we had last year with Springer convinces me it can succeed & and yes, I know the cases are very different and that many problems must be faced.
If the worst happens and Luna inadvertently kills someone, he will be labelled a problem animal and dealt with accordingly. He will be removed, either to a tank or euthanised. I sincerely doubt whether either end is acceptable to the public at large, or even to the DFO.
Paul Spong, PhD, is director of OrcaLab on Hanson Island.
Love is so complicated - For Luna's fans, a whale of a dilemma
April 7, 2003 (Victoria Times-Colonist) Luna should be in Victoria and Puget Sound waters at this time of year, hanging out with his family members from L Pod. But instead he lives alone with his human friends in Nootka Sound, where he's thought to have been brought almost two years ago by an older uncle who subsequently died. The young whale is beloved now, says Girotto.
"When everyone started realizing he might be here for a while, they got much more protective of him," he says. "You really get to appreciate whale intelligence after watching this guy for a while."
Luna is one of 275 resident killer whales that frequent the waters off Vancouver Island. Under normal circumstances, he would spend his entire life with one of the southern resident pods, which includes his mother and a new baby brother born last summer.
But the young whale, first spotted in Nootka Sound in the summer of 2001 during an aerial sea otter count, has shown little interest in venturing into the open ocean to find his family. Past attempts to lure him out past the entrance of the sound have failed, dashing hopes of an accidental reunion with L pod. A decision will soon have to be made whether to leave Luna alone or force a reunion. Neither option is ideal.
February 12, 2003
People who disturb orca risk charges
February 12, 2003 (Victoria Times-Colonist) The first charge of disturbing Luna, the young orca, is in the works as police try to stop people from touching and feeding the lonely whale living off Vancouver Island's west coast.
Get Luna too used to people and it hurts the three-year-old's chances of ever being able to reunite with his pod.
RCMP and a special whale monitoring and education team have spent months trying to educate people that the worst thing that can happen is to let this whale become attached to humans and boats because he may favour them over his own kind.
And the first teleconference for a new Canadian-U.S. scientific panel is expected to happen this week as members wrestle with what's best for Luna and the rest of the endangered southern resident population.
He's heard of people swimming with the whale and trying to feed him. "The whale shows a remarkable kind of dignity in the face of poorly behaved humans."
January 31, 2003
Fate of displaced whale stirs debate
January 31, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Lately, the little orca has been getting way too close to people and boats, begging for attention. The lonely whale is on his way to becoming the local pet.
Conservationists and government officials worry that Luna will grow too people-friendly, turn tame and never rejoin a Puget Sound orca family already ravaged by pollution and other woes. A slow-moving Canadian government needs to do something soon, activists say.
In the next month, the government plans to assemble a panel of orca experts to start figuring out what's best for Luna.
Lacking any contact with his kind, Luna craves intimacy. And some folks here are only too happy to oblige. They've grown quite comfortable -- casual, even -- with this American whale in their charge.
October 28, 2002
Reunion with pod delayed for lonely killer whale off B.C.
October 28, 2002 (Toronto Globe and Mail) A lonesome killer whale separated from his pod for the past 15 months off Vancouver Island will have to remain on his own until at least next summer.
The three-year-old male orca, designated L-98 by biologists but also known as Luna, should be able to survive the winter in Nootka Sound, said Marilyn Joyce, marine mammal co-ordinator for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Killer whales are social animals that thrive in family groups called pods, and it is rare to find an orca separated from its pod.
In a recent report, fisheries officer Ed Thorburn wrote that while Luna is growing by leaps and bounds physically, "I do think he is sad because he is so lonely."
October 11, 2002
[Marilyn Joyce]
Susan and Howie
I would like to thank you and the members of your network who have expressed their concern for L98, also known as Luna, the lone juvenile killer whale that is currently residing in Nootka Sound. Since I have received many letters and emails asking that Fisheries and Oceans Canada approved the immediate relocation and re-introduction of L98 to his pod, I would like to update you and your network on the recent decision regarding the future of L98.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) takes the conservation and protection of marine mammals very seriously and we are working with many experts to consider the options concerning the future of L98. This is a complex situation as there are potential risks that need to be evaluated regardless as to whether or not intervention is determined to be an option. A scientific panel of Canadian and US government and non-government experts will convene during the winter months to analyze the risks versus the benefits of intervention with the whale in the summer of 2003. We believe it is in L98's best, long-term interest to consider, plan and implement any interventions thoughtfully and carefully. We are very concerned that if L98 were moved and failed to connect with his pod, he might be faced with spending the winter in a less desirable location than his current one, both in terms of food availability and increased human interference. At this time, L98 is healthy and in a good, clean environment with plenty of food. The monitoring program by the M3 program that was established over the busiest summer months was successful in reducing the inappropriate human interactions with L98. Nootka Sound is a very isolated inlet on the West Coast of Vancouver Island and it is expected that human interference will be minimal over the winter.
DFO scientists, John Ford and Graeme Ellis, and our enforcement officers will continue to monitor L98 throughout the winter to ensure he is healthy and safe and also to remind boaters to stay away and allow L98 to live as a wild whale. I will ensure that John and Graeme provide you with updates on L98. This media release went out late yesterday.
Marilyn Joyce
Marine Mammal Resource Coordinator
Fisheries Management - Pacific Region
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Stn 460 - 555 W. Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 5G3
Tel: (604) 666-9965
Fax: (604) 666-3341
A whale of a reunion eyed in Canada
October 11, 2002 (CNN) Canadian and U.S. scientists, who successfully reunited a lost orca whale with her family pod this summer, are wondering if they should launch a similar effort for a second killer whale.
The whale, known to scientists as L98, has been living alone off Vancouver Island's west coast since last year, after becoming separated from a pod that normally summers in the waters of Washington state's Puget Sound.
Canadian fisheries officials said on Thursday that a panel of whale experts will decide if they should attempt to capture the young male next summer and relocate it closer to where its relatives normally are.
Another whale reunited
Scientists successfully relocated a young orphaned female orca in July. The whale, known as A73 and nicknamed Springer, was taken by boat from a busy shipping channel near Seattle to Canadian waters where she was reunited with her family pod.
Orcas rarely separate from their pods for long periods and the effort to help A73 -- the first time scientist have successfully staged a family reunion for killer whales in the wild -- drew international attention.
Scientists had hoped that L98, who they have nicknamed Luna, would rejoin the family pod on his own this summer, but it was unclear if the other whales ever got close enough for him to hear them.
Unlike A73, L98 has remained healthy while living alone, but scientists are worried because lonely orcas sometime turn to boaters for attention and social interaction, putting both themselves and the humans in danger.
Interacting with the whale
Fisheries officers began patrolling the area near Nootka Sound where L98 has been living after receiving reports that boaters had been interacting with the whale -- in at least one case going so far as to pat the animal on the head.
A statement by Fisheries and Oceans Canada on Thursday said there is "considerable public interest" in relocating L98 before his pod returns to deeper water in the Pacific Ocean. But the department added that scientists do not want to move too quickly.
Experts are concerned that if the reunion is unsuccessful, the whale will be forced to spend the winter in waters with less food and more danger from humans than he now faces.
"DFO wants what is best for the whale and its pod," spokeswoman Marilyn Joyce said in a statement.
The Canadian efforts to help killer whales have been compared to the so far unsuccessful effort to return the killer whale Keiko to a life in the wild after living most of its life in captivity.
People-loving Keiko showed up in a narrow fjord in western Norway in early September, six weeks after he was freed from a pen in Iceland where trainers had spent three years and $20 million to make him fit for the oceans again.
October 11, 2002
[Doug McCutchen]
Thank you for forwarding the letter from Marilyn Joyce. I am however concerned about some of the statements which she made regarding L-98's situation.
The description of Nootka Sound as "a very isolated inlet on the West Coast of Vancouver Island" is only partly true. While Nootka Sound certainly is more remote than say the Vashon-Southworth Ferry route, there is a substantial community there based on logging, fishing, tourism/sportfishing, and the recent addition of fish farms. While the overall amount of people is less, the amount of boat traffic remains a concern, especially in consideration of Luna's gregarious behavior. There has been much more interaction between Luna and humans in "remote" Nootka Sound than there was between Springer in industrial Puget Sound. Springer did not have people putting their hands in her mouth, rubbing her gums, and massaging her tongue. Springer did not have overzealous parents placing their children above her open mouth for a priceless photograph. Springer did not have well meaning people attempting to feed her loaves of bread and cookies. Springer did not have pranksters pouring beer down her throat.
Next I would call into question the description of Nootka Sound as "a good, clean environment with plenty of food." At the mouth of Gold River, which is very near where Luna has spent much of her time, is an old pulp mill and remnants of a local First Nation town. The town was actually abandoned and moved far up river after residents began to develop mysterious ailments such as respiratory problems due to pollution associated with the pulp mill. The area was closed to fishing, clamming, and crabbing due to the high level of toxins, especially furons, dioxins, and PCB's. The spring salmon run which presumably has been L98's primary food source is endangered. The chum salmon run should be over by the end of December and the pilchard run on which Luna most likely subsisted last year is notoriously inconsistent. With the addition of fish farms to the region provides a source for disease and parasites as well as threatening the endangered wild fish. To my knowledge there has not been any evidence of resident orca populations feeding on the Atlantic farm salmon (including the escapees).
Finally I must point out the obvious. The timing of this letter and the update of the decision making process is all too ironic. L98 has been in Nootka Sound for at least sixteen months. That is how long it has taken DFO to decide to decide later about maybe making a decision if that seems like it might be the prudent thing to do. During this period Luna has become more and more habituated to humans and boats. At this point in time he has learned how to force boats to stop and force interactions with people. Clearly he is in desperate need of social contact and people have been more than obliging to help him. The troubling thing here is his risk of injury, whether by propellers or by other negative interaction will continue to grow in this scenario. Also, the more accustomed to human contact he becomes, the more likely he will seek it out in the future and the less likely he'll be to integrate with wild whales. Should we call into question why DFO chose not to divulge L98's presence in Nootka Sound to begin with? It seems clear to me that they have been hoping the "problem" would just go away. With sixteen months without a decision, I would say that they have been incredibly successful in the pursuit of ignoring this issue.
The timing of this letter was also well planned to forestall any action in the near future. Anyone who has been immersed in Southern Resident 101 is aware that L Pod is regularly present until September/early October, at which time they seem to diverge into smaller subpods and not frequent the San Juans as much. In recent years, however, much of L has spent time in the autumn months in south Puget Sound. It is also well known that after the fall months L pod is not reliably around until July. Putting the pieces together one must realize that given the amount of boat traffic/interference during the summer months that the best and most reliable time for a reunion would be late summer or early fall when food is still plenty, the whales are most predictably present, and human interference is at its minimum. The absolute worst time would be waiting until spring since the L's are not even present and boat traffic is building. Can you imagine dumping a boat friendly, beer drinking, white bread chawing juvenile killer whale into the Salish Sea in the middle of Canada Day and Fourth of July?
By stalling to announce the decision to make a decision later-on, DFO has continued to be remiss in their responsibilities. I am concerned primarily because DFO has refused to stand up and be assertive. The troubling thing about the present is Luna will remain in "pristine" Nootka Sound with many well-intentioned humans for company, a host of toxic cocktails, and an uncertain food supply for close to another year. The biggest fear that several whale researcher associates and I share is the what if Luna gets too close? What if he has misconstrued physical contact with a boater? What if he accidently swamps a kayak? The stage seems set for these sort of scenarios to take place since there is no management plan in place. Plus any incident of this type would lend set Luna up for permanent capture and aquarium life. Indeed some of my associates speculate this is exactly what DFO has in mind.
The M3 program deserves kudos for their work in Nootka Sound, but it should be noted that they were sponsored by an anonymous (U.S.) donor, not DFO. While I am not one hundred percent convinced that capture, transport, and reintroduction is the best option for Luna, I am convinced that maintaining the status quo will only further complicate this delicate situation.
In closing I would encourage people to do a little background reading on the subject of lone juvenile killer whales. One of the killer whales, Miracle, held in captivity at Sealand on Vancouver Island was captured near Nanaimo after being found hungry and suffering from bullet wounds. In Eric Hoyt's excellent book, "The Whale Called Killer," this and another lone juvenile story are documented. Paul Jeune chronicled Miracle's story in his book "Killer Whale - The Saga Of 'Miracle'." There is more going on here than we can begin to understand, but it is our responsibility to have a plan to manage ourselves and our incredible impact. As Ken Balcomb has said so well, "The whales? The whales are fine. It's the people that are all messed up." As for Luna, I suppose only time will tell at this point.
Doug McCutchen
PO Box 1502
Friday Harbor WA 98250
doug@rockisland.com
Concern for B.C. orphan whale
June 12, 2002 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) As efforts begin to capture an orphaned Canadian killer whale hanging around a Seattle ferry dock, concerns are increasing about a young orphan male going it alone on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Both young animals are getting dangerously friendly with boats.
Fisheries Department spokeswoman Michelle McCombs is urging boaters to stay away from the animal, noting regulations prohibit disturbing or harassing whales.
L-98 is being monitored by scientists and is in good health, she said.
As for a family reunion, it is not known where the rest of the L-pod is at this time of year.
Friendly Luna looking for his pod (no longer online)
June 6, 2002 (CH News - Victoria BC) A two-year-old orca known as Luna has been swimming off the west coast of Vancouver Island for about a year, and CH TV's Jonathan Bartlett visited to find out more.
Luna, as area residents have named him, is a five-metre long orca. He showed up in Nootka Sound near Gold River last June.
Killer whales normally swim with their families or pods their entire lives. Marine biologists speculate that Luna was separated from his mother and has decided to stay and wait for his pod to return.
He has become acclimatized to humans, however, and scientists worry that could pose a risk of Luna losing his natural instinct for the wild.
Luna (or L-98, his official name) is a member of L-Pod, a Southern resident group of orcas who frequent Nootka water in the summertime.
Second baby whale isolated in Canadian waters
March 8, 2002 (Northwest Cable Network) Luna or L-98 has inhabited the waters of Vancouver Island's Nootka Sound since last summer. For some reason he's been separated from the rest of the L pod, a group of whales usually found in U.S. waters. He's north while his pod is south. Meanwhile, Springer or A-73, a distressed calf of about the same size and age, is swimming in the waters between West Seattle and Vashon Island.
Scientists say this situation of two calves so far out of place at the same time is unprecedented, but they cannot find anything that connects the two. It's just a very strange coincidence.
Two orcas like peas without pods
February 2, 2002 (Seattle P-I) Scientists puzzle over the lone whales in Puget Sound, B.C.
Two lost baby orcas -- one in a remote Vancouver Island inlet, the other in Puget Sound -- are puzzling scientists who say they have never before seen young killer whales split off from their families that way.
One orca, named Luna, was discovered last July in Nootka Sound along the rugged northwestern coast of Vancouver Island, scientists announced this week.
The second baby orca turned up alone recently in central Puget Sound. Recordings of its underwater calls were used late this week to identify it as coming from a group of whales never before seen there.
"This is something we've never encountered before," said John Ford, head of marine mammal research at the Pacific Biological Station on Vancouver Island. "The fact that there are two is very unusual."
Experts want to reunite lost whale with family
February 1, 2002 (Environmental News Service) Scientists have identified a lonely killer whale calf that has spent the past six months in a remote inlet on Vancouver Island's west coast as Luna, an orca that had been presumed dead after disappearing from Puget Sound last summer.
The calf, known to scientists as L-98, was born in L-Pod, a group of "southern resident" orcas that frequent Washington state's inland waters. The whale is about 2 1/2 years old, equivalent to a human toddler, but whale experts say it has been able to hunt for fish and is in good shape.
"To our surprise, he seems to be making a living," said Lance Barrett-Lennard, a marine mammal scientist at the Vancouver Aquarium.
Young orca found living alone off Vancouver Island
(Note: See report below)
January 31, 2002 (Seattle Times) Marine scientists are trying to help a orca-whale calf that has lost his pod and has spent the past six months in a remote inlet on Vancouver Island's west coast.
The calf is about 2-1/2 years old, but he's been able to hunt for fish and is in pretty good shape, they said.
Lance Barrett-Lennard, a marine-mammal scientist at the Vancouver Aquarium, said it's unusual for an orca to lose his pod.
The calf follows the research boat, Barrett-Lennard said, but at a certain point, the same point every time, he will not go farther. Researchers think he is waiting in one spot, perhaps for his pod to find him. The scientists aren't saying exactly where the whale is because they don't want him disturbed.
If the team needs to help the whale leave the inlet to be reunited with his pod, he'll need to be conditioned to follow a particular boat.
Barrett-Lennard said the group knows the calf's mother was still alive last summer. But an uncle he often swam with is missing.
Observations of a small killer whale in Puget Sound by Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale Research.
DFO and Partners Lay out Action Plan to Protect Killer Whale
January 30, 2002
Special Report from the Canadian Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans
2-year-old L98 is alive and well after at least seven months away from L pod! He was first seen in September, 1999, shortly after his birth to L67.
January 30, 2002
A most unusual situation has developed here in British Columbia, which I think will be of considerable interest to the network. Since July 2001, a lone juvenile killer whale has been residing in a remote inlet on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It came to our attention in September, but we were unable to photograph it for identification until November. We have confirmed, with the assistance of the Center for Whale Research, that the whale is L98, a member of L pod born in 1999. This whale was not present with L pod when censused in June, 2001.
We have not made this situation public until now in consideration of L98's well-being. We were initially quite concerned that the whale would not obtain sufficient food as winter approached, and potential disruption from curious boaters would not help the situation. However, so far he seems to be doing quite well. We have observed him catching salmon, and he is showing no signs of emaciation. We plan to continue regular field trips to the west coast to monitor L98's health status. Fisheries and Oceans will undertake conservation and protection patrols as required to ensure the whale is not disturbed. In the meantime, we will continue discussions with our colleagues to develop response strategies should the juvenile's health deteriorate.
The L98 situation is the first time that a young resident whale has been found separated from its pod for a significant length of time. (A somewhat similar incident took place in the late 1970s, when an unknown, young killer whale in poor health was found at Campbell River and was ultimately taken into captivity at Sealand in Victoria...the whale came to be known as 'Miracle'). We have no idea how L98 came to be alone in this inlet, but he seems reluctant to leave. The situation is particularly interesting given the recent occurrence of the lone (as yet unidentified) juvenile in Puget Sound. There is no evidence that the two events are related. We'll provide updates to the network on L98's status as things develop.
Best,
John Ford and Graeme Ellis
==========================
Marine Mammal Research Program
Conservation Biology Section
Pacific Biological Station
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Nanaimo, BC V9R 5K6Observations of a small killer whale in Puget SoundDFO and Partners Lay out Action Plan to Protect Killer Whale
Luna/L98/Tsuux-iit
September 19, 1999 - March 10, 2006
Sept. 19, 1999: Luna, or L98 is born to L67, "Splash," her first calf. L98 was first seen, only a few hours old, by the Center for Whale Research, when he was observed following along behind L67 who was traveling alone at the time. L67 is the daughter of L2, "Grace" (Luna's Grandmother), and had three brothers, L78, "Gaia"; L88, "Wavewalker"; and L39, "Orcan." L39 died in 2001, the same year Luna disappeared.
January 19-26, 1999: L98 is seen swimming with K pod, then he goes back to swimming beside L67. L98 was seen traveling in the calf position with K18, a female estimated to be 51 years old at the time. During this period L67 was constantly very close to K18. A few weeks earlier, an open saddle female from K-pod was seen traveling with a dead newborn. The identity of this K-pod female was not confirmed. Researchers wondered who L98's real mother was.
September 26, 1999: L98 is seen nursing from L67. L67's family, L pod, was traveling with K pod that day. During that encounter four K pod members, K18, K21, K40 and K16, are seen traveling with him and his mother.
September 27, 1999: K18 was still traveling with L98's group. At one point, L98 is seen traveling alone with K18. Later on, he is seen back with L67, both traveling with a group of whales. During this sighting L98 was lifted and pushed around by the whales.
September 28th and 29th, 1999: L98 is seen again with a mixed group of J, K and L pod members. Both K18 and L67 were in these groups.
The rest of 1999 and all of 2000: L98 and L67 travel together, without K18's presence.
January 29, 2000: 45 members of L and K pods are identified by the Center for Whale Research from photographs taken in Monterey Bay, CA (L67 and L98 were not among the whales identified, though may have been with them), documenting the furthest travel south of Southern Residents. Members of the Southern Residents were again seen off Monterey in March 2003.
September, 2000: L98 is given his adoptive name, "Luna," in a contest held to help name new orca calves by The Whale Museum's Orca Adoption Program. A Seattle newspaper ran the contest region wide. A young woman from Bellingham suggested Luna because "the Orca Whale explores the ocean, like the moon explores the earth." At the time, no one knew Luna would turn out to be a boy.
September 23, 2000: L98 is possibly sexed as a male when the distinct male markings on his belly are revealed while he was inverted at the surface.
March, 2001: Residents of Nootka Sound report sightings of a lone killer whale in Nootka Sound. This is not unusual as transients are often in the area.
Summer, 2001: L98/Luna is declared missing and presumed dead in the Center for Whale Research annual survey.
July, 2001: An unidentified, lone orca calf is seen repeatedly in Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island BC and reported to DFO.
August, 2001: L98 is given his traditional native name by the Macquinna family. The name Tsuux-iit was given by Chief Mike Macquinna in honor of his late father and chief, Ambrose Macquinna.
Fall, 2001: The lone calf in Nootka Sound identified as L98, but is not announced publicly. DFO scientists consult with a small group of US and Canadian whale researchers.
January 8-14, 2002: An unidentified orca calf is reported in Puget Sound - reports come from the Swinomish Channel, Edmonds, and finally near Vashon Island, where the calf is photographed, recorded and eventually identified as A73, or "Springer."
January 30, 2002: Canada's DFO makes public announcement of L98's existence in Nootka Sound.
March-May, 2002: Plans are implemented by NOAA Fisheries and The Whale Museum's Soundwatch Boater Education Program to conduct public outreach and on-the-water boater education and monitoring of Springer in the waters near Vashon Island, WA. Public meetings are held by Seattle Aquarium, People for Puget Sound and others, helping the government make the decision by stressing the public's desire to reunite Springer; NOAA convenes Science Panel to help with Springer planning.
May 24, 2002: NOAA Fisheries makes the decision to intervene and relocate Springer/A73 back to Canada.
June, 2002: Orphaned Orca Fund is established to assist Springer's relocation and raise matching funds.
June 13, 2002: Springer/A73 is captured and placed in a net pen at Manchester, WA for medical evaluation and treatment.
July 13, 2002: Springer/A73 takes a ride on the "Catalina" catamaran back to Johnstone Strait, where she is placed in a net pen off Hanson Island.
July 14, 2002: In the early morning hours, Springer and her family make vocal contact, and Springer is released in the afternoon. She swims behind her pod for several days, then catches up and travels with them throughout the rest of the summer. She approaches a few boats during her first week or two, but is taught by other whales to stay away.
July-September, 2002: Reports come from Nootka Sound of Luna beginning to interact with boaters. The Vein's of Life Watershed Society's Marine Mammal Monitoring Program, The Whale Museum's Soundwatch Boater Education Program and Straitwatch of Johnstone Strait team up to develop the Luna Stewardship Project (LSP) working on-the-water to educate residents and visitors about Luna and try to prevent human and boat interactions.
September, 2002: Luna moves to the docks at Gold River for the first time, posing more human interaction opportunities. Over the winter and spring LSP worked with community members to maintain a stewardship presence at the docks to help discourage people from interacting with Luna and monitor his condition. LSP creates stewardship brochures, posters, presentations, books and videos all aimed at helping Luna's precarious situation.
October 2002: L67 gave birth to her second calf, L101, so Luna now has a brother.
September, 2002: Luna moves to the docks at Gold River for the first time, posing more human interaction opportunities. Over the winter and spring LSP worked with community members to maintain a stewardship presence at the docks to help discourage people from interacting with Luna and monitor his condition. LSP creates stewardship brochures, posters, presentations, books and videos all aimed at helping Luna's precarious situation.
May 20, 2003: A Gold River woman pleads guilty to touching Luna, an infraction under Section 7 of the federal Fisheries Act's marine mammal regulations. She was fined $100 in provincial court.
June, 2003: LSP starts on-the-water stewardship activities again, working with Mowachat-Muchlaht students at the Gold River boat Launch, through October. Over the summer Luna's interactions with boaters, kayakers and airplanes increased.
July 9, 2003: Springer returns with her pod, after spending the winter in northern waters. She has not been reported to be exhibiting any special interest in boats or humans.
Summer, 2003: Luna Stewardship Fund by US and Canadian NGO's is established to help relocation costs. Reunite Luna Web site (www.reuniteluna.com) established to help public keep up with Luna.
August, 2003: Luna sustains two large gashes on each side of his head, thought to be caused by hitting his head up against boat propellers parked at a local campground/marina. LSP maintains a presence in Gold River until Spring of 2004 when plans were made by DFO to relocate Luna the following spring.
September 24, 2003: The Scientific Panel convened to finalize an approach to reintroduce Luna to L pod.
August 28, 2003: Citing concerns that if L98 were moved and failed to connect with his pod, he might be faced with spending the winter in a less desirable location than his current one, both in terms of food availability and increased human interference, DFO postpones plans to relocate Luna until al least spring of 2004.
October 1, 2003: DFO confirms position on plans to move forward with relocating Luna.
October 13, 2003: DFO deadline for applications for scientific licence to relocate Luna from individuals, groups and organizations
October 26, 2003: Senator Maria Cantwell, NOAA Fisheries, US Navy, and WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife announce partnership to help Luna, pledging $100,000 US to helping relocate Luna.
October 31, 2003: DFO announces $135,000 CDN to the effort, but states their intention to wait until spring to move Luna.
March-May 2004: Researcher Lisa Larsson, David Howitt and OrcaLab start the Luna Research Project with the approval of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation and with a Scientific Licence from the DFO, collecting behavioral and acoustic data to record Luna's "normal" daily life, i.e. outside the busy summer boating season. Larsson observes L98 from a land-based research station on a cliff near Gold River.
June, 2004: Mike Parfit and Suzanne Chisolm arrive in Gold River to observe and write about Luna's capture and relocation.
June 10, 2004: DFO approves the physical relocation of Luna by truck to Pedder Bay near Victoria. The plan includes attaching a tracking transmitter by inserting a steel pin through Luna's dorsal fin, which could cause serious infections. Tying a rope around Luna's tail to force him into the net pen is listed as a last resort in the rescue plan. Documents indicate that Luna might end up in an aquarium if he fails to take up with his family.
June 16, 2004: As authorities prepare to capture Luna, members of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation — believing they are protecting the whale — lead him 20 miles away by singing and pounding their canoe paddles to lure the orca away.
June 17, 2004: For a second day, Luna eludes the Canadian captors who are trying to reunite him with his Puget Sound family.
June 22, 2004: Officials with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans repeatedly lead Luna with motorboats into underwater net pens. But each time, the 4-year-old orca slips out before the net was closed. It appeared that Luna thought the exercise was a game. He would even push the lead boat into the pen and then escape.
June 24, 2004: Canadian government officials call off attempts to capture Luna.
July 1, 2004: Luna breaks the rudder off a sailboat in Mooyah Bay.
July 7, 2004: Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation proposes a stewardship plan for Luna.
August 27, 2004: Days after Luna damages three boats during separate encounters off Vancouver Island's west coast, Canadian fisheries says DFO will issue a formal "stewardship plan" that spells out ways to ease contact between the public and the wayward orca.
September 2, 2004: A coalition of groups propose that preparations be made to lead Luna out to sea whenever L pod visits the area.
November 6, 2004: Gold River resident Keith Bell asks the RCMP to lay charges of attempted murder against Luna and DFO after three run-ins between Bell's sailboat and the whale. The RCMP declined to press charges.
2004-2005: Tsux'iit Guardians, First Nations stewardship program is started to study and protect Luna.
2005 and 2006: LunaLive, a scientific research project dedicated to the study of Luna, includes a number of independent researchers in partnership with NGOs and the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nations, who share a desire to see Luna remain safe, free from captivity, and ultimately, reunited and swimming with his family. The LunaLive researchers, located all around the globe, listen 24/7 to the sounds of Luna's underwater territory in order to study Luna's vocal behavior.
August 11, 2005: Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisolm propose a drastically different approach: Luna needs a human "foster" family - deliberate, sustained interactions to satisfy his need for companionship while keeping him away from dangerous situations. When his family is close by, he would be easily led out to meet them. Toni Frohoff and Cathy Kinsman propose a set of stimulating activities without human intervention to keep Luna occupied. Other groups disagree with these approaches, and DFO has no response. Interactions with Luna remain illegal, though they take place daily.
March 10, 2006 - Luna is killed by a tugboat propeller.
Information compiled by Orca Network with notes by Kari Koski and Astrid van Ginniken.
Some thoughts about L98, Luna
beginning September, 2003
Luna’s Story - Luna Archived Reports - Luna Fact Sheet
Many people are very interested in what happens to Luna, who is now lost, out of contact with his family and in danger in the far reaches of Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
October 30, 2003
Orca Network News Release
Today's news release from Canada's Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans has a "good news" title - that Canada is finally willing to put money toward Luna's relocation; but the real news and outcome of this poorly informed decision is that DFO is still stalling Luna's return, and forcing him to spend another winter away from his family, which will make any real attempts at his reunification much more difficult and could be a death sentence for Luna, given threats that are out there (see email we just received below the news release).
It is simply incomprehensible that DFO could now be saying that after consulting with "experts" (though most of their own appointed, scientific panel believe Luna should return NOW!), they say it is best to wait until spring to return Luna to his pod. But last spring and summer, their reasoning was that he couldn't be returned during spring or summer because of boat traffic and human interaction opportunities.
DFO now has two viable plans for Luna's relocation in hand, and funding from both sides of the border to carry out the plans. Only one week ago DFO said they had everything they needed except the funding to move forward. Now they have the funding, but have come up with another excuse not to move Luna, an excuse that is in direct contradiction of their earlier reasoning that Luna should be moved during the fall/winter months. At this time it is becoming increasingly difficult to believe that DFO has Luna's return or best interests at heart, and it makes it very difficult for those of us who would like to be raising funds to assist in this effort.
There is no reason for the US and Canadian governments to wait until next year to return Luna to his pod. Luna's immediate family will be in the area through January, possibly into February. Luna doesn't need an extended period of time in a net pen before being moved, and the move could be made quickly, getting him here by the end of November or early December, giving him several months to connect with L pod. If there are no interactions with L pod during these months, J pod remains in the inland waters throughout the year, and there is good reason to believe Luna would hook up with this extended family until L pod returns next spring.
What will be the next excuse? Will DFO EVER give the green light for Luna's return? How can we ask for contributions to a project that is being stalled every step of the way?
Susan and Howard October 26, 2003
Orca Network News Release
Senator Maria Cantwell, NOAA Fisheries, US Navy, and WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife partner to help Luna
Today Washington Senator Maria Cantwell, Northwest Regional Director of NOAA Fisheries Bob Lohn and WA DFW Director Jeff Koenings held a joint news conference to announce their combined effort to partner with Canadian Fisheries officials to bring Luna back to his family, L pod of the Southern Resident orca community. Lohn announced that $100,000 may be available immediately, with more funding likely after an appropriations bill is passed in Congress, possibly in two to three weeks. Sen. Cantwell also revealed that the Navy would participate in the project by helping with tagging and tracking, and may help monitor the Southern Residents year-round.
This development amounts to a breakthrough that may finally get some movement to transport Luna to where he'll hear his family in their normal travels in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and he'll have a chance to call to them and be heard. There is no record of a Southern Resident family member being rejected, and there is no reason to think that Luna will have forgotten his mom or his other relatives, or that they will have forgotten him. The reunion should go fairly smoothly, even if it takes a few days, providing Luna is promptly placed in an exposed location like Pedder Bay, and is allowed to go free as soon as there is an obvious vocal connection between him and his family. The precedent is of course the release of the two-year-old orphan orca Springer when she connected with her family and seemed eager to go with them.
Senator Cantwell has taken a creative and important step to partner with NOAA Fisheries, US Navy and WA DFW to jointly offer assistance to DFO in their efforts to bring about Luna's reunion. This cross-agency, cross-border collaboration is a testament to the widespread public appeal among the human residents around Puget Sound, the Northwest Straits, the Gulf Islands and Georgia Strait, and beyond to help Luna and in so doing help restore his family.
We applaud DFO's earlier decision to intervene and bring Luna back to his home waters this fall or winter. This is the perfect time for a reintroduction - his pod is still around, and it is the time of year where they travel throughout the sound, so are not in one place for any length of time (as opposed to the summer months when they can almost always be found off the west side of San Juan Island). This decreases the chance for Luna to become habituated to one marina or location, and makes it difficult for people to converge upon Luna or his pod; and there are less recreational boaters out and about this time of year as well.
Moving Luna now would give him time to readjust to life with his pod before they take off for the winter months. Waiting until next spring would not only endanger Luna's life through the winter, but would make the reintroduction more risky by placing him back with his pod when they are most subject to interaction with humans and boats.
There are also several compelling scientific purposes served by reuniting Luna with his family. If he is radio-tagged his travels, and therefore his family's unknown winter itineraries, can be far better understood, which directly informs efforts to protect and restore the whales' habitats and prey sources. Considering the Southern Residents have been listed as “endangered” by Canada, and as “depleted” by NOAA Fisheries, and are in the process of being listed as “endangered” by the WA DFW, such critical information is invaluable.
As Bob Lohn pointed out in the press conference, there are further potential gains in scientific understanding to come from the project. Luna’s reunion may help show whether “orcas that have been accustomed to human contact can return to a condition where they don’t continue to seek human contact.” This could be important information for the prospect of returning the other “missing” L pod member, “Lolita”, who has been on display at the Miami Seaquarium since 1970.
In other words, Luna will help answer whether there is still a strong bond between him and his family and whether they will teach him to “just say no” to humans even in the presence of boats. Springer demonstrated all that and more, and presumably her resoundingly happy reunion with her family is contributing to the public’s confidence in Luna’s ability to resume a normal orca lifestyle.
The lifelong family bonds found among both male and female Resident orcas of the Southern and Northern communities are unprecedented in the annals of animal behavior, so it’s not surprising that public figures in the US and Canada are reluctant to base a high-profile rescue operation on the prospects that the lost juvenile will fully reintegrate with his family. We couldn’t expect that for virtually any land mammal save humans. But orcas are a special case. Luna, like Springer, can show people that orcas possess qualities we thought were limited to us. ###
October 26
Washington Senator Maria Cantwell today announced a bilateral cooperation between National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Washington Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and Senator Cantwell’s office.
Luna may spend winter alone
October 24, 2003 (Seattle Post_Intelligencer)
October 24
From the Whale Museum regarding clarification of recent media reports on the Luna situation:
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has been receptive to two proposals to implement the plan to relocate L-98. The two groups that submitted these proposals are The Vancouver Aquarium, and the Seattle-based Global Research and Rescue. The Whale Museum submitted a proposal for Phase III with The Vancouver Aquarium. In this proposal the Vancouver Aquarium would be serving as the "principal" on Phase I (initial capture, transport and relocation) and Phase II (holding, tagging and release), and The Whale Museum serving as the "principal" on Phase III (post release monitoring and stewardship). The Whale Museum also sent in the Phase III portion of the proposal separately to DFO so that The Whale Museum could be considered as a sub-contractor for Phase III, whomever received the final contract.
It has been recently suggested in the press "that both groups that propose to move 4-year- old Luna have concluded spring could be a better time to make the move." For clarification, The Whale Museum has always maintained that releasing Luna this Fall was the best approach for success, and has not changed it's position. The Whale Museum does not think releasing Luna next Spring or Summer has as much chance for success. Left in Nootka Sound over the Winter again, for a third year, would further Luna's habituation to people and isolation from his own kind. In addition, the increase in boating traffic that he would be exposed to in Haro Strait during the Spring or Summer could severely distract his reunification and would make the logistics of the plan much more difficult and costly to implement.
Soundwatch Program
The Whale Museum
*
Senator Maria Cantwell wrote a letter about Luna that was read at the Luna Forum October 8. A representative from Sen. Cantwell's office attended the public forum in Seattle to discuss efforts to rescue Luna.
Aquarium's plan to save orca orphan short funds
October 15, 2003 (Vancouver Province) The Vancouver Aquarium today will announce a proposal to help reunite Luna, the orphaned orca whale, with its family pod.
But aquarium spokeswoman Angela Nielsen said that so far, a "proactive" fundraising push has only raised $2,400 toward a rescue that could cost as much as $600,000.
"We're responding within the limits of our resources," she said. "We are non-profit and self-supporting, which means we can't afford to fund this entirely on our own."
The aquarium was putting the finishing touches to its plan yesterday afternoon before presenting it to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Nielsen said that when Springer, another orphaned orca, was rescued last year, the aquarium spent about $100,000 in the $600,000 operation.
She said Luna's rescue could cost about the same.
"It could be around that or a little bit less or a little bit more," she said. "Donations are coming in rather slowly. We're only at just over $2,400 so there's a long way to go."
In Springer's case, the female orca was taken from the waters around Seattle to northern Vancouver Island.
Luna has been living in the waters off Gold River for two years and has become too friendly with people.
People have poured beer down Luna's blowhole, and run-ins with boats last month left two deep gashes on the whale's head.
In May, a Gold River woman was fined $100 for petting Luna.
The DFO is looking to move Luna from Nootka Sound to Pedder Bay near Victoria where the whale can link up with its family.
"It's important to get going fairly soon because his family pod is there now and will be leaving the area in December," she said. "It's got to be soon."
Mark Pakenham of the Luna Stewardship Project said his group is looking at supporting the aquarium's proposal.
DFO spokeswoman Michelle Imbeau said more details should be announced today.
Groups plead for more time to arrange transfer of lonely orca Luna
October 13, 2003 (Canada East) If no one steps forward to move a lonely orca so he can rejoin his pod, the extreme options left for Luna are captivity or euthanasia, scientists say.
The clock runs out Tuesday for organizations with the expertise and deep pockets to move the four-year-old orca, but one group that's been watching Luna for more than a year says that's not enough time.
"I'm feeling less optimistic with each passing hour," said Mark Packenham, of the Luna Stewardship Project.
"We know that the captivity option is one that has raised a lot of interest from the captive industry. I think the public would go wild over a captive future for this whale."
It costs an aquarium about $1 million to buy a whale, but a captive whale is worth about $50 million in gate receipts, said Packenham.
The Vancouver Aquarium no longer has orcas after the city's parks board passed a bylaw banning them.
Luna has been living in the waters off Gold River, on Vancouver Island, for the past two years. The whale was doing well in his lonely environment away from his pod, but has lately become too friendly with people.
He's now become a nuisance animal and scientists are concerned he will injure or kill someone in his efforts to cozy up to humans. If that happens, like garbage bears who eventually attack, Luna would have to be put down.
"If an incident ever did take place where human life was at risk, then there was discussion of lethal force as an option," said John Ford, a scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
"But it's such a remote contingency that we're not really spending any time on it," he added.
People have reportedly poured beer down Luna's blow hole and tried to brush his teeth. Run-ins with boats last month left two deep gashes on his head.
The Fisheries Department issued its request for proposals to move Luna Oct. 3, giving anyone wanting to try the tricky and costly operation just over a week to respond.
By last Friday, no one had.
"The detail . . . and the implications in that reunification plan are fairly extraordinary," said Packenham.
"It's unrealistic to allow five working days to respond to such a comprehensive request for proposals."
The department is looking for an organization that would move the one-tonne whale some 250 kilometres down the coast from Nootka Sound to Pedder Bay, near Victoria. There, Luna would wait until his pod swims by and hopefully, make a connection to his long-lost family, which includes his mother.
Luna's pod is due in the neighbourhood sometime around December.
The plan is similar to the successful effort last year to move Springer from the busy waters near Seattle to northern Vancouver Island. She reunited with her pod after the $600,000 effort.
Ford said the complex operation requires a complicated and detailed set of obligations from any organization wanting to attempt the move.
"It's really whether a group can come forward with the right personnel and resources to implement the plan," he said.
"There's all sorts of different contingencies. It's really quite a complex operation, the whole idea of coralling or capturing this whale, holding him for medical screening, transporting him to southern Vancouver Island, holding him for a bit longer to adjust for the transport and then hopefully releasing him when his pod is going by."
The hope is Luna will find his own pod mates more fascinating than boats.
But Ford said it's hard to predict what's going to happen.
"I'm having a hard time putting odds on this. I'm optimistic, but at the same time, realistic in that there is such a different set of circumstances surrounding Luna as opposed to Springer."
Scientists and Luna watchers agree that unlike Springer, Luna is happy and healthy in his current environment.
Brian Gorman, of the National Marine Fisheries Service in the United States, said Luna's loneliness may even be perfectly normal.
"His problem is not health, it's not even location, it's people," Gorman said.
Waterfront meeting addresses proposed move of stray whale
October 9, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) The plan to move Luna - a 4-year-old killer whale that has been bothering boats in Canada since he got separated from his U.S. relatives over two years ago - got an airing here Wednesday at the waterfront Seattle Aquarium.
Giving the stray orca a chance to rejoin his community means "we all have to work together," said Marilyn Joyce, marine-mammal coordinator for Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
She detailed her agency's requirements - disclosed for the first time last Friday - for removing Luna from Nootka Sound, on the west side of British Columbia's Vancouver Island, where he has posed increasing risks to himself and boaters over the past two years.
"The outcomes aren't sure here. There are no guarantees," Joyce said. But "we've got to get going."
Canada is accepting bids through Tuesday from those willing to try reuniting Luna with his family. The orcas usually stay in waters between the two countries, near Washington's San Juan Islands, chasing salmon through December and sometimes later.
Bob Lohn, regional director for the National Marine Fisheries Service, hinted at U.S. government financial support, perhaps including resources from a fund designed to cover stranding emergencies.
He also addressed liability concerns from one prospective bidder, saying that whoever takes on the project would be considered a "cooperator" and possibly eligible for government backup. "We'll work with you to give you the best protection federal law allows," he said.
Several in the audience expressed concern that the move was being made too late in the year, but researcher Rich Osborne from The Whale Museum on San Juan Island said that for the past four years, the U.S.-based whales remained in the inland waters into February.
"We thought very hard about this," he said, and in many ways making the attempt now is much preferable to a summer relocation, when the area is packed with boats. Last year, he noted, "all three pods were in Puget Sound in February."
And, Lohn noted, "we are where we are. ... We need to act quickly. There's a general sense of 'the sooner, the better.'"
Canadian officials decided to move the whale due to public safety concerns. Reuniting him with his family is secondary, the agency has said - and life as a solitary wild whale would be acceptable as long as he stays away from boats.
The detailed Canadian proposal provides for oversight of the whale through April if for some reason he cannot be released while his family, or "pod," is in area waters. If he cannot be released, the agency will seek "long term/permanent options."
Some raised concerns about those options, but Joyce urged a focus on the task at hand.
It's "a challenging deadline," said Marc Pakenham of Victoria, who's been overseeing the Canadian government-financed Luna Stewardship Project, monitoring the animal from small boats, for over a year. He was encouraged that fund-raising efforts are under way by his organization, the Vancouver Aquarium and The Whale Museum. "It looks like we're well on our way to developing a strategy for cooperating with any funds that we raise."
Costs are expected to be about $350,000 ($500,000 Canadian) - roughly the tab for last year's relocation of Springer, an orphaned Canadian killer whale reunited with her family after she strayed into busy Puget Sound. That move was declared a resounding success when Springer - also called A-73 for her birth order in A-clan - returned to Canadian waters with her family this summer.
Luna - also called L-98 for his birth order in L-pod - is to be captured and held in a net pen in Nootka Sound while he's tested for disease, and then moved by truck and/or boat to Pedder Bay near Victoria until he makes contact with his family.
A new complication arose this week when one of Canada's First Nations bands raised objections to removal of the whale and the possibility that it could wind up in captivity if reintroduction fails.
Killer whales are sacred to the Mowachaht/Muchalaht community, who believe wolves, the enforcers on land, and killer whales, the enforcers at sea, are sometimes the same, said Roger Dunlop, regional biologist for the 14-band Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council at Gold River, British Columbia, on Nootka Sound.
Chief Mike Maquinna's father, Ambrose Maquinna - who died just before Luna appeared in area waters - had said he believed he would return as a killer whale, Dunlop said.
Joyce said she was aware of the band's concerns.
"We do understand that this animal is significant culturally and spiritually," she said. "We hope we can resolve some of the concerns they have."
Native people feel spiritual bond with wayward killer whale
October 10, 2003 (Bremerton Sun) Citing spiritual reasons, a band of native people in Canada has spoken out against a plan to relocate Luna, the killer whale living alone in a Vancouver Island inlet.
Mike Maquinna, chief of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht band on Vancouver Island, told The Sun that it isn't always easy to talk about deep spiritual beliefs. But it is important for people to understand Luna's place in the world, he said.
"There is a power of the whale that has been offered to us," Maquinna said. "It is a story that needs to be told."
Maquinna's people first encountered the killer whale swimming alone in Nootka Sound the day after their elder chief, Ambrose Maquinna, died. He was Mike Maquinna's father and one in an ancient line of patriarchs.
Before his death, the chief expressed his desire to return to his people as a kakawin, or killer whale, a supernatural being of great significance to native people in both Canada and the United States.
Killer whales are the enforcers of the natural laws of the sea, just as wolves are the enforcers on land, according to a written explanation issued by the Mowachaht-Muchalaht community.
Said Maquinna, "The power of this being is really hard, perhaps, for someone working in the concrete jungle to understand."
It is important to understand the honor of having the kakawin present himself to the people of Nootka Sound, Maquinna said.
Maquinna said he presented the relocation plan with all its contingencies to his people Sept. 22.
"The community affirmed their spiritual and cultural ties to Tsux'iit and resolved that the whale be treated with the greatest of respect in all aspects of its life and our life," according to the written statement.
"It is unacceptable to the Mowachaht-Muchalaht people that Tsux'iit be incarcerated in an aquarium if the experimental relocation fails," according to the statement.
"We have consistently told people to remember to have high respect for the whale," Maquinna said. "We should let nature take its course. If the whale chooses to be here in this territory, then that is its choice."
If the government wants to intervene, the goal should be to keep people from bothering the whale, he said.
Maquinna said Luna has been expanding his travels as he gets older and may one day choose to leave Nootka Sound and search for his family.
A Whale Of A Move
October 8, 2003 (KOMO TV) As U.S. and Canadian officials and environmentalists met Wednesday night at the Seattle Aquarium they watched a short video of Luna the orca set to music. Marc Pakenham of the Luna Stewardship Project joked he hopes the next video is set to "I'll be Home for Christmas."
After two years of wrangling between U.S. and Canadian groups government agencies finally laid out the plan to move L-98 from Nootka Sound to Pedder Bay near Sooke, B.C. on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Marilyn Joyce of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans explained Canada's proposal Wednesday night in Seattle to a group of about 100 people involved in the effort to reunite Luna with the L-pod.
"I hope we don't see these young whales leaving their pods anymore because it distresses us all," said Joyce. "But I think we just have to take one step at a time."
Orca watchdog groups have been distressed for months because those steps have come more slowly than they would prefer. The L-pod could leave its home range of the San Juan and Gulf Islands in mid-winter and head to the open ocean. The goal is to get Luna within vocal range of his pod, and his birth mother L67, before that happens.
"We all care for Luna. That's why we're here," said Howard Garrett of Orca Network. "We want the best for that little guy."
Band claims spiritual bond with lost orca
October 8, 2003 (Vancouver Province) Natives oppose plan to return Luna to his pod
Members of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht band are telling fisheries officials to keep their hands off Luna the killer whale because he has a strong spiritual connection to one of their dead chiefs.
The Gold River band is angered that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans plans to capture the isolated L Pod orca from Nootka Sound and ship him to the San Juan Islands to be reunited with his family. Chief Mike Maquinna said officials have made little effort to consult with his band about Luna's future.
"[People are jumping] to conclusions, and also to feel or think that they know what's best for it," Maquinna said yesterday. He said Cuuxitt, as the natives call Luna, appeared in his band's territory at about the same time that his father, Chief Ambrose Maquinna, died more than two years ago.
Orcas and wolves are revered in coastal First Nation societies as carriers of the souls of individuals and chiefs.
Forum about Luna's return set for tonight
October 8, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) How should the young orca Luna be reunited with his pod near the San Juan Islands?
As Canadian officials await proposals for how to accomplish the task, the public is invited to a forum tonight in Seattle to discuss the planned reunification.
The forum, featuring speakers from the Canadian and U.S. governments as well as environmental groups and the whale-watching industry, is scheduled from 7-9 p.m. at the Seattle Aquarium, Pier 59 on the Seattle waterfront, 1483 Alaskan Way.
A reunion for Luna?
October 8, 2003 (Seattle Times) Fisheries agencies from the U.S. and Canada will meet with the private Luna Stewardship Project and Whalewatch Operators Association in Seattle this evening to discuss what to do about the 4-year-old orca nicknamed Luna. Authorities would like to reunite Luna with his family in Washington waters. Today's meeting, 7 p.m. at the Seattle Aquarium at Pier 59, 1483 Alaskan Way, is open to the public. For a couple years, Luna has been frolicking solo up north, on the west side of Vancouver Island in Canadian waters and outside the normal boundaries of his pod. Authorities are weighing options for reuniting him in Washington waters with his group, known as L-pod. L98/"Luna" Public Forum Oct. 8th in Seattle
Luna plan requires plenty of loonies
October 7, 2003 (Bremerton Sun) The rush is on to recruit experts, mobilize equipment and raise money to bring Luna, a lonely killer whale stuck in Canada, home to his family in Puget Sound.
Environmental groups are exuding optimism, yet a shortage of time and money threaten to sink the rescue project before it gets started.
The Canadian agency called on private organizations in the United States and Canada to submit proposals. The deadline: Monday of next week.
"They've put a short fuse on this thing," said Ken Balcomb, a longtime whale researcher who helped develop the plan. "I think they put that out to see if any save-the-whale organizations can come up with the expertise and money."
Balcomb, who runs the Center for Whale Research in the San Juan Islands, said the Canadian government has decided to act quickly, apparently because Luna is rubbing up against boats and even seaplanes, creating a safety risk for people and himself.
"I'm personally disappointed that DFO didn't take us up on our offer to do something in the spring," he said.
Balcomb said he wanted to try "behavioral modification" to extend Luna's range of travel and discourage him from bothering people.
Now, if someone doesn't come up with a plan quickly, Luna could be headed for an aquarium "or some sort of jail," Balcomb said.
Funding sought for whale move
October 7, 2003 (King 5 News)) The Canadian government says that it has no money to move L98, Luna, to a position off south Vancouver Island, to link up with his home pod.
The U.S. national Marine Fisheries Service also says they have no cash.
"The long and short of it, is there's unlikely to be any U.S. Tax money available for the Canadian Side of this operation," said Brian Gorman of the Natioinal Marine Fisheries Service.
Orca rescue: the price of saving Luna
October 7, 2003 (Seattle Times Editorial) But it will have to be without major financial support from either the Canadian or U.S. governments. The two governments last summer successfully reunited Springer, a 2-year-old orphan orca that had wandered into Puget Sound, with its family pod off Vancouver Island.
Plenty of reasons to take Luna home
October 7, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial) It's risky but right to reunite an orca with his family, which spends much of its time in Puget Sound.
The Canadian government wants bids from groups that can safely move Luna back toward his old neighborhood.
The Canadian decision came after considerable study. Authorities had become increasingly concerned about Luna's dangerous attraction to people and boats in Nootka Sound along the coast of Vancouver Island.
Luna will be safer if he can reintegrate into a normal social life with other orcas, rather than habitually seeking human companionship. His return would also augment the dangerously low numbers of orcas here.
The most immediate challenge is for groups interested in Luna to raise an estimated $500,000 in cash and in-kind contributions needed to move him. Because of killer whales' importance to the region's ecology, it's a worthy cause. Cooperation among as many interested parties as possible would help. But assistance from the Canadian and U.S. governments could ease the fund-raising challenge.
The Canadian plans envision the possibility of putting Luna in captivity, if he starts hanging out in the middle of Puget Sound's heavy vessel traffic. That is one of the risks in a plan that has no guarantees.
But the successful return of Springer to her family in British Columbia offers plenty of reason to try to help Luna and his family.
Wrangler hopes to help with wayward whale
October 6, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Luna is the 4-year-old orca that strayed into the remote waterways of northwestern Vancouver Island two years ago, but that belongs to a group of whales that frequent the San Juan Islands and Puget Sound.
Canadian officials announced Friday that they are accepting proposals for how to capture and transport Luna so he can be released into the company of his family, or pod.
Foster said he thinks it will be a fairly simple matter to snare Luna. "He has become so habituated toward people that I think he shouldn't be any problem at all."
Although some have criticized the Keiko release because the whale never was reunited with his family, Foster said the project provided invaluable experience for him and his team. For example, they learned a great deal about attaching tracking devices to whales.
"It brought a tremendous amount of exposure," Foster said. That helped foster a public adoration of killer whales.
That sentiment was strongly in evidence last year when a young, sick and apparently lonely young orca showed up in the waters off Vashon Island. Later identified as Springer, the offspring of whales that reside in Canadian waters, the whale after several months began seeking the company of boaters and incessantly following the Evergreen State ferry.
ORCA FORUM
A public forum to discuss the plan to move Luna will be held at the Seattle Aquarium, on Pier 59 on the Seattle waterfront (1483 Alaskan Way) at 7 p.m. Wednesday. For more information, call the Orca Network: 360-678-3451 or www.orcanetwork.org.
Whale of plan would reunite Luna with pod
October 5, 2003 (Victoria Times-Colonist) The newly released plan to move a killer whale from Nootka Sound south to Pedder Bay offers the young orca the best chance to reunite with his family, says a senior federal marine mammal scientist.
"I'm hopeful. I still have some optimism that it can happen," said John Ford, from Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo. "I think it's the best we can do."
The plan was created by the Fisheries Department, a Canada-U.S. scientific panel, and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. Proposals will be scrutinized based on whether they have the necessary expertise, resources and infrastructure, Marilyn Joyce, the fisheries department's marine mammal co-ordinator for the Pacific region, said Friday.
If Luna becomes a threat to human safety then the possibility is there that he could be put in captivity. The plan also allows for Luna to be killed if someone's life is in danger.
Canada invites bids on one whale of a job
October 4, 2003 (Seattle Times) Canada's 10-page plan for reuniting Luna the killer whale with his U.S.-based pod went out for bid yesterday, with an Oct. 13 deadline for applications from those willing to tackle the project.
"The clock is ticking now," said Mark Pakenham, whose Canadian government-financed Luna Stewardship Program has been monitoring Luna for more than a year, watching his increasingly dangerous interactions with boats in Nootka Sound on the west side of British Columbia's Vancouver Island.
"They're looking for the save-the-whale community to save the whale," said veteran whale researcher Ken Balcomb from the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island.
The Vancouver Aquarium, which helped in Springer's release, has already started raising money for the move, spokeswoman Angela Neilsen said.
Relocation costs likely would be comparable to the $500,000 in cash and in-kind contributions required for Springer's relocation, DFO spokeswoman Lara Sloan said.
The proposal calls for capturing the 4-year-old whale in Nootka Sound and placing him in a net pen for tests to confirm his apparently robust health.
Recent underwater tape recordings confirm that "Luna still speaks southern-resident-community whale," said Fred Felleman of the Orca Conservancy in Seattle. "He's retained it even without anybody to talk to."
And his U.S.-based pod is in the area, Balcomb said.
Finally, orca may be going home
October 3, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) After two years of inaction and weeks of official indecision, the Canadian government today plans to say a young American orca lost in the back bays of Vancouver Island should be reunited with his pod near the San Juan Islands.
But formidable obstacles remain.
The most pressing is money. Neither the Canadian nor the American government plans to sink any real cash into the venture.
They're leaving it to environmental groups or others to raise a yet-unknown amount that could total $250,000 or more to move and release the killer whale.
And there's no guarantee that the 4-yearold orca known as Luna will stay free after that. He's developed a nasty habit of rubbing and even bumping boats that, if it persists, could lead to him being recaptured and put in an aquarium, according to the Canadian government's draft plan.
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans already is drawing fire from environmentalists, who have said since spring that they needed advance notice to raise money for the operation. Luna's pod generally heads out of the area sometime between November and March.
Today, the agency intends to announce a plan that outlines those details, said agency spokeswoman Lara Sloan.
Big move for lonely killer whale
October 02, 2003 (CBC) The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has announced plans to reunite Luna – the lonely orca – with his pod in Juan de Fuca Strait.
Canadian officials are now consulting with their U.S. counterparts, as Luna's pod swims in both Canadian and American waters.
The DFO says it's hoped Luna can be moved before December.
If attempts at reunification fail, the DFO says it may consider other options, including captivity.
If no takers for Canada's plan, Luna to be captive
October 02, 2003 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) (link expired) Canada will try to reunite a stray American killer whale with his family, but if no one volunteers to take on the reunion costs and complications, the orca could wind up in a tank.
Few details of the plan to reunite Luna and his family now salmon-fishing in waters between Washington state and British Columbia have been officially released.
But Canada's cover letter on the proposal sent from the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans to the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service for input made plain what could happen if Luna does not leave Nootka Sound on the west side of Vancouver Island.
"If no parties come forward with an acceptable proposal to relocate this animal, DFO may have no choice but to seek a captive placement," Paul Sprout, DFO's associate regional director general, wrote in his Tuesday letter to NMFS's regional director, Bob Lohn.
Oct. 2
Yesterday's announcement that DFO is moving forward to relocate Luna to his pod was good news, but we need your help to make it happen.
DFO and NOAA Fisheries have both stated full funding is not available for this project, and donations from the public will be desperately needed to make things happen.
PLEASE, if you can help at all, send a donation to one of the Luna Funds (see contact info. at bottom of message). And share this with anyone you know who might have connections with people willing to help, or who are able to contribute to bringing Luna home.
Also, we need to let DFO and NOAA Fisheries know that this needs to happen NOW! We cannot stall this any longer, Luna needs to be brought back immediately to give him the best chance at reuniting with L pod while they are still in inland waters. US and Canadian Governments, researchers, and non-profits all need to work together to come up with a plan and proceed quickly - let's not set Luna up for failure by waiting until December when L pod will not reliably be around. And we need to be ever vigilant that this intervention doesn't lead Luna straight to a tank. There are other alternatives that need to be considered should the reintroduction not work immediately, but most importantly, we need to get Luna back now so there will be time for him to connect with his pod.
(contact info. below, should you wish to send your thoughts or ideas to DFO and NOAA).
And you can now hear recordings of Luna's calls, recorded by the Luna Stewardship Project and posted on the Reunite Luna website.
It is encouraging to know that Luna is using the calls of his clan, and it bodes well for a successful reunion with his pod.
For the latest Luna News & Updates, visit Orca Network's Luna page and Orca Network's Luna forum page
We'll keep you updated as more news comes in -
Susan and Howard
Orca Network
More Delays In Plan To Rescue Luna
September 30, 2003 (KOMO-TV News) There are more delays in the plan to rescue Luna, the killer whale stranded in waters off British Columbia.
Critics warn he's running out of time to be moved back to Puget Sound because of bureaucratic red tape. And they worry more delays mean a greater chance Luna could wind up in captivity.
Luna is a problem. He knocks boats around and wrangles for attention. It's dangerous for both Luna and the boaters.
Scientists agree, sending him back to his orca family in Puget Sound could solve that problem.
But the plan is bogged down.
The plan is simple: Capture Luna in Nootka Sound, keep him in a net pen there for a week to check his health. Then move him south to another pen near Victoria. And then hope, he reconnects with his orca kin.
Early Tuesday, Canada said it was waiting for the U.S. to OK that plan. In the U.S., NOAA Fisheries said they don't have any plan from Canada.
Then by Tuesday afternoon, NOAA spokesman Brian Gorman said: "Just before I came up here I checked my e-mail, I had something from DFO's public affairs office that said you'll receive something from us shortly."
Luna letters a mistake
October 1, 2003 (Victoria Times-Colonist) Despite letters sent by the federal government announcing plans for the solitary orca, no decision has actually been finalized concerning the fate of Luna.
Confusion was created when those letters were accidentally posted, announcing different decisions.
Some correspondence with concerned citizens said that Luna, L-98, will stay where he is in the waters off Gold River while others letters said the decision has been made to move him, said Lara Sloan, Fisheries and Oceans Canada communication officer.
Neither communication was correct, she said from Vancouver Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, negotiations were continuing with U.S. government representatives to finalize a plan to move the four-year-old orca from Vancouver Island's west coast to join up with his pod, which spends summer months in the waters off southern Vancouver Island and Washington state.
Luna to be captured
September 29, 2003 (KING5 News) A decision has been reached to catch Luna, the orphaned whale, who has been hanging around people and boats, and place him in a pen before moving him closer to his pod.
Peter Ross from Fisheries & Oceans Canada, who is on the Scientific Panel, said Monday that Luna will be placed in a seaside net pen at Nootka Sound for seven days. This is to allow scientists and veterinarians to ensure he has no infections or diseases that he could spread to the southern resident whales.
After moving him south, Ross said Luna would be placed in a pen there for another seven days to conclude all tests and make sure he is healthy before his release.
During this time, Luna should be able to hear his pod.
There is some optimism and many experts believe Luna will re-adopt his family, but some critics say this operation may not be as successful as Springer's reintroduction. Springer, an orphaned whale found in Puget Sound, was successfully reintroduced to her pod.
Marc Pakenham from the Luna Stewardship Project said that he believes that Luna would prefer to spend time with his own species, not with boats.
September 24, 2003
This was posted on DFO's Luna page today:
The scientific panel convened today to finalize an approach to reintroduce Luna to L-pod. This plan is very complex and we are pleased with the progress that was made. This plan will now be submitted to DFO senior officials for consideration. We hope to announce a decision early next week.
Luna is four years old September 19!
September 14th Open Letter
To: Marilynn Joyce, DFO
From: Peter Hamilton, Lifeforce, 604-649-5258 or 669-4673
Re: Plea to Keep Luna Free. Another Dolphin Stops Human Interactions.
On behalf of the Lifeforce Foundation I urge you to immediately return Luna to her L pod family. Please do not be influenced by pro aquarium forces who want to exploit this situation for financial gains. As they alleged with Springer, who was not on the verge of dying, they will claim that due to her behaviours she should be put in captivity. Once in an aquarium prison she would not be freed.
When dolphins are reunited with their own species they will stop interacting with humans. A False killer whale has stopped this type of rare behaviour even though she has not reunited with other pseudorcas.
False killer whale stops interaction on her own
In addition to Springer who was successfully returned to the A pod and stopped interactions with humans, there is evidence that a lone False killer whale has also stopped similar behaviours. For the past seven years this dolphin has actively pursued boats. Most of her life involved following boats. In 2003, the dolphin had stopped living off the Roberts Banks area and had been reported as far as Alaska this May and June. Since this dolphins return to waters near Vancouver on August 2, I have observed a dramatic decrease in her boat following activity. While he or she may occasionally engage boats for a few minutes, in general, she ignores boaters. It appears that this dolphin has broken any habituation and/or opportunistic behaviour without any human intervention.
Please advise us of your decision. Lifeforce has offered to supply equipment, such as our trailer command post and 28research vessel. Feel free to call us.
Sept. 12
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada,
I forward this to you to again express to you my sincere exasperation with your pace of movement regarding assistance for Luna (L98). You MUST allow him to be reunited with his pod. Giving him every opportunity to do so is the only right thing to do!!
TO: aih@toronto.cbc.ca
Dear "As It Happens",
Having listened to your interview with Ms. Marilyn Joyce from the DFO, may I ask that you consider interviewing someone who wants Luna to be reunited with his pod for another perspective to his situation?
While Ms. Joyce claims to be concerned about Luna's situation, those of us who have been writing for months to plead with the DFO to begin the process can't get a straight answer from them. We are told that they are having "meetings" but are not told anything else except that they have another meeting planned. In the meantime, Luna has been injured twice, assaulted and insulted by a number of selfish and ignorant human interactions. He continues to be a tourist attraction for Muchalat Inlet. Luna has learned any number of behaviors that will do him no favor in the wild should the DFO allow him to return to that world. Had the DFO truly been concerned with what the "right thing to do" was, Luna would have been returned to his pod last year. The process for reunification must begin NOW. Luna has much to remember, much to unlearn and no more time to wait for more meetings.
DFO Minister Robert Thibault and the rest of the DFO have been told by a number of oceanic scientists and experts that Luna has a very good chance at reunification because he is in good health and his mother is still alive. This is of course the total opposite of Springer's situation, who by the way is now doing beautifully living the life that she was intended for. So why the hold up for Luna? That's a very good question, one which we can not seem to get an answer for. Professional experts, volunteers and financing is available to help Luna in the same ways that Springer was aided. The only thing lacking is the official "go ahead" from the DFO. The question of "why" is one that is totally ignored by them.
Please consider interviewing some experts like Howard and Susan Garrett from Orca Network, Michael Harris from the Orca Conservancy, or Dr. Paul Spong from OrcaLab. I'm sure any one of them would be happy to give you a counter point to Ms. Joyce's point.
Thank you for your time!!
Laurie Molder
Tracy, Missouri USA
Boat-loving killer whale causes problems for town
September 12, 2003 (National Post) Luna the lovable orca may soon be reunited with its pod of whales.
The curious killer whale has become so enamoured of boats and boaters in B.C.'s Gold River that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is now thinking of repatriating Luna to the U.S. San Juan Islands.
"That's the hope, but we have to re-evaluate," Fisheries communications officer Lara Sloan said yesterday.
"It's starting to interfere with everyday life in Gold River." The department's advisory scientific panel will reconvene next week to devise a reunion plan, but hasn't decided yet whether to proceed.
Ms. Sloan said time is an issue, since the L pod is relatively easy to find now in its island feeding grounds, but will soon depart for the open ocean.
There is a perfect small cove just yards north of Iceberg Point on Lopez Island, for Luna to be held before release and re-unification to his family.
What is the point of DFO announcing that "No decision" has been made? Do we need to be informed of what we already know?
I will not hold my breath for a decision, as I would surely die. And this is the fate of poor Luna's future at the hands of DFO's decision making ability.
The hour draws near for DFO's accountability.
"Captain Hollywood" Dale Martinis
ALERT: Luna's situation has the attention of Washington State Senator Maria Cantwell's office. Please contact her office immediately and say that you support reuniting Luna with his pod. Please help now! Call, email AND fax today. We want to flood their office with Luna news: Tel: 202-224-3441; Fax: 202-228-0514; Use this convenient email form If you are a Washington State resident, please get your friends and family involved today.
ORCA NETWORK RESPONSE TO DFO's NEWS RELEASE of September 10.
Sept. 11
The Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada news release of Sept. 10th somewhat strains DFO's credibility, as DFO stated weeks ago that "We recognize that the window of opportunity is limited and are working very hard to ensure that the options before us do not become limited because of timing." After two years of conference calls and meetings, there doesn't appear to be any movement or intention to move to help Luna at all, only promises to do so, or the promise of more meetings before a decision is made.
What is needed now is action, not more meetings and conference calls. Considering the planning that will inevitably go into any actual action, there will be days or weeks of delay even after a decision is made and announced. The time to act is NOW - any further delay places Luna and the public at great risk.
We understand the need to assess the risks involved with a relocation and reintroduction process, but DFO and others have been assessing these risks all along. At this time it seems the risks involved with leaving Luna in his current situation are equal to or greater than the risks of relocation - at least with relocation, Luna has a good chance of rejoining his pod which is likely the only way we can prevent his interactions with boats, seaplanes and people.
There are many individuals, organizations and businesses willing to help financially and/or provide the resources needed for a relocation effort, and DFO is aware of many of these offers and resources. NGO's on both sides of the border are ready to raise additional funds as needed, and Whale Watch operators have stated they will stay away from L pod, and Soundwatch and others can be deployed to keep private boats away should Luna be returned. Alternatives such as a bay pen for Luna have been offered should the reintroduction not happen immediately upon his return.
It is critical that DFO take action NOW, before it is too late for a relocation this season. The past four years L pod has stayed in the inland waters into December or January, but historically they have left the region at the beginning of October. We are hoping they will again remain in the area through January, and with record salmon runs it is likely they will.....but the move needs to happen as soon as possible to give Luna his best chances at rejoining L pod. We plead with DFO to act now before it is too late.
Howard Garrett and Susan Berta
Orca Network
NEWS RELEASE
Fisheries & Oceans Canada
L98 (Luna) Updates
September 10, 2003
DFO has reconvened the advisory scientific panel to discuss potential intervention options to reintroduce Luna to his pod. DFO has not made a decision at this time, but is prepared to consider reintroduction if the panel can present options to deal with possible risks.
Lunas behaviour has deteriorated. Scientists report that he is more assertive and energetic in his interactions with boats. Together with the panel we are considering public safety and the likelihood of a successful re-introduction. The purpose of todays meeting was to discuss what an intervention plan might look like. We need to ensure that all possible risks and obstacles are accounted for so the whale and the public would not be put at risk should an intervention be attempted.
L98's interaction with boats is increasing and is causing damage to property and putting a strain on normal daily operations in Gold River. While L98 remains in good health, this behaviour is causing concern. The public is asked to review public notices and warnings regarding interactions with the whale and other marine mammals to ensure their safety as well as Luna's.
The panel will re-convene next week to review the advice and options put forth.
At 11:43 AM 9/6/03, Will Anderson wrote:
Hi Susan,
One of the many considerations left out by Marilyn Joyce in her response to you (below) is the return of Luna to US waters while his natal pod is here. Yes, there is indeed a higher density of human population/activity in US waters, but the other side of that coin is that we also have far more resources for patrolling, monitoring, educating through the media as well as the resources of NGO/GO/ and private business organizations.
Luna needs the support and benefit of his family for the best chance of survival. DFO appears to wholly exclude NMFS, which also bears responsibility for active negligence. It may be that the real stumbling block to Luna's rescue is the unacceptable, stranded political relationship between NMFS and DFO. Perhaps that is the real reason Marilyn Joyce of DFO does not mention anything about getting Luna into US waters.
To date, DFO's biggest contribution to Luna has been enabling his deterioration. It is now September 6.
Feel free to print this if you'd like. I think DFO/NMFS needs to confront our challenges regarding Luna in a public forum.
Regards,
Will Anderson
Orca Recovery Campaign
Seattle
From: "Judy & Dave"
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2003 11:48:14 -0700
Subject: Luna Bay Pen?
This Luna "Bay Pen" option really intrigues me. Not only for Luna, but possibly for Toki or any other Orca that could be deemed fit for reintroduction to the wild.
While I'm not an expert, I can't help to feel that unless the bay pen area has been approved and is ready to go, DFO will not consider that as an option.
When Paul Spong came to the "powers that be", he showed them the bay he had for Springer. That seemed to be the last convincing decision for the plan. That's why I'm thinking that while DFO has to decide to allow the relocation, like Hertz has to allow Toki to leave, waiting for NMFS and/or DFO to find a location, it won't happen. Someone has got to step up to the plate with a solid location and plan. They do not want to make a bad situation worse.
While Vancouver Island has more remote property, I see no way around not having a bay pen located in the San Juans / US waters as the only option. There is simply too much red tape as seen in this Luna situation to manage a US resident Orca in Canada. It would not work. When I contacted Susan/Howard last year they mentioned a possible site on San Juan Island or Whidbey. San Juan Island seems the best place, closest to the residents, but there is so much private land, very populated and not a lot of bays, so I could see where that might be a challenge. Too bad there isn't a wealthy "nature considerate" person that owns one of the smaller islands that has a large bay that could be used. Those kind of people seem to value their privacy, so probably fear people coming to their private island to see Orcas. Does Ralph Munro have any contacts ?
DFO is being very cautious and don't want to be blamed for a relocation effort that didn't work. This bay pen option is truly an incredible opportunity not only now, but for future possibilities.
Sounds like Marilyn and the "committee" is well aware and I was very pleased to see the clarification that aquarium display was not one of the two options. If DFO could just feel comfortable that there was a solid option if the relocation didn't work, they wouldn't have such a hard decision to make.
Thanks for all you hard work !
Judy Crawley
Battle Ground, WA
DFO's initial decision on leaving an immature killer whale in the wild is not one I would entrust for the fate of my lost child. Especially in light of the Springer reunification success.
They have run out of time and will be held accountable, and in violation of their own marine mammal harassment policy of ultimate captivity.
Ultimate captivity is why I was initially opposed to the Springer test as I was sure that was going to be the result. I was wrong
"Captain Hollywood" Dale Martinis
The little whale showed up lost in the Sound,
When asked when they'd help him, the Powers That Be said SOON.
A year went by and still the whale remained,
When asked when they'd help him, the Powers That Be said SOON.
When the little orphaned whale got hit with a stick,
The Powers That Be called for a meeting and said a decision would be coming SOON.
When the whale got cut once, then twice and was fed fast food and beer,
The Powers That Be said something has to be done, and we will, very SOON.
Before very long, the little whales family will be gone for the year,
And at this rate all we'll hear is SOON......very SOON.
How much more must we wait, the little whale and those who care about his plight,
Before SOON becomes TOO LATE?
Signed,
A Big F.O.O.L.
Friend Of Orphaned Luna
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 8:28 PM
Subject: DFO Response, RE: Luna News Release
Susan:
In response to your recent News Release, I would like to clarify Fisheries and Oceans Canada's (DFO's) current position related to the Luna (L98).
DFO is evaluating whether or not intervention is the appropriate course of action for Luna (L98). No decision has been made, but we are aware of the time constraints and are working very hard to come to a conclusion as soon as possible.
I want to assure you that DFO is focusing on two options: either leave Luna in Nootka Sound or authorize an intervention to reintroduce Luna to the rest of his pod in the waters off southern Vancouver Island. However, we have identified that one of the risks of intervening is that, if it failed, then there may be no other option than to place him in captivity, as he can be a danger to himself and the public given his current behaviours. DFO must consider both the protection of this whale and the public. As you can imagine, this is not an outcome DFO would like to see. DFO's earlier decision to leave him in Nootka Sound was made with the intention of allowing him to remain a wild whale in an environment he is accustomed to. I also want to assure you that DFO has not had any solicitations or enquiries from aquariums or marine parks about taking Luna.
The situation in Gold River over the summer has been of growing concern to all of us here at DFO. DFO Enforcement Officers have spent many hours on the water with the Veins of Life Stewardship Workers to keep boats and people away from Luna. Unfortunately, neither the public nor Luna are co-operating, and Luna has become further conditioned to people and boats. However, despite some minor cuts from pushing around boats, Luna remains in good health.
DFO will announce a decision in this matter once the situation and options are thoroughly assessed.
Marilyn Joyce
Marine Mammal Coordinator
Fisheries Management - Pacific Region
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
SEPTEMBER 4, 2003
HOWARD GARRETT
SUSAN BERTA
ORCA NETWORK
www.orcanetwork.org
OPTIONS FOR LUNA'S FUTURE SHOULD INCLUDE A BAY PEN
Something may be done soon about helping Luna. Marilyn Joyce, Marine Mammal Coordinator for Canada's Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) recently said "We recognize that the window of opportunity is limited and are working very hard to ensure that the options before us do not become limited because of timing." In recent days Luna has sustained two cuts over his eyes. He seems fine and will probably heal, but the incidents could have easily caused serious injury to Luna. A boater reported that Luna bashed his head into the side of his boat repeatedly, and Luna was recently tangled in a fishing net. These events demonstrate that Luna is a hazard for himself and others.
DFO has stated repeatedly that if action is taken there are two options: Either he will be relocated by undetermined means to Haro Strait or the Strait of Juan de Fuca in hopes he will find and rejoin his family, or he will be captured and brought to a marine park, where he would eventually be placed on public display as part of the unnamed park's marine mammal collection.
Public opinion has been clear that captivity should not be considered for Luna, and that reunification with his family--L pod of the Southern Resident orca community--should be given a try. We hope and expect that DFO will soon attempt to bring Luna within range of his family. However, the consensus at DFO seems to be that Luna may not be welcomed back into his family, or that he will be unable or unwilling to rejoin them. Some at DFO believe that, in his two years away from his kin, he may have lost his ability to communicate with them. There is apparently no record that Luna is using characteristic L pod calls, but Luna's vocalizations and behaviors have rarely been studied during his stay at Gold River.
We believe that Luna will rejoin his family, if not at first then gradually over days, weeks or even months. We fear, however, that if he doesn't merge with his family virtually immediately, and if he seeks out boats or humans to relate to during this reintroduction phase, then DFO will declare the effort a failure. DFO seems ready to conclude that Luna is a dangerous nuisance, which would provide sufficient cause to allow him to be captured and taken to a marine park.
Without a doubt there is tremendous pressure on DFO from marine parks to capture Luna for the marine park industry. Trainable orcas are extremely valuable commodities. They are dying faster than they are being born in captivity, and live captures have been prevented worldwide due to a still-rising tide of public opposition. Six Flags amusement park in Ohio, which actively sought to obtain Springer, is believed to be very interested in Luna. Several years ago Six Flags bought the Sea World of Ohio park, but Sea World removed their three orcas at the park. Six Flags recently tried to buy two orcas, but could only get one, so they desperately need a new orca. There are several other marine parks and aquariums in the US and Canada that are very interested in Luna as well.
Springer drifted away from her family in the first few days of her reintroduction before merging back with her family, and Luna should be allowed to set his own pace as well. If he returns to boats he'll be easy to re-capture. If he doesn't go to boats there is no real problem to worry about.
Even if he goes to boats, unless he becomes dangerous, we should leave him alone to make his own choices while providing assistance or boater education patrols as needed. But if a worst-case scenario develops and Luna begins making risky contact with boats, captivity is still not the only remaining option. In such a case Luna could be held in a bay pen at a location where he will be in acoustic range of his family, so he could be given every opportunity to rejoin them.
Realistically, DFO cannot accept the expense or responsibility of setting up and maintaining a bay pen for Luna. We propose that if a worst-case scenario develops, DFO make clear that prior to any move toward captivity for Luna they will accept proposals by NGO's or commercial operations to build a bay pen and oversee Luna's maintenance and continued reintroduction process. All expenses could be generated from public donations.
We believe Luna and his family should be given every opportunity to be reunited, and allowed whatever time is needed for the process to take place, though as with Springer, we believe it will take less time than anticipated by many.Orca Network's Luna page
