Rescuers – a motley crew of marine mammal experts, drone technicians, veterinarians, environmental consultants and First Nations people – are scrambling to reunite the young killer whale with its extended family, which includes a grandmother and an aunt and believed to be somewhere in the northeast Pacific Ocean.
As food sources for the orcas dwindle in the lagoon, rescuers know they must hurry.
“Time is not on our side,” Paul Cottrell, marine mammal coordinator at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, a federal department, told reporters Thursday.
The orca, named “Brave Little Hunter” by local First Nations people, arrived at the lagoon last month with his pregnant mother, probably to hunt seals that had fled to the isolated body of water near the little village. from Zeballos, British Columbia.
But soon after, her mother became stranded on a bed of gravel in the lagoon, where she was discovered helpless by a passing road maintenance crew on March 23. The mother orca and the calf she was carrying died within two hours, despite best efforts. for Save her.
Since then, Cottrell and Ehattesaht First Nation Chief Simon John have led efforts to keep the little orphan healthy and return her to the Pacific, which is connected to the lagoon by a narrow entrance. To do this, the rescuers used acoustics that make the vocalizations of passing killer whales heard. They also tried to get him to follow a group of canoes while people beat Indigenous drums – a method that John said has worked in the past.
The calf, however, appears unable to escape due to falling tides making the water level at the narrow entrance to the lagoon too shallow. She also seemed reluctant to swim across a sandbar at the entrance to the lagoon, rescuers said. According to Cottrell, there are only 15 to 20 minutes each day when the tide is high enough for him to swim across.
All the while, Brave Little Hunter vocalized energetically, calling to his extended family – who cannot hear him due to the isolated location of the lagoon.
As repeated efforts to return her to the ocean failed, rescuers felt “rather disappointed,” John said in a statement last week. “She doesn’t know we’re trying to help her,” he said.
Rescuers are exploring the possibility of moving the calf onto a sling, then onto a frame that will hold it while it is transported to the coast by truck, before it is placed in a mesh enclosure in coastal waters. The calf can then be released into the ocean once its group travels nearby, John said Thursday at the news conference.
Airlifting the calf out of the water with a helicopter has also not been ruled out, although that plan is no longer the primary option, Cottrell said.
Developing a plan of this magnitude is “a lot of work,” Cottrell told reporters Thursday. Rescuers hope to implement the plan over the next week, he added. Fisheries and Oceans Canada has described these trapping and transport methods as a last option because they pose potential risks to calves and rescuers.
There’s some good news: Brave Little Hunter appears to hunt birds, which means she was able to feed on her own. She also appears healthy, according to data from drones monitoring the calf’s health. Rescuers also reported that a pod of killer whales, which may include family members, was swimming near Vancouver Island.
Brave Little Hunter “is still very young and would not survive without the support of those close to him,” Volker Deecke, a professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Cumbria in England, who knows some of the people, said in an email. involved in the rescue.
“It’s really important to remember that we are connected to these animals,” John said March 26 in a statement. “In our stories, the killer whale came to earth and turned into a wolf, and then the wolf turned into a man.”
“These are events that awaken our people and our connection with the land, water and animals. … Sometimes, in sad events, we gather strength. I think it’s important,” John said.
washingtonpost
