Boaters off Vancouver Island coast asked to stay away from formerly stranded orphan orca calf

Boaters are being warned to stay away from an orphan whale calf that has been spotted in an inlet off the northwest coast of Vancouver Island amid worries that she is becoming habituated to human contact.

The two-year-old Bigg’s killer whale, who was the subject of a lengthy rescue effort when she was trapped in a lagoon near the village of Zeballos, made her way out into the tidal waters of Esperanza Inlet on Friday. She has since approached at least two boats, putting herself and mariners at risk.

Under Canadian law, boaters are required to remain at least 200 metres away from killer whales in B.C. waters. Getting too close can result in charges under the Fisheries Act, with fines up to $100,000.

The elected band council of the Ehattesaht First Nation, which co-ordinated the five-week-long rescue effort of the whale they named Kwiisahi?is (pronounced Kwee-sa-hay-is) or Brave Little Hunter, met Tuesday and decided they will organize patrols that will seek to keep boaters out of the area off the north end of Nootka Island, to prevent contact with the whale.

The First Nations, in co-ordination with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, are asking boaters to keep well clear of the area and Kwiisahi?is in particular, the Ehattesaht said in a statement. “Every opportunity needs to be afforded to have her back with her family with as little human interaction as possible.”

In 2006, the killer whale known as Luna died when he got too close to the propeller of an idling tugboat. Luna had, like Brave Little Hunter, been separated from his family at a young age. For five years, he was known to seek out the company of boats in the waters of Nootka Sound – the southern waters of Nootka Island. While he delighted whale watchers when he surfed the wake of ships, he also became notorious for damaging boats and seaplanes.

Luna’s dangerous habits served as a warning to the whale-rescue experts who worked with the local First Nations to free Brave Little Hunter.

The calf’s mother, Spong, died near the mouth of the lagoon in March after she was stranded on a sandbar while she hunted a seal. Most killer whales will survive a beaching, but rescuers could not get the pregnant mother on her belly, and she drowned as the tide came in and her blowhole was submerged.

On March 23, the whale calf became trapped when she swam through the shallow water into the lagoon where her mother was stranded. The narrow channel to the lagoon acted as a gate, because it is only deep and still enough for a whale to pass through for a brief period each day, and Brave Little Hunter then resisted efforts to lure her out past the sandbar and back into open water.

Just two years old, the whale was still likely relying on her mother to feed her, so to prevent starvation, the team eventually fed her chunks of seal meat, a staple of the Bigg’s killer whale diet.

There was a calculated risk that she would come to associate boats with food, and potentially become another Luna. But the goal was to keep her alive until she could be adopted into the care of another pod of whales.

Brave Little Hunter, after defying multiple rescue efforts, navigated her way out of the lagoon during a high tide on Friday, and members of the rescue team were then able to lure her out to the open waters of Esperanza Inlet, where she swam quickly out of sight, raising hopes that she would rejoin a passing member of her large, extended family who are identified by whale researchers as the T109s.

But it has been weeks since any Bigg’s killer whales have been sighted in nearby waters. These whales can travel 100 kilometres in a single day, but their range extends from Alaska to California. And with at least two instances of her approaching boats in Esperanza Inlet, marine-mammal experts are worried she is at risk.