Scientific Panel Recommends That Luna Should Be Reunited With His Pod

Thursday, September 18, 2003
GOLD RIVER, BC - The scientific panel advising Canada on what to do with Luna the killer whale - a juvenile from a U.S.-based pod who's been going it alone in remote Canadian waters - has recommended an attempt at reuniting him with his family in U.S. waters.

Details of the proposal were not released. A contingency plan, in case the young whale does not rejoin his pod before the orcas leave their summer salmon-fishing grounds near Washington's San Juan Islands, is still being fine-tuned, said spokeswoman Lara Sloan of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

"The plan has to be complete to be approved, and the contingency plan is an important part of that," Sloan said Thursday, noting that "the U.S. government has to be in line with this as well."

She said a decision is expected early next week by DFO and its U.S. counterpart, the National Marine Fisheries Service, which has responsibility for marine mammals in American waters.

NMFS spokesman Brian Gorman in Seattle said his agency would have no comment until officials had seen the completed proposal.

It was not disclosed how the panel proposed to move Luna, also called L-98 for his birth order in L-pod, from Nootka Sound on the west side of Vancouver Island. The move could involve vessels and possibly a truck because of rough coastal waters at this time of year.

"This intervention is extremely complex," said a notice posted late Wednesday on the DFO website. "All potential outcomes and risks must be thoroughly evaluated and panel members will finalize the details of an approach in the next two days."

The four-year-old whale has been hanging out for more than two years near Gold River, B.C., a town on the eastern shore of Nootka Sound, about 40 kilometres inland from the Pacific.

In addition to various indignities - people have reportedly poured beer down his blowhole and tried to brush his teeth - run-ins with boats last month left two deep gashes on his head.

A collision with Luna ripped the rudder off a small sailboat Monday, disabling the craft, said Mark Pakenham, who oversees the Canadian fisheries department-financed Luna Stewardship Program, which monitors the whale from small boats.

Such accidents worry Pakenham.

"While he's an attraction, that's fine. But he's . . . cost people some money lately, so the attitude changes, you know," he said Wednesday.

"We've been waiting a long time for something substantive to happen," Pakenham said. "And if it's a move for reunification, we're certainly going to be there helping as best we can. . . . It's a good whale and needs to be given a chance."

Gorman said he was impressed by the scientists who advised NMFS on last year's relocation of another stray orca - A-73, also called Springer - from busy Puget Sound to Canadian waters. She was reunited with her family last summer and returned with them in July to the waters between Vancouver Island and the mainland.

Some of the same experts are chiming in on Luna, Gorman said. But he worried last year's "fabulous success" may raise unrealistic expectations.

Springer was just two years old when her mother died and she became separated from her family. When she showed up near the Vashon Island ferry dock west of Seattle in January 2002, she was losing her struggle with parasites and an inadequate food supply. She rebounded quickly with veterinary care once NMFS decided to intervene.

"That animal was slowing dying," Gorman said. "The main problem the Canadians have is with a nuisance animal, and those two are dealt with very differently."

Luna is older. And while his mother is still alive, she has a new calf.

"Springer had been in the wrong location for months. This animal has been in the wrong location for years," Gorman said. "I would caution people not to read too much into the Springer episode and . . . think somehow they're identical, because they're not."

Activists recall similar doubts about Springer, who resumed life as a wild whale despite "a lot of strikes against her," said Michael Harris of Orca Conservancy. Aunts and cousins helped Springer catch up and keep up, he noted.

L-pod usually stays in area waters through October, but the weather is getting rougher, so any move should be made soon, activists said.

The separation problem is new to area scientists. Some wonder if pollution, perhaps affecting early development, could be a factor.

Officials in both countries had hoped Luna would rejoin his family without help if the related whales passed the mouth of Nootka Sound. But for the past three years, L-pod has headed south in the fall. And, inland at Gold River, Luna would not have heard them anyway.

Costs also are a concern, although donations and volunteers helped keep last year's transfer affordable.

On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D - Wash.) wrote to Canada's ambassador to the United States, pressing for co-operation on the region's killer whales in general and Luna in particular.

Her letter to Canadian Ambassador Michael Kergin cited the "alarming drop" in the so-called southern resident killer whale population, including Luna's family, that summers near the San Juan Islands.

The southern residents, which number just 82, struggle with pollution, declining salmon populations and human encroachment. There are more than 200 northern resident killer whales in Canada, including Springer and her family.

For More Information:

Luna News from Activists -- www.reuniteluna.com
Fisheries Canada Luna Page -- www-comm.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/pages/MarineMammals/l98_e.htm
National Marine Fisheries Service -- www.nwr.noaa.gov