Groups Plead for More Time to Arrange Transfer of Lonely Orca Luna

Monday, October 13, 2003
VANCOUVER, BC - 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

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