Ehattesaht First Nation members, whale scientists, Canadian government officials, veterinarians from Vancouver Aquarium, local fishermen, boaters, heavy equipment operators, and others have joined forces to rescue a two-year-old orca calf trapped alone in Zeballos Lagoon, on the northwest side of Vancouver Island. The calf’s troubles began on March 23, when her pregnant mother stranded on a sandbar and died while hunting seals in the lagoon. Since then, the calf has refused to leave the shallow tidal inlet, where she cannot survive long term. The calf’s would-be rescuers want to relocate her to waters outside of the lagoon, where eventually they hope she will reunite with her extended family.
Ehattesaht members have dubbed the calf kʷiisaḥiʔis, “Brave Little Hunter.” Indigenous and non-indigenous residents of the tiny nearby community worked unsuccessfully to save the calf’s mother and now say they are heartbroken by the orphaned calf’s anguished cries.
So far, efforts to rescue the calf have also proved unsuccessful. Would-be rescuers have attempted to lure her out of the lagoon with recorded orca vocalizations and have struck metal oikomi pipes underwater to create loud noise in an effort to herd her. Ehattesaht members have also tried singing and drumming to the young orca from a canoe. A plan to airlift the calf out of the lagoon in a sling has been abandoned. Kʷiisaḥiʔis refuses to swim past the beach where her mother died, which she will have to do in order to leave the lagoon.
Now, rescue efforts have been temporarily paused. Rescuers’ new plan to net kʷiisaḥiʔis and transport her to a safer location in the near future will be risky. Nevertheless, those involved remain optimistic. They have been monitoring the calf and say that she appears to be in good health. Though she has developed some skin issues, possibly from low salinity of the lagoon water, she is not emaciated and may be feeding on fish in the lagoon.
The story of the orphaned whale calf has received international media coverage. Ehattesaht Chief John says that the past several weeks have been “a really important time and a crossroads related to our connections.”
I’m far from being an orca expert, am not Canadian, and do not live anywhere near Vancouver Island. I’ve based this report on information I’ve gathered from various news sources, not first-hand experience. Input from those with greater or more immediate knowledge of orcas, these specific events, or of the human communities involved in them would be welcome. Despite widespread news coverage, I haven’t seen anything about this story on Daily Kos and feel it would be of great interest to many readers here.
We are living through a moment of terrible violence, senseless wars and divisions, authoritarian threats, and ecological and cultural collapse. And yet, as Chief John notes, this story of cross-cultural collaboration, compassion, and leveraging of modern technology on behalf of a lost child of another species is also an iconic story of our particular historical moment, illustrating powerfully positive forces that are also now at work. We humans need to continue summoning and channeling these positive forces if we are to overcome and survive our own worst qualities and impacts on the world around us.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/killer-whale-calf-orphan-rescue-underway-1.7172018
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/zeballos-killer-whale-orca-rescue-1.7172475
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/rescuers-begin-attempt-to-save-stranded-orphaned-bc-killer-whale