Vancouver: a young killer whale refuses to leave the lagoon where her mother died… and is in great danger

It’s a race against time that rescuers have embarked on. In fact, for six days, the young two-year-old killer whale refused to leave the lagoon where her mother had just died.

Added to this is a huge problem: they only have a 30 minute window each day during high tide.

A tragic death

As CBC News reported, the mother and her cub entered a lagoon on northwest Vancouver Island on March 23 near the village of Zeballos. Jared Towers, a marine biologist and director of the Bay Cetology Association, said the female was likely chasing the seals and got stuck dead-end, unable to get back into the water when the tide receded. Dozens of people then mobilized to save her, trying to roll her onto her stomach and give her water… to no avail.

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An autopsy performed on the female (named T109A3) also revealed a tragic piece of information: she was pregnant at the time of her death.

With the mother’s fate now sealed, rescuers have been doing everything since Saturday to try to bring the young orphan back to sea. Among them are members of the Ehattesaht First Nation, who named him “Kʷiisaḥiʔis” (translated as “Brave Little Hunter”).

Rescue of the surviving child

However, they run into several obstacles: first, the water is only high enough for 30 minutes each day for the cetacean to safely leave the ship.

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“It’s only half an hour each day that a whale can pass through this area when it’s high tide because other than that there’s a lot of current, a few rapids and mostly very, very shallow.”Jared Towers told the Canadian Press.

On the other hand, the little killer whale refuses to leave the lagoon and has even sunk deeper into it, despite using the killer whales’ acoustic calls to guide it out to sea.

“We tried to move a little bit whale over the shoal and bring it back to bay continued the biologist. Unfortunately, her reaction made us think she must be a little traumatized.” And for good reason: killer whales are extremely social animals that spend their entire lives with their mother.

Bay Cetology said in a Facebook post: “We have spent the last few days on site near the village of Zeballos assisting with the necropsy of T109A3 and trying to return her calf to open water. Despite our best efforts, the calf has shown us that she is not ready to leave.”

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“After much discussion with the Ehattesaht and Nuchatlaht First Nations and Fisheries and Oceans Canada on site last night, the collective approach at this time is to mourn this loss with little and come back soon with new ideas and a new spirit. No one is going to give up on kʷiisaḥiʔis (Brave Little Hunter aka T109A3A).”

So if a young orca appears to be grieving, it otherwise appears to be in good health. Rescuers hope she will be reunited with her pod (orcas’ family pod) if she is able to return to the ocean.

“He has a great voice and uses it to make very loud callsconcluded Jared Towers. These killer whales can be heard from miles away. Just take it to open water and let them do the rest.’