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Metropolis Reality Forums Ť Luna the orphaned killer whale ť

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   Luna the orphaned killer whale

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Topic: Luna the orphaned killer whale (Read 146 times)

kelby
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Luna the orphaned killer whale
« on: Jun 24^th, 2004, 11:34am »

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Advertisement

Scientists postpone moving Luna the whale
CTV.ca News Staff

The Department of Oceans and Fisheries has postponed plans to relocated a killer whale, giving Luna more time with a native band in Nootka Sound, British Columbia that opposes the move.

DFO officials say they'll wait until next week for another attempt at moving the whale.

For the past few days members of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht band had thwarted the department's boats in two attempts to capture Luna -- the friendly Orca whale who has charmed the local community.

The natives believe that Luna is the reincarnation of their late chief, who passed away just before Luna first appeared in Nootka Sound.

Band chief Jerry Jack recalled his late chief's wishes in a Canada AM interview Friday.

"We were having a treaty meeting and I asked him, 'How old are you, Chief?' and he said, 'I'm 73 and I'm getting closer to heaven.'" Jack said. "He was really happy.

"'And when I come back home after -- after I go home I'm going to come back as a 'kukaoen,' he said, and that's a killer whale.

"And that's the same year that he went home, that killer whale showed up. It hung around his traditional territory, we call hahotly in our language for a whole year before he moved out of there."

Officials with the Vancouver Aquarium and Department of Fisheries and Oceans have tried several times to capture Luna, including a recent attempt Thursday, but band members in two traditional dugout canoes have thwarted their efforts.

The plan is to lead the whale into a net pen, where he will be given a series of medical tests to make sure he's healthy.

Luna will then be coaxed into a sling, crane-lifted into a container, then trucked 350 kilometres south down the Vancouver Island coast to a bay near Victoria. He'll stay in a pen there until his pod swims by. Scientists hope he will hear and recognize them as they swim past.

The operation is complicated and expensive, with up to 30 people involved and a price tag of more than $500,000.

Jack said that band members had previously lured Luna with their own boats in an attempt to reunite him with his pod.

"We were hoping that he would connect with his pod while he's out there without having to be hauled out in a truck," Jack said.

"We just had a few, 19 guys and two whaling canoes, and just some water and some junk food and that is it. It didn't cost no half a million dollars to move him."

Luna became separated from his pod in 2001 and made himself at home in B.C.'s Nootka Sound, near Gold River on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

In the three years since, he charmed residents and tourists alike, but he's a dangerous obstacle to boats and float planes.

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kelby
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Re: Luna the orphaned killer whale
« Reply #1 on: Jun 24^th, 2004, 11:35am »

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"The natives believe that Luna is the reincarnation of their late chief, who passed away just before Luna first appeared in Nootka Sound. "

Another prime example of why I stay away from B.C. Bud.... Wink