Lone orca concerns experts

By Peggy Andersen

Associated Press

SEATTLE – For weeks now, an orphan killer whale has been hanging around central Puget Sound – about 100 miles south of the state’s resident orcas in the San Juan Islands and even farther from her own pod in Canada.

Killer whales are often seen in the south sound through the fall, hunting salmon and herring.

But this time of year there’s not much to eat. Both scientists and whale advocates are concerned about the health of the female calf spotted Jan 14. Last week, the National Marine Fisheries Service convened a panel of experts to discuss what to do.

Unlike the young whale, the issue is not black and white.

The options: let nature take its course; catch her in a net pen, check her health and try to return her to her family off British Columbia’s Vancouver Island or transport her to a commercial site such as Sea World, with operations in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Captivity is not a popular option. The Puget Sound orca population has never quite recovered from the hunts of the 1970s, when 57 were trapped for lives as captive performers, leaving just 70 behind. The population grew to 99 by 1995, but is now back down to 80, according to the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor.

The experts – veterinarians and biologists from state, federal and Canadian agencies and the private sector – have reached no consensus, NMFS spokesman Brian Gorman said.

A summary report shows most agreed the calf’s health seemed poor. While she generally seems “bright, alert and responsive,” veterinarians noted the smell of ketone – like alcohol – on her breath, which suggests she is beginning to digest her own blubber.

There were mixed feelings about intervention, which some feared could lead to dependency on humans. There were doubts about whether her pod – which apparently already left her behind once – would take her back.

Gorman said his agency will likely decide whether to intervene over the next week. He called the decision “a very thorny one.”

If the 10- to 12-foot-long youngster’s health is declining – which new tests should help determine – letting nature take its course “realistically is not an option,” he said. “She’s in a very public location. People would want to feed her.”

Local advocacy groups have struggled with the issue.

“The last scenario that any of us want … is putting this whale in a tank,” said Mike Harris of the Orca Conservancy.

And most opposed leaving her to fend for herself if she is confirmed to be in trouble.

But “as long as she appears healthy, we should let her be,” said Joe Olson with the Seattle chapter of the American Cetacean Society.

If she’s starving, which he considers unlikely – “she does know how to fish, otherwise she’d be dead by now” – Olson would support nursing her back to health in a net pen and trying to restore her to her own pod.

“It’s speculation to say she’s been abandoned,” he said.

Strangely, a solitary orphan male from the San Juan Islands population has been spotted on the west side of Vancouver Island. A single displaced calf is unusual. Two from different pods is quite bizarre, Harris said.

The orphan female, born in 2000, is called A73 for her birth order in Canada’s A-pod. She was identified through photographs of her black-and-white pattern and recordings that confirmed she uses the northern population’s dialect.

According to Canadian researchers, her mother, A45, is dead. The calf was apparently left behind by her pod, where her only known relative was a grandmother.

Last year, she was seen by Canadian researchers with a female from a different pod, the NMFS summary report said.

Now she’s alone – and lonely.

“She’s starved for attention,” said Fred Felleman of the Orca Conservancy. “This is highly undesirable. The less contact with people the better if she’s to be returned to the wild.”