A two-year-old orca has been circling a Canadian lagoon for days, refusing to leave the area where her mother died on the shore.
The mother of the young whale, named Spong, died after becoming trapped in the shallow waters off the west coast of Vancouver.
Wildlife officials and scientists are now in a race against time to remove the young orca from the lagoon and return it to the sea before it succumbs to starvation.
But these mammals usually stay with their mothers all their lives, so it is unknown if the two-year-old will ever leave his mother’s resting place.
A two-year-old orca has been roaming a Canadian lagoon for days, refusing to leave the area where its mother died on the shore
The young whale’s mother, Spong, died after becoming trapped in the shallow waters off Vancouver’s west coast.
Marine mammal rescue officials, First Nations tribal leaders, scientists and volunteers said they are doing everything they can to save the baby.
The First Nations tribe, which is part of the local community, named the calf kʷiisaḥiʔis (pronounced kwee-sahay-is), which means “brave little hunter,” and team efforts are underway to find the calf’s pod and take it out of the lagoon.
The community has been working tirelessly to save the orca calf since Saturday morning, when they received a call from a highway maintenance employee who had noticed a stranded whale.
It is unclear why the mother and her calf entered the lagoon, but experts believe it was due to an ill-timed attack that left her trapped in a depression in the shore.
Wildlife officials and scientists are now in a race against time to get the baby out and see it before it succumbs to hunger.
These mammals usually remain with their mother throughout their lives, so it is unknown if the two-year-old will ever leave his mother’s resting place.
When the lagoon’s tide went out, Spong remained on her side, struggling to move, and although rescuers attempted to turn her upside down and douse her with water, at 10:45 a.m., two hours after she was discovered, she died.
And during the autopsy, experts discovered that she was also pregnant.
“It was absolutely horrible, especially since we knew the tide was against us from the beginning,” said Glen McCall of Totem Excavating, who received the call. The Guardian.
“We didn’t have enough manpower,” he said. “It just wasn’t enough.”
Rescuers have attempted to lure the kʷiisaḥiʔis out of the lagoon using acoustic killer whale calls that mimicked the sounds of the calf’s pod.
They also use oikomi pipes, which are made of metal that reverberates in water and are used to herd whales, usually around oil spills.
Despite rescuers’ best efforts to return kʷiisaḥiʔis to the sea, she has retreated further into the lagoon.
“Whales are connected throughout life to their family,” Janie Wray, executive director and senior researcher at BC Whales, told The Guardian.
‘And I can’t stop thinking about what that baby is going through because she doesn’t understand why her mother is no longer there for her.
‘If that happened to one of us, you can imagine what we would be going through.
“I really think that little calf is going through something very, very similar right now.”
Rescue efforts have been made more difficult by the fact that the water only rises enough for 30 minutes each day to facilitate the young orca’s escape and teams are hesitant to give it food because it could end up dependent on humans.
“The reality is that helping whales feed could result in a relationship with humans that would be difficult to break,” Ehattesaht First Nation Chief Simon John told reporters.
“But my real concern is that the whale leaves the lagoon safely and reaches its pod.”
They are using recordings of the calf’s aunt, Big Momma, so that the kʷiisaḥiʔis can reach the family group, a method that has been successful in the past, according to the Time Settler.
The calf appeared to be in good health, but is still resisting all efforts to leave its mother, according to Bay Cetology, a conservation agency.
“Despite our best approaches, the little one has shown us that he is not ready to go,” Bay Cetology said in a Facebook post. mail.
‘After a lengthy discussion with the Ehattesaht and Nuchatlaht First Nations and DFO on site last night, the collective focus for now is to grieve with the little one and return soon with new ideas and spirit. No one is about to give up the kʷiisaḥiʔis.’
Tribe members of the Ehattesaht First Nation performed a ceremony to release Spong’s spirit by covering his body with cedar branches and telling stories of the Nuu-chah-nulth people that weave the story of a whale that comes ashore and transforms into a wolf, before becoming a human.
“It’s really important to remember that we are connected to these animals,” John told The Guardian.
“To be so close and touch her, to see her calf and to be so helpless is hard to describe.”