Judith Lavoie
Times Colonist

Saturday, April 03, 2004

A Pied Piper approach should be used to reunite Luna , the lonely orca living near Gold River, with his pod, says Michael Harris, president of the Seattle-based Orca Conservancy.

Plans for reintroducing Luna to killer-whale society will be unveiled Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, at an Orca Conservancy Conference on Orcas Island, Harris said Friday. A representative from Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans will attend.

However, DFO is holding its own news conference Monday morning in Vancouver to announce plans for Luna's relocation from Nootka Sound.

The DFO news release says the purpose of the news conference is to announce who will partner with DFO on the relocation, and give specifics on planning and funding.

DFO and the U.S. government have both come up with about $135,000 to relocate the whale, who has been hanging around boats and floatplanes in Nootka Sound in July 2001.

Harris said there is general agreement that the least-invasive and cheapest method should be tried first.

"We feel the Pied Piper or walking-the-dog approach will work as long as we can get a weather window and a whale window," he said.

That means trying to lead Luna to the mouth of Nootka Sound when any pods from the endangered southern killer whale population are in the area.

"The main thing is to make the acoustic connection. Once we get him connected, the whales will do the rest," Harris said.

Luna has been out of acoustic range, but should be able to pick up whale calls from up to 16 kilometres away, he said. L pod -- Luna's original family -- has already been seen off the coast of Washington. The reunification attempt could take place in the next few weeks, Harris said.

Although it would be ideal to reunite Luna with L pod, with his mother and brother, any of the pods would be likely to accept him, he said.

"We know these whales take care of each other, sometimes in very adverse situations. It takes a village to raise a killer whale -- we know that from the Springer project," Harris said.

Springer was the sickly orca successfully airlifted to rejoin her pod after she turned up in Puget Sound.

Time is of the essence because Luna is obviously bored and boating season is approaching, Harris said. "Right now he's playing with the sea lions he's so bored, and Steller's sea lions play rough."

Ed Lochbaum, a Vancouver Island DFO area chief who has been monitoring the Luna situation, said he does not know the latest plans, but doubts the Pied Piper approach will work.

"He has a propensity to follow our vessel, but you get to a certain point in Nootka Sound and he turns around," Lochbaum said.

The capture-and-corral approach might work better, he said. But working out the mode of transportation could be a problem.

"He's huge. He can push around a Beaver float plane with no problem. We have a 33-foot rigid-hull inflatable and he pushes it round like a walking stick," Lochbaum said.