Your Victoria Times Colonist

Luna's mother among group of passing orcas
Dan Maclennan, Courier-Islander
Published: Friday, July 06, 2007

Luna's mother was among a group of southern resident orcas to pass by Campbell River Tuesday on their way to southern waters.

L67, also known as Splash, was one of a handful of L Pod members who joined with the 20-member K Pod for the journey down Johnstone Strait and Discovery Passage this week.

They're expected to summer in the Juan de Fuca/San Juan Islands/Puget Sound area. They were spotted entering Johnstone Strait from the north Monday and came through Seymour Narrows Tuesday morning

Northern and southern resident orcas don't typically frequent the same waters at the same time. Some whale watchers theorized that the southern residents passed through the northern residents' summer grounds just prior to the arrival of the northern residents.

Eagle Eye Adventures owner Matt Ellis has been watching the whales out of Campbell River for the past 10 years. He said Tuesday's visit was later than normal.

"Usually the end of May to the middle of June they come through," he said. "It's sort of a one-day shot where they come barreling through down the passage. They don't seem to ever change direction and head back north. They seem to just carry on south, no matter what the tide does.

"Our northern resident killer whales will come down as far as Discovery Passage and then they usually do a U-turn and head back up Johnstone Strait."

Jared Towers, who runs Sea Smoke Whale Watching out of Alert Bay, said the visit may have been the latest on record.

"The people that have been collecting this data told me they also think that this is the latest they've come through," he said.

The southern residents don't pass Campbell River every year, sometimes choosing to travel down the west coast of the Island. That's what an international team of scientists and volunteers were hoping for in 2004 when they were trying to reunite the four-year-old Luna (L98) with Splash. They'd hoped to lure Luna from the Gold River area out to the mouth of Nootka Sound as L Pod passed by. Instead, Splash and other members of the pod took the inside route, passing Campbell River on May 28th of that year.

Luna attracted international attention after he showed up in the waters off Gold River in 2001. He endeared himself to locals and tourists - and exasperated a number of fishermen and boaters - until his death in March of 2006 after becoming tangled in the propellers of a tug boat in Nootka Sound.

The whales who passed Campbell River Tuesday met up with other southern residents, including J Pod, north of Saturna Island Wednesday.