ACTION ALERT - Monday, September 15, 2002
The other lost orca should go home, too.
The Coalition For No Whales In Captivity is asking the public to contact the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to urge the Canadian government to help Luna go home to his mom.
Luna (or L-98) is a 3-year old male orca who belongs to a pod of resident whales that spend summers swimming in the waters that border the US and Canada. Last summer, Luna swam away from his mother, got lost and ended up about 250 km (or 150 miles) North of where his family is right now.
Like the orphaned orca whale called Springer (A-73), who got lost in Puget Sound and was returned to her family pod in July, it is time to return Luna to his family as well.
The Coalition For No Whales In Captivity joins the Humane Society of the United States and others in asking the public to help Luna and phone or write letters to:
Marilyn Joyce, Marine Mammal Co-ordinator
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO)
#460--555 W. Hastings St.
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6B 5G3
Tel: (604) 666-9965
Fax: (604) 666-3341
E-mail joycem@pac.dfo.gc.ca
For more information, please read the editorial that follows below.
Thanks.
Annelise Sorg, Director
Coalition For No Whales In Captivity
Vancouver, BC Canada
Tel: (604) 736-9514
E-mail <annelise@direct.ca>
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Sunday, September 15, 2002
Seattle Post Intelligencer Newspaper P-I Focus:
Now is the time to return Luna to his wild ways
By LEIGH CALVEZ
Deep in remote Nootka Sound on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island, B.C., Luna swims alone. Three-quarters of a mile away, two no-nonsense, young women sit in their black Zodiac anchored off the island that forms the northeast boundary of "Luna's zone."
Since Aug. 1, Erin Hobbs and Michelle Kehler from the Marine Mammal Monitoring (M3) Project from Victoria have been working to persuade the public to stay away from Luna. "There used to be 30 boats around him a day. Now we're down to about five to 10, " Kehler said. "We want people to leave him alone so he'll be ready to socialize with his pod."
In June 2001 Luna, or L98, was pronounced missing and presumed dead along with six others from the southern resident community
of orcas. Friday Harbor's Whale Museum sent "dead whale letters" to those who had adopted Luna. The Center for Whale Research removed the photo ID picture of his dorsal fin and white saddle patch from its catalog.
But like Lazarus raised from the dead, Luna was found alive in Nootka Sound. Miraculously, this 2-year-old whale survived the winter without his family by feeding on an unusually abundant run of pilchards, or northern anchovies.
For more than a year, Luna has not heard the voices from others of his kind.
Like the orphaned orca Springer, this highly social animal turned to people and boats for company. He allowed fishermen to touch him. Others fed him loaves of bread. And even though he has been nicked by at least one propeller, he learned that boats mean attention. Now, if Luna is to have any chance of reuniting with his family, he must relearn how to be a wild whale.
To help Luna, the M3 crew strongly discourages any interactions with the young orca. It's tough love for a whale. Luna, however, doesn't seem to like this new approach. On one occasion when the M3 Zodiac intervened to stop an interaction between Luna and a sailboat, he physically pushed the Zodiac away, like a petulant child. He then returned to the sailboat and spy-hopped to look at the crew. "It's tough on us emotionally. It's like we're taking away his only friends," Kehler explained.
When M3 first arrived in Nootka Sound, the crew asked boaters to maintain a constant speed and course through Luna's zone,
urging them not to stop even if he approached. But Luna is intelligent and adaptable. Recently, he learned to surface in front of speeding
boats, slowing the boats to beg for attention----a desperate behavior that could cost Luna his life.
Hobbs and Kehler are unsure what will happen to Luna when the stewardship project ends for the season today. "We definitely don't want to see him in an aquarium, and we just can't leave him here," they said.
In August, whale scientists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada met to discuss Luna's situation. Some researchers believe he will naturally find his pod on his own. He is still within L pod's known home range. Others disagree. Luna already has been in Nootka Sound more than a year, and the southern pods are not known to venture far into the sound where he is living.
Currently, Luna is healthy and feeding on the summer salmon runs. However, food is scarce in Nootka Sound during the winter. Fisheries officials working in the area warn that the pilchard run that sustained him last year is unlikely to occur again this winter. Luna is in danger of starving.
Jim Borrowman, a longtime whale advocate and owner of Stubbs Island Whale Watching in Telegraph Cove, B.C., where Springer was released, believes we should do the same for Luna. "These whales are too valuable not to do the right thing," he explained.
Several environmental groups, including the Humane Society of the United States and the Orca Conservancy, agree. They sent a letter urging the Canadian government to return Luna to his family. With only four mature males left to sire calves within pods J, K and L, Luna represents the future of Washington's orca population.
Considering Springer's successful reintroduction to her family, it may be even easier for Luna to reunite with his pod. Unlike
the orphan Springer, Luna's mother L67, or Splash, is still alive. Because orcas form such tight social bonds with their families, Luna normally would live his entire life at his mother's side.
For more than a year, Luna has survived as a social animal living alone and being vulnerable. His family will remain in the San Juans only until October before moving offshore to feed during the winter. Now is the time to take action to return Luna to his wild pod.
Leigh Calvez of Bainbridge Island is a nature writer who has studied whales and dolphins as a scientist and naturalist.
Letters urging the Canadian government to bring Luna home can be sent to:
Marilyn Joyce, Marine Mammal Coordinator,
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
#460--555 W. Hastings St.
Vancouver, B.C. V6B 5G3
email: joycem@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
For reports on Luna go to www.salishsea.ca>>>>