Comox Valley Naturalists Society

January, 2003
Krista Kaptein

I first met Luna in July of 2002, while I was on the MV Uchuck III, the converted WWII minesweeper that carries freight and passengers through Nootka Sound. After a week in the wilderness, I found the bustle of activity on the boat to be enjoyable company. Luna must have thought so as well, for as the Uchuck passed eastward of Bligh Island, he appeared and approached as if welcoming the boat.

Luna, known to scientists as L-98, is a 3-1/2 year old male orca, living on his own in Nootka Sound. I learned more about him on the Orca Network website, www.orcanetwork.org. Normally, young orcas stay close to their mothers, and both male and female offspring typically remain with their mothers their entire lives. Born in L-pod, a group of southern resident orcas that normally frequent Washington State’s Puget Sound, Luna was discovered on his own in July of 2001 after disappearing from his home waters.

The Orcinus orca that socialize and forage in the inland waters of Washington State and British Columbia are known as the Southern Resident Orca community, or the Salish Sea Orcas. Their lifetime family bonding allows complex social systems and vocal repertoires to develop within each pod and community.

Orca need clean water and plentiful fish. Salmon, the Salish Sea Orcas' main food source, are in decline throughout the region. Habitat degradation, industrial poisons such as PCBs, and other impacts of human population are all taking their toll.

The Southern Resident Orca population was recently listed as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). However, in the US, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recently refused to recognize Southern Resident Orcas as a "significant" population meriting protection under the Endangered Species Act. Despite long natural life spans, their numbers have fallen by nearly a fifth since 1996.

In the summer of 2002, the orphan female orca Springer (A-73) was successfully moved from Puget Sound to her home waters off Vancouver Island to re-unite with her family pod. Like Springer, Luna has begun to look to boats for companionship. Unlike Springer, however, who was previously ill, Luna appears to be healthy and successfully finding food.

Speculation is that Luna’s family was feeding in the vicinity, and he wandered too far to hear other pod members’ underwater calls. Scientists with DFO have observed that Luna is healthy and in a location with clean water and plenty of food. Luna is within his pod's known range, and scientists are still optimistic that they will be reunited when L-pod returns to the area.

Luna will not be relocated yet, but his health will continue to be monitored by DFO staff over the winter. Fisheries officers in Nootka Sound will continue to patrol the area, and direct boaters away from him. Boaters have been displaying increasingly aggressive behaviour towards Luna, approaching and often coming into physical contact with him. If this behaviour persists, Luna may be seriously injured.

There has reportedly been more interaction between Luna and humans in remote Nootka Sound, than there was between Springer and humans in industrial Puget Sound. Of particular concern are reports of people petting Luna, and feeding him white bread and beer. Under the Marine Mammal Regulations it is an offence to swim with, pet or feed a wild whale.

Signs posted in Gold River alert recreational boaters. Boaters are asked to maintain speed and course, not stop their vessel, and if the young orca approaches, to move away and leave the vicinity, without attempting interaction. Continued interactions with boats will jeopardize his chances of being reunited with his pod. The DFO says, “The best thing people can do for L98 is leave him alone and let him be a wild whale.”

Although Luna was reported healthy in an October 2002 report from Fisheries Officer Ed Thorburn, he also said: “I do think he is sad because he is so lonely. Last week he spent many hours with the salmon gillnet fleet in Nootka Sound…We have given the fleet the rules of engagement,” reported Thorburn. “I will try to look out for him.”

My final sighting of Luna last summer was as he breached, leaping repeatedly out of the water, as the Uchuck continued east to Gold River. As thrilling as that sighting was, how much better it would be to see him in the company of his family pod, now recently expanded - Luna’s mother, Splash (L-67), had a new baby, L-101, in September of 2002.

Click on a link below to view the CVNS newspaper column.