‘Time is of the essence’: Work underway to free orca calf stranded in B.C. lagoon

A mass effort to free a juvenile orca that’s trapped in a lagoon on Vancouver Island is underway, after the calf’s mother died over the weekend.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) tells CityNews it first received calls about the pair of stranded killer whales near Zeballos on Saturday,

“Nuu-chah-nulth and Ehattesaht First Nations-who are trained in marine mammal response-worked to keep the stranded killer whale cool and attempted to refloat her until officials from Fisheries and Oceans Canada could arrive and lead on the rescue operation,” the DFO explained Monday.

Despite these efforts, the older whale died. The DFO and Marine Education and Research Society both confirmed Monday that a necropsy had been completed, and that the Ehattesaht First Nation held a ceremony for the deceased orca.

The whale was transported “to a more suitable location” for the necropsy, with the assistance of the Nuu-chah-nulth and ʔiiḥatisatḥ činax̣int (Ehattesaht First Nations), which are both trained in marine mammal response, the DFO adds.

Despite the necropsy being done, “definitive results as to the cause of death may take months to be completed,” the department explains.

The focus now is on trying to reunite the orca calf with the rest of its pod.

---

---

“DFO personnel remain on site and are attempting to entice the juvenile whale that is still in the lagoon to rejoin its pod,” the DFO said Monday.

“This is a highly complex operation and time is of the essence.”

According to Josh McInnes, a marine mammal ecologist at the University of British Columbia, killer whales are quite emotionally complex and researchers don’t know everything about how they process their feelings. But, what they do know, is humans and whales share a very specific emotion: grief.

“Killer whales often mourn the death of loved ones,” McInnes said.

At the moment, McInnes says the calf is probably very confused after the sudden disappearance of its mother.

“Maybe it doesn’t even realize its mother is dead,” he said.

McInnes adds the specific lagoon the calf is stranded in makes for a “super tricky situation” due to its shallowness and changing tides.

A DFO spokesperson says the area the lagoon is in is “remote with sparse connectivity.”

“DFO staff on site are currently focused on doing everything possible to reunite the young whale with its pod,” they added.

“DFO would like to acknowledge the [Nuu-chah-nulth] and [Ehattesaht] First Nations for their tremendous efforts to sustain and rescue the whales and for their ongoing collaboration in this incident.”

However, McInnes says if the calf isn’t coaxed out of the lagoon soon, it will face death by starvation. Due to its age, he says the calf likely doesn’t know how to hunt for itself yet and could have even still been weaning off its mother.

“It’s a race against time to try and get this calf back with its extended family and grandmother,” McInnes said.

He estimates the calf has two to three weeks before it starves to death, since it doesn’t have the same blubber stores as an adult whale.

According to the Marine Education and Research Society, the mother whale was T109A3, born in 2009. Her calf was born in 2022 and is around one year and nine months old.

“We know this mother often travelled with her mother and siblings,” the society explained in a social media post.

With files from Robyn Crawford.