B.C. rescuer says ‘very short window’ to return orphan whale to its family

A South Surrey marine mammal expert is among a team that’s been hard at work for more than a week now to save an orca calf trapped in a lagoon on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island.

Named kwiisahi?is by members of the area’s Ehattesaht First Nation, the calf has been on its own since March 23, after its mother became trapped by the low tide and, despite valiant efforts to save her, died on the rocky beach – on the same sand bar that the calf needs to clear in order to return to the open water.

Methods to coax it out have so far included recorded whale calls, specialized directional guide lines and Indigenous drum beats. Simunovic said she and her friend, Francisca Barros, were travelling on northern Vancouver Island when they heard about the stranded killer whale calf and the death of its mother.

Executive director Jared Towers said the technology scans photos of killer whales submitted by those on the water and can quickly identify individual animals based on their dorsal fins and other markings. Cottrell said it is believed the calf could still have been depending on its mother for milk and food. He estimated an orca calf at two years old could survive for up to two weeks without food.The effort is far from Cottrell’s first whale rescue; that took place in 2009. As Pacific marine mammal co-ordinator for B.C., he’s guided such operations for more than a decade, many of which are sparked when the massive creatures become entangled in fishing gear.

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