Indigenous nation gives stranded BC killer whale calf name: Brave Little Hunter

ZEBALLOS, B.C. – A marine scientist says he expects rescue efforts to help coax a stranded killer whale calf from a shallow lagoon off northern Vancouver Island to continue today despite federal Fisheries Department concerns about limited opportunities due to changing tidal flows.

Jared Towers, who's with the whale research group Bay Cetology, says attempts to use recorded killer whale vocalizations to convince the calf to leave the lagoon over the past few days have not been successful.

But he says other options are available, including using a large line to guide the orca out of the lagoon or setting off noise-making devices that could frighten the young killer whale out of the lagoon.

Towers says the rescue team has about 30 minutes daily when the tide rises to the point where the two-year-old orca calf can safely navigate itself out of the lagoon, near the village of Zeballos, more than 450 kilometres northwest of Victoria.

The calf's mother, a 15-year-old Bigg's killer whale, died Saturday when she became beached at the lagoon and could not free herself despite rescue efforts of local First Nations residents and others.

Ehattesaht First Nation Chief Simon John says the nation has been out looking for the calf's family in open water and has given the young calf a name: kwiisahi?is, meaning Brave Little Hunter.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2024.