SEPTEMBER 9 - 15, 2002

The Whale Museum’s Soundwatch Program Coordinator Kari Koski and Soundwatch intern Kristy Zeidner volunteer as M-3 monitors for the last week of the Luna Project.  Sept 9th-15^th.

Monday, September 9^th

Kari Koski & Kristy Zeidner

weather:  Misty rain and overcast; peaceful in contrast to our anxiousness.

Kari and I made it to Nootka Sound today and are very happy to be here. We had a long day of travel starting at 7:30 this morning with a boat trip from Snug Harbor, San Juan Island, to Sidney, BC. Veins of Life Watershed Society from M3 picked us up and drove us to the town of Gold River. There we met up with Louise and Erin who we were to switch places with. We had lunch in Gold River and coincidentally met Mooyah Bay Bob at the Ridge Pub. Bob is the caretaker of the log camp at Mooyah Bay where the M3 crew had been staying before moving to Critter Cove. Good to meet some locals right off. We were briefed about Luna, Critter Cove, and the local scene as well as the boat.  We feel we are at a distinct disadvantage being new and not privy to prior local connections, monitoring strategies, Luna’s antics, and all the “stories” etc. There was a sense of hurry-up today as Erin and Louise were wet and cold and anxious to get home. Erin has been on scene for over a month. I think that Louise was disappointed to be leaving, but Erin seemed to be looking forward to a little “civilization”.  Kari and I are so happy to be out here and away from all of that. Everyone has been friendly and helpful so far. We value their insights on what has been happening up here and want to learn as much as we can before we are left to figure it out on our own. We then went to buy groceries.

Kari Koski (above right) and Kristy Zeidner (right) of Soundwatch donating their time in Nootka Sound with M3 Program Coordinator Louise Murgatroyd (above left). Veins of Life Watershed Society, & Kari Koski photos

It had been drizzling on and off all day, but as we departed from the dock it began to pour. Kari and I both grew up in Southeast Alaska and the scenery including the torrential downpour pleasantly reminded us of home. Luna left the Zone over the weekend and is now right near Gold River in Muchalat Inlet. We saw Luna briefly towards the cliffs opposite the Gold River Government dock as we headed out to Critter Cove. The salmon are running up Gold River and presumably he has followed them to the river mouth.  As far as we know, he has not been seen this far up the inlet the whole time he has been in Nootka Sound. Hopefully he is eating and eating. With fish jumping all around us, it seemed hard to believe that this Gold River King (or as the Canadians say “Spring”) salmon run is endangered. Laughing, we hoped one would jump into our boat, but it’s better that Luna gets them anyhow. We find it ironic that there is an endangered Orca feeding on an endangered salmon run.

Bear sighting at Critter Cove

The area is amazingly beautiful, many islands and inlets with steep walls and deep water. It looks like a fun place to explore. It got dark rather quickly as the fog moved in and the rain fell harder. It was difficult to see as the rain pelted our cheeks and eyes and we agreed that it was a good idea that we left when we did. We made it to Critter Cove around 19:30 or so and passed a black bear on the shoreline as we pulled in.

The fishing resort of Critter Cove is quite charming.  We gathered from the earlier journals that this place is the hopping summer spot, but it is quiet now that they have all but shut down for the season. The whole thing is on floats and we don’t have electricity or cell phone reception (actually, we were a bit relieved).

Critter Cove - sleepy after a busy summer season

John the caretaker grumbled that we were interrupting his solitude as we parked the boat. However, we’d been primed by Louise that he is a bit of a joker and so we didn’t hesitate to jump off the boat and introduce ourselves. In no time he was helping us to move our gear in and gave us the run of the kitchen, dining area and saw us to our own little rooms. He was good enough to give us both hot water bottles. Mine is at the foot of my sleeping bag right now. I’m trying to warm up and dry out my soggy wrinkled toes. Everything we have is pretty wet, including our groceries, but as I write this, I am content and warm now and looking forward to a long day on the water tomorrow.

Tuesday September, 10^th

 weather:  Morning fog and rain, sunny and hot! by afternoon.

Today we had our first Luna encounter. We left Critter Cove a bit later than we wanted having many things to sort out that we couldn’t do in the rain and dark last night. We left the dock around 1000 hrs and made the 35-miMr.e run to Gold River (GR). We spotted Luna right away, and stopped more than a mile away and started the “Luna patrol”.  We watched as a small tug made its way out of GR, but Luna paid it no attention. We are surprised by the amount of boat traffic, even in the supposed “off season” in a “low density area” such as Nootka Sound. The government dock at Gold River is really the main hub. We have seen logging boats; tug boats; float planes; sports, commercial and subsistence fish boats; water taxis, tour/passenger boats and occasional recreational boaters all coming and going from Gold River.  During our morning watch we saw several small boats and planes in the area near Luna, but witnessed no interactions or attempts from either Luna or boaters.

Around 1400 hrs the passenger ferry “Uchuck III” came into Gold River from behind Victor Island and Luna latched on to them after they slowed down nowhere near the dock. The captain radioed for us to come and disengage Luna, sounding a little bit miffed that we weren’t already doing so. Kari and I both wondered if Luna would have ignored the “Uchuck III” altogether if they hadn’t slowed. When we approached the boat we saw Luna surfacing alongside them with a gaggle of passengers hanging over the side smiling and laughing with squeals of delight. Luna was playing in the warm water that was discharging from their generator. He had his mouth open and was letting the water run over his head, mouth and tongue. The Uchuck’s captain told us that Luna often comes to the boat to “drink”. Luna is not drinking. Rather, we think he is enjoying the sensation of the warm water. Orca’s mouths are very tactile and they are often seen touching tongues in the wild and we have heard they are rewarded with water hose play in captivity. 

We had read the previous journals on Luna’s behavior around boats and how at times M3 had to actually disengage Luna from other boats by engaging him themselves so that boaters could get away.  But we were not prepared for the real thing or how to go about luring Luna away from the “Uchuck III”.  We did our best at being professionals. In order to get him to follow us, I splashed my hands in the water and snapped my fingers.  He came right over to check us out.  My heart was racing as he began rubbing against the side of the boat. All of the Uchuck passengers watched us intently as the captain told them something about M3 and us being “the experts” as they left us with Luna. We know we are way out of our league here and are clearly not the ones in charge of the situation.  We were stuck in the middle of the Luna trap. We tried to depart, using all of the “techniques” told to us, but he came up from below and began bumping our boat, hard, and it was more than a little unnerving. We were really worried that we would hurt him. Never had we experienced a wild Killer Whale behaving in such a manner.  We decided to stop, turn the motor off and assess the situation. We also figured it was as good a time as any to check Luna out.

We noticed his pungent breath right off the bat. It was unlike the normal fishy Orca breath both of us had smelled with Southern Residents. It was sharp and smelled like nail polish remover. Kari said that Springer (A-73) had the same smell to her breath and it was thought to indicate a condition where the whales can’t process their proteins properly, something about keytones. It was very stinky and soon we were covered in mucous-y whale breath.

Luna's blowhole and his eye.

We also noticed that there seems to be a slight flattening behind the blowhole. We are looking out for a condition called ‘‘peaMr. head’’ that could indicate starvation. When Orcas begin to use up their fat stores, it usually begins from the area around the melon where there is a substantial fatty deposit.  Apparently this fat is more quickly metabolized than blubber.  Normally, in healthy killer whales this area is large and rounded.  It doesn’t look depressed, but we got some photos to share with others who have more experience. Kari is quick to mention that with Springer (A-73) everyone had different opinions about her health condition, and we just want to document what we see, with photos whenever possible.

He has several scratches on his chin. Some looked fairly deep, but not new (probably caused by pushing boats around). His chin was also a yellowish color, darker than the rest of his white patches. Some scrapes on his back were curved and evenly spaced (potentially prop like, and all looked healed). We have heard many conflicting stories about him being hit by boats. His right eye patch has a small puncture wound (healed) and the skin on his dorsal fin and melon is sloughing slightly.

Luna's breath sometimes smells abnormal. There are many healed scrapes on Luna's 'chin.' Ed Thorburn, photos

He pushed our boat around in circles, spy-hopping, blowing bubbles, tapping the side of the boat with his head, squeaking like a balloon releasing its air, tail slapping and making intent eye contact. We decided to sit in the middle of the boat and to not look at him or lean over the boat (very hard to do I might add). He seemed to become frustrated the longer we sat and wouldn’t play or touch him.  His pushing/tail slapping behavior became more assertive. We could see how his behavior might intimidate folks.  Then he vocalized loudly three times and left us. We were stunned, our jaws hanging open. With no time to think about what had just happened, we quickly turned on the boat, put it in gear and took off.

We safely watched him from a distance of more than 1 ½ miles away for about half an hour. A couple of boats went into Gold River, but he took no notice. He logged at the surface for quite some time then traveled into mid-channel with some breaches and tail slaps. We moved to the other side of the GR estuary and sat with the engines off. He seemed to be milling along just fine about ½ mile or so away from us. Kari was writing down information from the last interaction and I was the Luna scout. After being down for quite awhile the little guy surfaced heading directly for us. “Oh no! Kari, we’ve been spotted!” I said, as Luna bee-lined our boat. It was too late to get away.  I realized later that I had left the depth-finder on and so it was probably really easy for him to find us. The next surfacing was right next to the boat. From the beginning this interaction felt gentler. He was more slowly pushing the boat with much less splashing. His vocals were faint and he opened his mouth at the side of the boat. We were stuck with him right off of the Gold River dock feeling kind of silly. We decided to continue to hang out with him as a couple of other boats passed by so we wouldn’t have to go through the “disengaging process” again.  We tried to get away from him twice, but again he hit us too hard from under the boat for us to feel comfortable motoring on top of him, and he was not responding to our attempts to entice him to the side. We sat for a few miMr.es not quite knowing what to do, never having been in a situation quite like this before. It was comforting to us to talk to him. So we told him that he should really go home and that his mother was still alive and well and his family was missing him. We closed our eyes and visualized L-pod members; L-57 (Faith) with his tippy dorsal fin, little L-100 (too new to be given a name yet) L-54’s (Ino) new baby, and of course his mama L-67 (Splash) and her striking saddle patch. As we were sitting with our eyes closed, Luna did a spy-hop-lunge-forward-maneuver that nearly landed him in the boat! We decided not to do that again.

We tried to motor away from Luna, again with no luck. Feeling discouraged, we tried parking next to a floating log thinking he might lose interest in us, as Springer (A-73) used to play with logs for hours. He wasn’t persuaded.  We slowly moved closer to shore and the waterfall. Luna wasn’t the slightest bit interested.  With Kari at the wheel, we thought we could lure him out from under the boat and to the side with a boat pole, and hit the engines for our get away, but he seemed wary of the new object and ducked further under the boat. We were actually kind of excited that he was wary of us. One technique folks have used in the past to get away from him was to throw fenders or life jackets into the water so he would fetch them, but Kari wasn’t too keen on engaging him with human play toys. So, we picked up a floating piece of cedar bark. We thought we could get him to play with the stick and we could get away. He came up and let the stick touch his head. Then he opened his big jaws and the stick fell over his teeth and gums. I was ready to release it at this point, but did not want to drop it in his mouth. Then very delicately he pulled on the stick and I let it go.  Soon after, Kari and I were wishing he would go catch himself a salmon so we could know he was eating. He dove down and came back with a piece of rockweed in his mouth holding it gingerly in his big teeth. His teeth look about an inch to two inches long, and none look missing despite earlier reports. I cannot understand the people who have held their children over his mouth so they could reach in and pet his teeth and tongue. Although we have experienced Luna to be extremely gentle, he is a top predator and a wild whale. He is not a pet. This is not a giant oceanarium/aquarium. I wish folks would have more respect for him than to feed him loaves of bread and beer as we have heard, although not seen.

  We decided to turn on the motor again. This time we had more resolve that we would get away from him.  We had to figure this out. Luna is very smart and has learned the tricks that have been used to ditch him.  He wasn’t falling for them anymore. We were feeling more like he was tricking us into thinking we couldn’t get away. By gradually increasing our speed, even though he was directly underneath us banging and pushing us around, eventually we were able to increase to a point where he couldn’t keep up and he moved away and stayed behind us. We left him milling in the distance. We felt glad to finally figure out how to get away, but we feel crummy ditching him too. We took off for Critter Cove, feeling elated and saddened by the interactions. The whole situation here is so confusing.  Tomorrow, we hope we will be able to avoid interactions altogether.

Wednesday September, 11^th

weather:  Sunny and clear. Beautiful!

 We initially found Luna at 1000 at McCurdy Creek (Just west of GR) and turned off our engines and hid in a small cove.  As we drifted and watched, a small tug, the passenger vessel “Uchuck III”, and the “Critter”(Cam and Julie) all pass by without slowing or stopping and Luna took no notice. Luna moved slowly back in towards GR.

 At 1145 hrs the “Ocean Cloud”, a commercial fishing vessel with a DFO observer on board, motored very slowly out of GR into the middle of the inlet headed SE. Soon Luna was seen porpoising in their wake. They were headed towards Matchlee Bay to the pilchard fish trap and we were worried that Luna might follow them there.  We tried hailing them by radio with no response.  As we motored closer to contact them, they did a circle and headed back towards Gold River.  Luna apparently had ditched them. We met up alongside, and they said were worried he would follow again.  We advised them to go ahead and try again, staying closer to shore this time, to speed up and to stay on course to Matchlee as we have seen other boats do.  They stared up, and Luna stays clear of them this time.  

Around 1230 hrs or so we went in to the Gold River government float. We introduced ourselves to Lorraine at Air Nootka who was quite friendly and helpful. She felt that Luna had been doing quite well on his own until  local folks started feeding and petting him . While at the dock, we met Ed Thorburn and Garth Sinclair, the fisheries officers. They seemed like reasonable guys, and are very concerned with Luna’s welfare. We also met a reporter, Jack Little, from the local native band and he told us more about the killer whale, or Kakaawin, Cuuxiit (pronounced like “cooks it”). Cuuxiit is  Luna’s Mowachat/Muchalaht name, which was given to her with honor by Tyee Hawiih Yaalthuu (Mike Maquinna) after the chief Ambrose Maquinna’s passing. The band says that Cuuxiit is here mourning their great chief’s passing and that she [sic] should have left after a year. The reporter said the consensus of the band was to leave Cuuxiit alone and that everyone should respect the Kakaawin and give her [sic] the space she [sic] needs. Cuuxiit is in the wild and not a novelty. Note: there is some confusion here on whether L-98 is a male or female, as the band commonly refers to him as her, but we have seen that he is indeed a he!

While we were talking with the band reporter, a few floatplanes and log boats came and went and Luna took no interest in them. We stayed in Gold River for a few hours and spoke with several visitors that had come to the dock to get a glimpse of Luna. All asked whether his pod had come to get him yet. Apparently information has been given out that L-pod is likely to come and get him soon. We don’t believe this to be true.

We stayed at the dock until the “Uchuck III” came in again from it’s trip to Friendly Cove. We hailed the captain on the radio, and advised them to remain at a consistent speed and not to stop with Luna this time. That seemed to work well and Luna did not interact. We left soon afterwards for Critter Cove.

Thursday September 12^th

weather:  Sunny and clear. Fog in GR in the morning, choppy in afternoon

 We got an early start and were in GR by 0745. We arrived on scene and found Luna milling about opposite the Mr.er point, NE of the pilings in Gold River. It was a beautiful clear day, but a little chilly. Luckily we had a thermos of hot red rose tea, cream (shh, don’t tell anyone as it seems to be a Canadian faux pas to have cream with one’s tea) and honey - our everyday staple.  We parked near Victor Island and a light breeze slowly pushed us towards the river mouth and the fog that was spilling into the inlet. The glistening sun-rays caught Cuuxiit’s breath and carried it across the steely gray green ripples of Muchalat Inlet making it easy to follow him. As we had drifted, Luna was closer to us than we anticipated. We sat quietly hoping we wouldn’t be spotted. We were frozen: caught between making a run for it or staying put. All of our equipment was off. We stayed motionless and ten miMr.es passed with Luna milling close by. Then, with a seemingly purposeful turn, he headed in towards Gold River without taking notice of us. Close call!

I have mixed feelings this morning. It feels weird to deny him any contact. He seems so lonely, but it doesn’t feel right to interact with him either or to allow/encourage others to do so.  And it was weird to discourage others by engaging him ourselves. It’s confusing.

                A few boats were out this morning in the fog, mostly log boats, but no interactions were seen. A little before 0900, a tug-boat motored slowly by towing a large cement float and soon Luna began porpoising alongside. We decided to get some video footage of Luna’s behavior and followed parallel and slightly behind about ¼ mile to the “ Island Sentry” tug. A couple of times Luna veered away from the tug and started towards us, but we were far enough away that we were able to out run him. About this time Kari mentioned that the gas gauge was reading empty, but she thought that maybe it wasn’t reading properly. So we continued to follow, Kari driving and I video-taping. Sure enough, our engines began to sputter and we ran out of gas. As soon as this happened, Luna veered away from the tug towards us and disappeared. I kept video taping. I knew that he was headed our way, but I had no idea where his next surface would be. I was leaning on the side of the boat taping and scanning when POOF! Luna surfaced touching our pontoon, right in front of the camera! All I could see was whale. It startled me so much that I jumped back and tripped over the seat. It was pretty funny.

               Kari changed the gas tanks and we sat for close to 10 miMr.es as he spun us around in circles, slapped the side of the boat with his pectoral fin and began gnawing gently on the rubber pontoons… anything to get our attention. His breath smelled normal today. There wasn’t that acetone flavor to his breath. As we watched him defecate near the boat we wished we had something to take a sample with. It is surprising to us that there aren’t any folks up here besides us monitoring or studying him. His feces was whitish/pink and had little particulates throughout. We noticed a new cut, near his right pectoral fin and got some video and photos.  While I filmed, he watched me. He seemed to like my shiny silver bracelet. He watched it as the sun reflected. He made good eye contact and followed me as I moved around the boat.  The line between observer and observee became blurred, and the division of objective monitoring and our own human curiosity overwhelmed us at times. I wanted to see what he would do if I leaned from side to side, and sure enough he followed and copied my lead.  Some of his gurgling even sounded like the outboard motors to me. Coincidence? Hmmm…

It was much easier today to disengage from Luna now that we are more confident in what we are doing. He seems to stay clear of the propellers, but we were still worried that we might hurt him. An injured whale would be a “perfect” candidate for captivity and that would be an unfortunate end for this guy. We didn’t have much gas left even after changing the tanks and we decided to make a run to Gold River to see if we can fill up. We learned there is no gas at the GR dock. We discussed our options: hitch-hike to the town of Gold River with our gas cans in tow or to make a run for Critter Cove. We decided to ponder this while we stretched our legs on a short walk. We went towards town and passed a bunch of abandoned houses on our right across the street from the old pulp mill. Milling in the blackberry bushes was a Mama and two baby black bears. We felt a little safer seeing a fence between us. It felt great to walk after sitting in the boat for three days. Kari called Veins of Life Watershed Society when we got back to the dock and he thought we would make it to Critter Cove on the gas we had.

"Mock-lighthouse" at Victor Island

We headed out and found Luna milling between Gold River and Victor Island. There were no boats and the wind was picking up making the water choppy and hard to follow Luna. We stopped at Victor Island. A for-sale sign peaked our curiosity and encouraged our fantasy of a research/monitoring station from the darling little lighthouse. We followed the trail towards the lighthouse. Moss, lichen, sweet pine, salal berries and salt water breezes created a beautiful scent that filled and delighted our noses.

We noticed the stripped huckleberry bushes and it occurred to us there were probably bears around. We walked along singing songs, whistling, clapping our hands and making our presence known. We stayed at the Victor Island dock for over fifteen miMr.es scanning the area with our binoculars and couldn’t find Luna because of the large chop. There were dark clouds looming over and the wind was picking up and we decided to depart for home. About 15-20 miMr.es later someone voiced on the radio that he was stuck with Luna. We radioed and gave him some tips for getting away from Luna and told him to call us if he needed help. He informed us he was on the “Jervis Bay,” a small tug headed for McCurdy Creek and that he would try to ditch Luna. We continued into the wind monitoring the radio. A few miMr.es later someone else called and asked if he should bring the “Jervis Bay” some bait. We got on the radio and reminded them NOT to feed him, touch him, etc.  We were a little worried now, not wanting to take the joking too lightly. We called again to the “Jervis Bay” and he told us that he was able to successfully lose Luna by traveling close to shore. We made it home to Critter Cove on fumes in rough water.

Friday September 13^th

weather:  Clear and breezy, light chop on the water.

               Today we didn’t see Luna at all. We were really worried about him. We did our typical ‘go to Gold River look for Luna routine’ and he wasn’t there. Kari had a dream the night before that Luna was shot and killed because he was a “nuisance” and her dreams had been rather uncanny and soothsayerish lately and it freaked us out when he didn’t show up. When we couldn’t find him at the regular spots, we decided to head down Matchlee Bay where the fish trap is, but he wasn’t there. According to some locals, Matchlee is the next possible site for a fish farm. Although the moratorium on fish farms hasn’t been lifted yet, some people feel that they will be set up the miMr.e it is lifted.  I wonder what that would mean for Luna? (We have since learned that the ban was lifted sometime during this week). He wasn’t down Matchlee so we headed back to Gold River, but no sign of the baby.  Just as we were headed west past Victor Island we were flagged down by a man on the boat “Dinah Cat” who told us he had had just passed Luna west of Gore Island. He turned out to be Terry Neilson whom Louise had met before in a “Luna encounter” while he was conducting bathymetric surveys in Luna’s Zone earlier in the month.  He and the government crew were gearing up to finish their survey work to aid in future fish farm sites in the Zone the next week. He said they had been happy to hear that Luna had been spending so much time at Gold River and wouldn’t be so close to the testing, but was disappointed to see that Luna was back so close to where they needed to get the work done. We remembered that the previous M3 crew had thought Luna was potentially “disturbed” by their equipment. Unfortunately, no one will be around next week to monitor Luna or the testing. We thanked him and headed off to find Luna. We made it to Mooyah Bay and the Zone (via two passes around Gore Island with no Luna) parked, scanned and waited. No luck. We radioed Air Nootka and asked them to get in touch with us if they spotted him from the air. They called back to say none of their pilots had seen him all day.  We needed gas if we were going to be driving in circles all day, and after drifting and scanning without seeing him, we headed to Critter Cove.

We refueled at Critter Cove and sat and listened to the VHF radio for updates while we ate our lunches. No new observations had been made. Feeling and a little frustrated and keen for an adventure we decided to head towards Friendly Cove. Perhaps Luna had decided to make a break for home and headed out Zuciarte Channel towards the Pacific.  We went to check it out. There was no sign of Luna all the way there. We docked at Friendly Cove and met the caretaker of the church. The church is a remake of the original and was built in 1956. The Totems inside were amazing. There were eagles, a thunderbird, a killer whale, and a colorful rockfish topping various poles. The care and skill it took to make such beautiful pieces was inspiring. The creations encompassed the heart and spirit of the people and place. Friendly Cove itself is beautiful. The small cove is protected, but over the spit crash the powerful waves of the Pacific. We learned that it is not named Friendly Cove because of the protection, but rather because the natives were so friendly when Caption Cook and others discovered them. On the wall of the church was an article about Gold River. (Vancouver Sun. Tuesday June 23, 1992 In the Land of The Maquinna Natives Have Little to Cheer.)

The empty houses where we had seen the bears were the site of the old reserve, but the local band had gotten sick from pollution from the mill. Children developed respiratory problems and there was a ban on collecting shellfish and fish in the area because the toxin levels were too high. The article mentioned furans, dioxins and PCBs. The reservation has since been moved to a different location. It makes us heart sick to think of the Maquinna people who have lived in this area for over 4,000 years being sent to live on such a toxic piece of land. It also made us think of little Luna who has been living and feeding in this area for the past year. We wonder what his current toxin levels are and wonder if they have increased while he has been in Muchalat Inlet. As we were getting ready to leave Friendly Cove, Ray the Light House Keeper called us and said that Luna had been discovered once again in the Gold River area!

Cuuxiit has been out-smarting us today! We headed back to Gold River, which took us thirty-five miMr.es only to sit and look for a whale that we could not find. How appropriate for Friday the thirteenth. We headed back to Critter Cove before it got too dark, a little discouraged at our whale locating skills. John and our cabin neighbors fixed a dinner of prawns, oysters, Dungeness crab and salmon. We contributed some chanterelle mushrooms we   had found yesterday in a secret spot that John was gracious enough to let us in on. It was an amazing feast. We have eaten so well this trip!

Saturday September 14^th

weather:  Flat calm and no clouds in sight. Unbearably hot.

We were still a little worried about Luna as we started out today, but right away we spotted him near Gold River.  At 1000 hrs the “Uchuck III” left the dock and Luna did not interact. We headed into the dock to charge our camera. Lorraine at Air Nootka was good enough to let us recharge there. We headed back on the water after watching from the dock for a while. Although there were numerous boats coming and going, none seemed to be interested in Luna. We don’t know if it is because we are watching that people aren’t going after him, or that news hasn’t spread to most folks that he is near to Gold River. Perhaps they are actually trying to do the right thing by staying away.

Luna moves out of sight of the dock and we motor out and settled down to watch from a small cove more than a mile away. Around 1045 we spied a canoe headed out of Gold River.  It looked at first as though they were going to stay close to shore, but instead they veered towards Luna! Luna discovered them in no time at all and headed right over. We threw our boat in gear and tried to make it to the paddlers quickly.

Luna with a canoe

When we arrived on the scene, Luna was with the canoe and was rubbing his head on the side and rocking them quite a bit. “Can you help us?” the two women cried out. Although Luna is very gentle we were worried that he might tip over their canoe and the women were quite a ways out from shore. We advised them to keep paddling and to head back towards the launch.

We motored up alongside the canoe to get the baby’s attention. He came right over to us, but then headed back to the canoe when he realized we weren’t going to play with him.  This was the most uncomfortable interaction we have had with Luna so far.  The women were scared. Luna was pushing them around and we had loud, smelly engines with props and were trying to be the good guys by getting Luna to leave their canoe for our boat.  We tried to engage him by untying a fender and dangling it over the side. He rubbed his head on it and opened his mouth. “This is too weird.” I thought. But Luna wasn’t that interested in the fender and started to leave off again. We had to keep his attention in order to keep him from going back with the canoe. Fortunately, he eventually decided to stick with our boat. He had some new scratches on his head, but nothing looked deep. He stayed with our boat for about forty miMr.es, as long as it took the ladies to get safely to the dock, and then we took off. It was really easy to ditch him this time. We finally realized that if we just start going and gradually increase our speed then he shoots to the side of the boat and heads out on his own.

We went to a safe place and watched him from afar. At 1500 hrs a little skiff came out of Gold River. There was a man, a woman with an infant in arms and another small child. They motored out doing a lot of starting and stopping behavior and circles around Luna’s area. Then they headed right for the last place that we had seen a blow. We took off hoping to prevent an interaction and to hand them the Be Whale Wise guidelines. They buzzed right past us and went to the beach near Matchlee, got out and had a picnic. Whew.

We went in to Air Nootka to pick up our camera and were just headed back out when we saw a zodiac with some erratic driving behavior near Luna. The wind had picked up substantially and was knocking them all over the place. They made it back to the dock without an interaction before we got to them, but we decided to continue on our way in order to hand some guidelines to a sailboat that was near Matchlee. We approached the little sailboat that was carrying six older men. We handed them the guidelines and they responded that they had already received them from the other “girls” and knew what not to do.  They were surprised however, to learn that Luna was in the Gold River area. Then they asked us if we could push them back into the wind. We bumper-boated them back over towards Gold River and they went in. At that point we had lost site of Luna.  It was really difficult to see any surfaces or breaths in the wind and chop. We cruised to the leeward side of Victor Island and watched as the “Uchuck III” headed into port. They did not have a Luna interaction. We left the area around 18:00 hours with no last Luna sightings. We made an unintentionally yucky dinner while trying to use up leftovers. Neither of us was into it mostly because we had eaten so much chocolate earlier. After dinner we went and had hot cocoa and Naniamo bars (did we mention we had eaten too much chocolate?) with John and Leonard “Lenny” the poodle. We looked at John’s fascinating pictures and heard his tales of a scary cougar encounter and a solo kayak trip to Alaska. We inherited some worldly advice and called it a night, exhausted.

Sunday September 15^th

weather:  Heavy fog and light rain.

The stunning Nootka Sound Landscape

Today we left. Neither one of us was ready to leave Nootka Sound. We left John and Leonard after fueling up. John gave us a push off saying something like “Good riddance”, but I think he was a little sad to see us go. The whole experience with Luna, the immense beauty of Nootka Sound and the kindness and generosity of the local s was difficult to leave behind.

We had a brief encounter with Luna in the morning. We had our goodbyes and final assessment and told him once more to go home to his family. It was emotionally draining and as we left I tried my best not to cry, but had difficulty holding back my salty tears. I was sad to be leaving, wondering what would happen next. We keep going round and round about what should be done with Cuuxiit.  We have spoken with several visitors, first nation members, local loggers, fishermen, lodge owners, captains, fisheries officers, and residents over the last week. Many have asked tough questions about Luna and the overall situation that we have found difficult to answer. Some of the questions we wrote down included the following:

               Being such an unusual event, Luna has been the subject of many stories through the local area, region and the world. It has been difficult to make sense out of the various versions. Some say they witnessed Luna’s birth near Nootka Island. Some say Luna and his pod were in the Sound for weeks before they left Luna and another larger male in the inlet. Some say the uncle (presumably L-39) traveled with Luna for a month before he died and sank. Some say he showed up in Veins of Life Watershed Societyh of 2001, others July. Some say they regularly see big groups of Killer Whales in the area. Some say the big groups are 6-7, others say 18. Still others say they rarely see killer Whales in Nootka Sound. The stories of Luna’s interactions with people vary as well. We have heard adamantly that he was both hit and not hit by engine propellers leaving large bloody wounds. We have repeatedly heard that he was given food and beer on several occasions, and that people have seen photographs of people with their heads in his mouth and swimming with him. We have seen neither, but have no way of proving or disproving the accounts.

People vary also on what they feel is appropriate, respectful behavior around Luna. Some say it is OK to Look and/or to get photos, but not to encourage him to come closer. Some say it is ok to encourage, but No Touching. Some say it is OK to Touch, but just on the head. Others, it is OK to Touch his head, as well tongue and gums if he opens his mouth to you, but no feeding. Again, some feel feeding is OK, but natural foods like herring, or salmon. Others say feed him whatever he will eat.  People feel that he is a lonely animal that needs social interaction to be healthy and we should try to give him what he needs. Still others feel that no interaction is the right thing and that the boat that is the biggest problem is the monitoring boat because they have the most consistent interactions. And it is true that Luna has spent a lot of time with the monitoring crews as they pull him off of other boats. All of these opinions and more. Who can say what is truly the right thing to do for an orphaned three-year-old killer whale?

After our week of monitoring, we think it is wishful thinking to think that human interactions with Luna can be stopped if he is left alone in an area like Nootka Sound. Luna is very inquisitive and beguiling. He is starving for stimulation and engagement. Killer whales have strong family bonds and a social culture. We think it is asking too much from people to resist interacting with him. Whales elicit a strong response and interest from people all over the world. Here is an amazing wild whale that wants to interact with humans.  Humans have been seeking contact with whales for centuries. Even if a permanent monitoring plan in Nootka Sound is put in place on Luna’s behalf, people will continue to try to interact with him and he will seek out interaction with people, including the monitors.  There have been several cases where wild whales/dolphins have shown up and stayed in public places. Most have ended in tragedy. (See, “Wayward Whales, Dolphins and NMFS”, William Rossiter, Cetacean Society International, Whales Alive! Volume XI No. 3, July 2002).

What seems best to us, Luna politics aside, is that he be reunited with his own kind, so that he gets what he needs from them and forgets about people. We feel certain that Luna would lose interest in the minor stimulation that people can provide him in comparison with what he would get from his own kind. The nearest window of opportunity is coming to a close. L-pod is still in the Haro Strait area and will be around consistently for the next couple of weeks, but then their whereabouts become less known. We hope to see a plan for Luna be made public soon, as ignoring the whole situation will not bring resolve.

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