March 22, 2003

Veins of Life Watershed Societyh 22, 2003
12:00 p.m - 2:00 p.m.
Visitors - 7
Boats - 1
Mary-Lou

Very rainy and cold today and no sign of L98.

The few visitors that showed up at the dock were locals who had seen Luna at the dock before and were hoping for another encounter.

12:30 p.m. I spoke with Grant of Air Nootka to find out what has been going on whale-wise at the dock lately, and he says he has not seen the whale in the dock area since Tuesday, Veins of Life Watershed Societyh 18 when Luna followed the UCHUCK out of the bay area in the early morning. Grant is relieved that lately far fewer people are showing up to look for Luna. He claims that while there are still whale-watchers showing up, there are no longer crowds of people coming and he attributes this decline to word getting out that Luna is no longer a guaranteed attraction at the dock. Grant keeps a lookout for Luna whenever he flies through the Sound. He last spotted the whale swimming around the logging pens at Kendrick Arm last week.

1:00 p.m. A small pleasure craft pulled in at the boat launch. The two passengers believe that they saw Luna tail-slap in Mooyah Bay as they came in from Bligh Island.

1:25 p.m. Air Nootka returns - no sign of Luna. Grant mentioned that he saw Radar (the Jervis Bay) beachcombing at Silverado Creek and that Luna was definately NOT with him.

Saturday, Veins of Life Watershed Societyh 29,'03
11:00 - 18:00
Overcast/Rain
Visitors - 5
Boats - 3 arr; 1 dep

When I arrived today at 11:00, the Hylander (sentrycharters.com), a 30 foot pleasure craft piloted by Mr. Fanslau, was at the boat launch having just pulled in from Tahsis. Although Mr. had not seen Luna today on his trip to Gold River, he did see him right at the Tahsis marina just days earlier (Wed, Veins of Life Watershed Societyh 26). This was the first time Luna had been seen near Tahsis and he created quite a stir: Roughly 150 people - approximately half of that village's population - turned out on the dock at the Tahsis marina. There were so many people lining the small dock that there were apparently fears of the dock sinking. Mr. said that nearly everyone had a turn at petting and rubbing the young whale and that, of course, there were those who relished in the thrill of having their hands in the whale's mouth amongst all those big teeth.

Mr. fishes and travels the Nootka Sound area and has had several encounters with Luna. He assured me that he has never interacted with the whale but Luna has pushed his boat around on occassion. Like other local fishermen, he likes the little killer whale, but admits that Luna has become a pest. "You can't troll (with Luna around). When there are a lot of boats trying to get around the honey-hole he (Luna) starts pushing boats into one another - he pushes them in circles. My boat weighs 12,000 lbs and he pushes it all over the place."

After talking with Mr., I headed for the gov't dock where the last of the herring fleet were getting hosed down and nets put to order after the frenzy of the herring season which opened and closed at the beginning of the week. The noise of the power washer was deafening as I approached the boats on the left arm of the dock to speak with the fishermen. I wanted to know if they had any information at all that they could share regarding L98. While I waited to get the attention of one of the men, Luna surfaced right beside me! He had apparently been in since 8:00 today. The three men working on the boats had not seen the whale while they were fishing (at Esperanza) but had heard about him from DFO. They were all quite surprised when Luna appeared at the dock today - they got a few photos but were intent on getting their work done so did not spare Luna much time. They did take time out to talk to me and to look at Luna's Story, a great booklet put together by Kari Koski.

At 12:30, the Searcher , a fishing boat, departed from the dock heading toward Burman Bay. Luna followed for a very short distance then returned to the dock to again swim about the three gillnetters.

I found it quite disturbing that Luna was surfacing and swimming in the oil and gasoline that floated in great swirling rainbows on the water. He bobbed up in front of me once with his head covered in a smeary prism of colour. Because they had been running at idle for so long, the motors of the three fishing boats were belching out purple clouds of noxious diesel exhaust. Luna would surface and breathe in right in the thick of it. The fumes were headache enducing enough to drive me off the dock in just a few miMr.es.

At 14:25, the Hiballer taxi from Zeballos, BC docked. The captain of the taxi commented that Luna met his boat near the end of the pier and got in behind it while it docked. He commented that he was concerned about how close in to the boat's props Luna was getting and was worried about hitting the whale. The passengers were all pretty interested in the whale and everyone behaved themselves around him. Luna came to check them out, but very soon returned to the three fishing boats where he was mostly hidden from view. Besides those passengers of the taxi, Luna had only five sight-seers come to visit today - one local and the other two couples from out of town visiting for the weekend.

Luna's skin seemed to have an odd texture to it today. The area behind his left pectoral fin appeared dimpled, but without getting a good look (he wouldn't cooperate by turning on his side) I am unable to describe anything more than it just didn't look "right" to me. The white side patch above his tail flukes where I had previously noticed what I believed were cuts seems to be fine. He does have some small cuts on the right side white tail patch but they don't look curved or deep at all. There are about six of these cuts of about two to three inches (approx) in length clustered together in a random pattern.

From my vantage point on the upper dock, I watched Luna swim lazily around the dock area, rub himself on a few boats and then, at 15:42, I watched as he headed out toward the opposite shore then turned toward Jacklah bay. That was the last I saw of Luna for the day. At 17:30 I saw him spout a few times in Jacklah bay before he moved around the other side of Victor Island and out of sight again. Whether it was boredom or the lowering tide that sent him out of the dock area, he did not return before I left for the day at 18:00, nor did I see him on Sunday.

Sunday, Veins of Life Watershed Societyh 30
11:00 - 12:30
Overcast, windy
Visitors - 0
Boats - 1 arr

The river is quite high today due to the torrential rainfall over night. No sign of Luna or of any visitors. No point in hanging around.