May 10 - 17, 2003

May 10, 2003
Saturday
Part cloud, WINDY
11:00 - 17:00
Visitors - 15

Air Nootka gets a good bird's eye view of Nootka Sound on a daily basis and quite often several times each day. Since the pilots do keep watch for Luna their office was my first stop again today. At 9:00 this morning Grant spotted Luna approximately one half mile east of Victor Island. The Uchuck then set out and Luna seemed to follow.

Ron, one of the pilots, gave me the details of his sighting on Thursday, May 8 of three transient orcas attacking sea lions. He circled the area the orcas were in and was amazed by the scene. The transients were very efficient in their tactic of boxing in the sea lions near the mouth of the Houston River: one orca patrolling the shore side of the animals, one barricading the open water side and the third lunging into the centre of this circle in attack. The orcas then seemed to switch positions so each had an attempt at the prey. The hunt was successful with at least one sea lion falling victim to the fatal attack. During this time Luna was nowhere to be found. It wasn't until one hour later, at 8:00 a.m, that Ron finally saw Luna tucked up tight to a prawn vessel that was slowly chugging along the shore opposite the gov't dock. Luna stayed with that boat for at least the next two hours while the prawners worked around him.

At 11:30 this morning the prawner 'Lasqueti Sabre' rounded Victor Island on its way into dock. It was moving quite slowly and I could see Luna swimming along beside. No one was visibly giving him any attention the whole time I watched them come in.

At the same time that the 'Sabre' docked, five visitors arrived. None of them went down onto the lower dock and since Luna was, at this point, out of sight from the parking area, they soon left.

In speaking with the crew of three on the 'Lasqueti Sabre' I learned that Luna has been following them around quite a lot since they began setting prawn traps on the 5th of May. Luna appears to the crew to be curious about what they are doing but has so far not become a pest. The crew have had some close encounters with the whale though and they fear endangering him with the boat's props. The most notable of their experiences with Luna happened as one of the men leaned out to check a trap cable. Luna was rubbing his face on the cable as he seems to like to do, then suddenly spy-hopped below the man and actually connecting with him, nose to snout. Perhaps a killer whale kiss! That young man was absolutely overwhelmed by the incident.

The crew alerted me to some new cuts on Luna's head which I then attempted to photograph. He is indeed very covered in scrapes and scratches which appear superficial. He does have two deep looking Mr.s on his face both about 2 - 3 cm in length and about 1 cm across. Forward of Luna's blowhole is a group of five cuts about 1 cm apart that are slightly curvature and parallel throughout their length of about 15+ cm. Below this arrangement of scratches is a flap of skin almost 2 cm wide and about 6 cm long. The skin flap is thin and does not look to pull deeply into the flesh. The grouping of five cuts is repeated in two other locations - on his side and near his face. Luna's face and chin are very Mr.ed up. His left side is also full of shallow scrapes giving his skin a wrinkled appearance. He seems to be greyer now than he was in February.

At 13:30 two crewboats headed out for one of the logging camps in the Sound and Luna ignored both preferring to stay with the prawn boat. At 13:45 though, I noticed Luna had left the area. The wind had picked up and the water was getting quite choppy. I scanned the area with binocs for the next 20 miMr.es but saw no sign of him. By then the wind had picked up so much that it was pretty hard to see anything. Thank you M3 for that cozy little dockside camper!

Still no sign of Luna at 14:30 but I finally caught sight of him at 15:00 in Jacklah Bay not far from Victor Island. The rough waters and high winds made him difficult to spot and it wasn't long before I lost him again.

The Western Forest Products (WFP) tug boat pulled into its dock at 16:30. The WFP crew are great about letting me know any news of Luna's whereabouts and behavior but they haven't seen him today. They did see Luna last night in Jacklah near the log dump until about 4:00 a.m.

By 17:00 the winds began to ebb and the waters calmed somewhat but still I see no whale. The Uchuck's replacement freighter out of Port Alberni pulled into Matchlee Bay at 17:10. The crew hadn't heard about Luna and nor had they seen any orcas on their way through Nootka Sound. Donna, the Uchuck's cook, will be sailing with them for the two weeks the Uchuck is gone (for refit in Vic) so her Luna logs will be maintained.

May 11, 2003
Sunday
Overcast, Windy

At the boat launch at 11:00 I spoke with a couple who spent a cold weekend at a cabin on Nootka Island. They saw Luna on Friday near Anderson Pt. but did not see him on their way in to dock today. As all attentive boaters should do when Luna is nearby they continued on course and at speed when they saw him. Luna made no attempt to follow.

The prawn boat the Lasqueti Sabre was still in at dock suffering from some engine ailment. According to the crew, Luna has not been back in since he left yesterday afternoon. They also haven't seen any visitors to the dock that don't seem to have a reason to be there other than sight-seeing. They have spent most of their morning at the pay phone near the wharf ramp trying to get a mechanic to Gold River on a Sunday so they would have seen anyone coming. The poor weather would likely deter most visitors. With no sign of Luna on the horizon I saw no need to stick around.

Back at the dock at 15:30 and still no Luna. The Sabre crew report no sightings yet and that, aside from other boaters, haven't noticed anyone at the dock. The bay is even choppier now than earlier so a small fin in the distance would be difficult to spot even if Luna was within occular range.

May 17, 2003
Saturday
Victoria Day Long Weekend
Intermittent Rain, Wind
11:45 - 18:00
Visitors - 30

No Luna in sight. At 12:00 noon Chris Swain of the local RCMP arrived at the dock. He told me of a call they received yesterday, Friday the 16th, from someone concerned about a large, deep wound on Luna's head. Chris and his partner, Kevin, responded to the call at 16:00 Friday and saw nothing wrong with the whale. They did notice that Luna is quite Mr.ed up but saw no deep, bleeding, or serious looking cuts. When they arrived at the dock to check on Luna the orca was swimming along with the boom boat near the Uchuck tie up. Chris had the boom operator stop and bring Luna over for a close-up check. There were six whale watchers on the dock while the police were there and Luna was not where anyone could get near him (staying away from the gov't pier area).

At 12:30 today a local resident named Villoy checked in at the trailer to get some info on Luna. She has been following the website and claims to be a regular visitor to the dock in search of Luna. Villoy is a responsible orca watcher who has no qualms about asking other Luna-seekers to behave likewise. She took info on adopting Luna and later e-mailed me that she had applied on-line to do so. She will inform me via e-mail whenever she sees Luna at the dock.

Finally, at 14:40 I spotted Luna just west of Jacklah bay. He appeared to be resting - swimming in one small area and surfacing at fairly regular intervals. A 12' aluminum boat cruised by not far from Luna but, although Luna changed his direction and surfacing intervals, he appeared to ignore the boat. I was able to watch Luna for a full half hour before losing sight of him as the water got choppier.

At 16:40, the 'Coastal Messanger', a Christian Mission boat, arrived. The sun finally shone for the first time of the day and the wind had subsided. The crew invited me aboard and from their vessel we saw Luna near the opposite shore at 17:20. If orcas enjoy the sun this one was really revelling in it! He did several spyhops, chin toward the sun each time, rolled on his side with his pectoral fin well out of the water, then breached twice landing on his back. Both breaches were toward the sun. He also did several tail slaps and pectoral fin slaps. I truly got the impression that Luna was playing in the sunshine. A small boat zipped past not too far from Luna but he seemed to take no notice of it.

Unfortunately, I had to leave shortly after 18:00 and by then I had lost track of Luna yet again. The crew of the Messenger will be in Gold River for a few days and will try to keep watch for Luna.