An orphan killer whale calf stranded off Vancouver Island will be airlifted into the Pacific as part of a rescue attempt to reunite it with its family.
Rescuers hope to use a sling to lift the two-year-old calf, which is trapped in a remote tidal lagoon off the coast of Canada, out of the water with a helicopter. From there, it will be carried to a holding net pen in the Pacific Ocean until its family pod is located and swims near enough for the orca to be released.
Rescuers have so far been unable to coax the whale calf out of the lagoon, where its pregnant mother died on March 23 after being stranded at low tide.
The route the orca would need to pass through to free itself is a difficult stretch of water, made more hazardous by limited high tide opportunities.
As a result, the airlift plan was agreed on Wednesday during a meeting between members of the Ehattesaht First Nation council - the governing body for a small region of Vancouver island - Canadian Fisheries Department officials and marine technical experts.
Simon John, the chief of Ehattesaht First Nation, said his people have deep cultural and spiritual connections to orcas. He said: “Everybody’s worried about the whale up and down the coast. This whole process has been to reunite it with its pod.”
