A day after an orca died in the small Vancouver Island village of Zebellos, the community is now trying to figure out how to unite a calf with its pod.
Robert John, Nuchatlaht First Nation’s emergency community representative, said the orca died after it beached in shallow waters and is a mother to a young calf, which was seen swimming near the body.
“We have to come up and implement a plan to reunite the calf with the remaining pod,” John said.
“(The calf) is somewhere in the area but it has not been located yet. We are working on it.”
The calf reportedly moved further up the channel away from Zebellos.
John said that both the mother and calf are believed to be from T Pod.
“I didn’t get her name yet but she is a 14-year-old female with a two-year-old calf,” John said.
John said it continues to be an extremely sad and emotional time for the community.
“It was a huge community effort and sadly, despite our best efforts, we were unsuccessful,” he said.
A man who works in the community, Tom McPherson, was camping with his family when they quickly responded to the radio call for help.
“We got the call on the radio that there was a stranded mother orca with its calf… We were camping nearby at a cabin and we grabbed all the buckets we could,” Tom McPherson said.
“We came as quick as we could but, unfortunately, the mom was already dead when we got there.”
An Indigenous ceremony was held on Saturday evening for the passing of the orca.
“One of our local elders performed a safe passage ceremony for the spirit,” John said.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada is investigating the death and is working to help unite the calf with its pod.
There was a dead seal in the mother’s mouth, so it was likely hunting during the high tide, but there could have also been something wrong with its health.
Global News has reached out to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for more information.