Race is on to reunite orphaned orca calf with pod off B.C. coast

The race is on to reunite an orphaned orca calf with its pod after its mother tragically died on the weekend.

The whale became stranded in a shallow area near Zeballos on Vancouver Island early Saturday.

Despite a community effort, locals were unable to move the orca into deeper water in time.

1:57 Vancouver Island community unable to save stranded orca

On Sunday, community members continued to mourn the tragedy.

Officials said the calf is still in the area without its mother or members of its pod.

“We’re going to monitor the situation,” Jared Towers, executive director of Bay Cetology, told Global News.

“If the calf gets out on its own at high tide, that would be wonderful, but highly unlikely, so we may have to coax it out.

“They do often hunt in shallow waters and unfortunately, it was a risky place to be at the wrong time.”

1:53 Vancouver Island community mourning dead orca, trying to unite calf with pod

Staff with Fisheries and Oceans Canada remained at the scene on Monday.

By Sunday afternoon, the mother whale was towed out of the area.

Andrew Trites, a professor and director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia, told Global News this was a hunting trip gone wrong.

“The sad part of this is that it wasn’t possible to refloat the whale,” he said.

“The whale (was) thrashing about, trying to free itself, she ended up on her side and as the tide came in, the water went up over her blowhole and she drowned,” he added.

“Not many people can appreciate just how massive an adult killer whale is. And in the end, it was just very sad. And while this all unfolded her calf is in shallow water but free swimming, waiting patiently for its mom to come back, and she never did.”

Trites said the whale was a Biggs killer whale and was part of a transient group typically found on the west coast of Vancouver Island. He said they know who her mother was and they know she had three siblings.

He said there is a lot of concern for the calf.

“The prognosis is not good. So the mother and the calf have been seen associating with other direct family members. And so there is a good chance that the calf could be taken care of by somebody else as a member of one of the blood relatives,” he said.

“In the best scenario, it’ll be the calf’s grandmother that would take charge. Because at two years old, well, you can almost think like, you know, your toddler, they’re more advanced than the toddler, but they’re not up to being able to kill on their own.”