AR-News: Canada's Too-Friendly Killer Whale to Be Captured

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

Reuters

Fri Jun 11, 2004 

By Allan Dowd 
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A lonely killer whale on Canada's 
Pacific coast, whose search for companionship has become a danger to boats and 
float planes, and himself, will be captured next week so he can be reunited with 
his family pod, officials said on Thursday. 
Scientist said it was clear the one-ton whale, nicknamed Luna, would not be 
able to link up with the pod on his own, so he will have to be trucked to the 
southern tip of Vancouver Island where the other orcas normally spend the 
summer. 
Luna has been swimming alone in a bay on western Vancouver Island since 2001, 
but as human activity in the area picked with the approach of summer, he was 
having run-ins with boats and float planes in an apparent search for 
companionship. 
Luna nearly collided with a landing float plane two days ago, an accident 
that could have killed both the whale and the people on the plane, officials 
said. 
"For Luna's sake, we have to move now," said John Nightingale, director of 
the Vancouver Aquarium. 
Orcas, or killer whales, normally spend their entire lives with other members 
of their pod. Scientists do not know if Luna, whose official designation is 
L98, became lost or was kicked out of the family unit. 
Canada and the United States agreed late last year to move Luna, but had to 
wait until L-pod returned to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where it spends the 
summer swimming in both U.S. and Canadian waters. 


full story:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=5401679&
src=eDialog/GetContent&section=news  
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