Finally, orca may be going home

After two years of inaction and weeks of official indecision, the Canadian government today plans to say a young American orca lost in the back bays of Vancouver Island should be reunited with his pod near the San Juan Islands.

But formidable obstacles remain.

The most pressing is money. Neither the Canadian nor the American government plans to sink any real cash into the venture.

They're leaving it to environmental groups or others to raise a yet-unknown amount that could total $250,000 or more to move and release the killer whale.

And there's no guarantee that the 4-yearold orca known as Luna will stay free after that. He's developed a nasty habit of rubbing and even bumping boats that, if it persists, could lead to him being recaptured and put in an aquarium, according to the Canadian government's draft plan.

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans already is drawing fire from environmentalists, who have said since spring that they needed advance notice to raise money for the operation. Luna's pod generally heads out of the area sometime between November and March.

"There's a real problem in that DFO has put this off until the very last minute -- waited until a crisis developed," said Will Anderson of Earth Island Institute, one of several groups preparing to seek funding. "It's very difficult to raise money without a written proposal in front of you."

The draft capture plan, obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer through a Freedom of Information Act request, calls for Luna to be lured into a net-enclosed pen in Nootka Sound if possible or, if that doesn't work, to be snared with a soft rope around his tail.

He would be held on Nootka Sound while medical tests are completed to make sure he is healthy enough to join the pod to which he belongs. Then the orca would be moved about 200 miles to Pedder Bay, near Victoria.

The Canadian government has left it up to whoever volunteers to transport the animal as to whether that would happen by boat or by truck, but it would have to be in an open-topped enclosure and it would have to be done quickly, the draft plan says.

At Pedder Bay, Luna would await the arrival of his pod. The whales forage for fish there from time to time.

Environmentalists say the plan would have a better chance of success if he were moved to the San Juans, where Luna is more likely to encounter his family before they take off for the winter.

When Luna first turned up alone in Nootka Sound in July 2001, DFO officials decided to leave him alone.

By early this year, it was clear he was becoming far too accustomed to people, seeking out the company of mariners, their dogs and any other stimulation he could find. Orcas are normally quite social animals.

Some locals around Gold River, B.C., where he hangs out by the docks, have tried to protect the animal. But others, and tourists, have aggravated the situation, trying to get close to him, rubbing his tongue and, in one incident, pouring beer down his throat.

By midsummer the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' on-scene officers were calling the situation "untenable" and environmentalists described the throngs of curious orca-seekers showing up daily as "a circus." Then in late August, Luna bumped into a boat so hard he gashed his head.

In September, the department reconvened a scientific panel that recommended reuniting the whale with his family -- a recommendation many on the panel had made months earlier.

Since then, Canadian officials have been making statements indicating they had decided to allow the whale's repatriation. But, curiously, agency officials refused to say directly they had made that decision until late Wednesday, when an e-mail sent to journalists arrived after the normal close of business.

It said, in part: "While DFO would like to see a reintroduction occur, there are important details that need to be finalized before moving forward."

Today, the agency intends to announce a plan that outlines those details, said agency spokeswoman Lara Sloan.

Asked about environmentalists' criticisms that the agency had waited too late in the year, Sloan replied: "Waiting is the wrong term to use. There is so much that goes into an endeavor like this. Nobody was waiting. There was constant consulting with whale experts."

U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service officials in Seattle reviewed the Canadian government's draft plan this week.

"They've put together a pretty thorough, carefully thought-out plan," said Brian Gorman, a fisheries service spokesman. "It remains to be seen what kind of response there will be. That's the belling-of-the-cat part of this; the difficult part."

Gorman cited his agency's experience last year moving Springer, another orphan killer whale from a Canadian pod that got lost in Puget Sound. He estimated that cost $280,000 to $300,000, although he said no precise accounting has been done.

Fisheries service scientists would be involved in helping relocate Luna, Gorman said, and the agency would spend some money on travel and phone calls -- a "niggling" amount -- but the agency has no budget for the project.

Environmentalists want the agency to use money from a $1.5 million appropriation for killer whale research secured recently by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

"That would be a violation of the conditions under which we got the money," Gorman said. "The money was determined to be spent for research. It was never intended that that money be intended for a purpose like this."

Environmentalists are trying to raise the money themselves but are still hoping for some government help.

"There are some big dot-commers we're going to be going after," said Fred Felleman of the Orca Conservancy. Yet, he and others question why some of the $1.5 million in research money can't be used for the operation, since Luna would carry a device that would allow scientists to track his movements for at least two weeks.

Their biggest fear is that an aquarium will get the job and, if Luna can't make it in the wild, become the orca's ultimate home. Orcas are extremely valuable in the museum trade.

"I think they will make an honest effort (at reintroduction) the first time, but they're waiting in the wings for failure," said Anderson of Earth Island.

Another obstacle to a happy ending:

What if Luna is rejected by his pod and again starts seeking attention from boaters?

The draft plan says that's why he would be housed at Pedder Bay -- it's farther removed from the heavy boat traffic of the San Juans.

"We don't want to have a Canadian nuisance animal become an American nuisance animal," said Gorman of the fisheries service.

And if it does?

"We'll deal with that when it happens, if it happens," Gorman said. "We don't think that will happen."