Luna (orca)

Luna (September 19, 1999–March 10, 2006) officially named L98 and also known as Tsux'iit, was an orca born in Puget Sound. After being separated from his mother as a toddler, Luna spent five years alone in Nootka Sound, off the west coast of Vancouver Island, some 250 miles from home. His presence in the fjord, which delighted tourists but often brought him into conflict with boaters, led to years of controversy over whether he should be captured and returned to his family pod.

Early life

Luna was born September 19, 1999 into the Southern Resident orca community in British Columbia, Canada and Washington, USA. He was born into the L1 pod, L2 matriline, which consisted of the matriarch, Grace (L2), Orcan (L39), Gaia (L78), Wavewalker (L88), and Luna's mother, Splash (L67). Initially, there was confusion as to who Luna's mother actually was. Splash was seen alone, and for the next week, Luna traveled with Kiska (K18), a female from another pod. Later, the question of which orca was Luna's mother was answered when he was seen continuously alongside Splash.

In 2000, a naming contest was held for the new orca by the Whale Musuem, Friday Harbor, WA. The winning name for L98 wasLuna, Latin for moon. It was suggested by an eight-year-old girl named Ashley Green of Bellingham, Washington. The contest-winner explained her suggestion of Luna as, "the orca whale explores the ocean like the Moon explores the Earth." Researchers later determined that the orca was male, but the female name stuck.

First Appearance in Nootka Sound

In June–July of 2001, when Luna was almost two years old, he disappeared from his family pod. His uncle, nicknamed Orcan, died at about that time, and many people think that Luna was accompanying his uncle away from the pod when Orcan died, leaving Luna lost and alone. After Luna did not reappear, he was declared dead. However, in the fall of 2001, Luna appeared and was found alone in Nootka Sound. It was at this time the Mowachaht/Muchalaht people of northern Vancouver Island named L98 Tsux'iit after the tribe's late Chief. The Mowachaht/Muchalaht people contended that because their Chief had declared after death he wished to return as a wolf or an orca, that the appearance of Luna four days after his death was symbolic and likely his reincarnation.

However, all eyes turned from Luna to Springer (A73), another displaced orca calf who had turned up alone in Puget Sound in 2002. Springer became the center of attention that year. Her rescue and repatriation to her family that summer to Johnstone Strait, BC involved an historic, transboundary coalition of non-government organizations, federal agencies and private individuals and captured the imagination of the world.

The Namu Shuttle

A Seattle-based non-profit organization, Orca Conservancy [], which initiated the campaign to save Springer and helped raise the funds for that successful effort, also took the lead in calling for a similar effort on behalf of Luna. In March 2002, the organization teamed up with Earth Island Institute and its subsidiary, the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation [1], in presenting a fully funded, seven-point, scientifically peer-reviewed rescue plan for Springer to National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the central component of the plan being the so-called "Namu Shuttle," leading the orca into a hydrodynamic seapen and then towing it to Johnstone Strait. The procedure was used successfully in 1965 by Ted Griffin to translocate Namu, the first captive orca in the U.S., from northern Vancouver Island to Seattle, almost the exact distance that would be required for Springer's move. The groups later offered an additional option—transporting Springer via a high-speed hovercraft, which was offered to the project through the Canadian Consulate in Seattle. On both plans, it was proposed that after delivering Springer to her natal waters, the rescue team and critical equipment would then be kept in place and marshalled for a return trip -- the translocation of Luna from Nootka Sound, BC to his natal waters in Puget Sound, Washington.

The "Namu Shuttle" proposal linking the Springer and Luna efforts was widely reported on regional television newscasts and print media and was gathering broad support among the public. By May 2002, people on both sides of the border were clammoring for federal agencies to take direct action to save the whales. Since Springer was a Canadian whale in U.S. waters, NMFS was the governing authority that was responsible for greenlighting the rescue. And as Luna was a U.S. whale in Canadian waters, the agency that needed to approve any rescue effort in Nootka Sound was the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada—and by all indications, DFO did not intend on doing anything for Luna.

“There is certainly less of a sense of urgency with L-98, compared to A-73,” said John Ford, Canadian Fisheries and Oceans. “But we are still not confident about his prospects for the long term."

Luna would be left to linger in Nootka Sound, and the focus soon turned back to Springer. But once that historic rescue, translocation and repatriation was completed in July and August 2002, all eyes again were back to Luna. NGOs pressed hard for DFO to take action to save Luna, "quid pro quo," as Orca Conservancy's Michael Harris said on KING 5 News (NBC Seattle). "We brought back your orca, now let's do something about ours."

But DFO's public response was firm—Luna would be left where he is. The agency stated many reasons not to intervene, but outlined three major ones: first, Luna was thriving in Nootka Sound and was posing no danger to himself or others; second, it was premature to justify intervention on behalf of Luna based on the apparent success of the Springer effort, as the true test of whether or not Springer worked would be the following July if and when Springer returned with her family to its summer feeding grounds in Johnstone Strait (many DFO biologists quietly predicted that should would not survive the winter); lastly, even if it were deemed necessary to intervene with Luna, and even if Springer successfully returned to Johnstone Strait, DFO simply did not have the funding to take on such an action.

Contact With Humans

Word began to leak out about the lone orca in Nootka Sound. Tourists arrived in droves at Gold River, a nearby town on Vancouver Island. It was at this time that Luna began to show an interest in boats and humans, started to cause disturbances, and in some cases actually caused damage to vessels and a float plane. He also ended up with some minor injuries, notably a visible propeller strike from getting too close to a boat. Some people were fined for disturbing the whale.

Now under increasing public pressure to act, DFO agreed to provide a small amount of funding for the Luna Stewardship Project, founded by former DFO biologist Mark Pakenham and calling private individuals to monitor Luna in Nootka Sound and keep people away from the orca. However, just days after DFO cut its funding to the Luna Stewardship Project, it was reported that a contractor hired by DFO to monitor the crisis had been seen beating the orca at the Gold River dock. Clearly, interactions between humans and boats and this increasingly social and fast-growing male orca were becoming dangerous. It quickly dispelled DFO's argument that Luna was thriving and safe where he was.

Also in July 2003, DFO's second argument for inaction was rendered moot—researchers confirmed that Springer not only had returned to Johnstone Strait with her family after about nine months in the open ocean, but by all indications she was now thriving as a wild whale. The experiment looked like it worked.

KOMO 4 News (ABC Seattle) reported that "Springer's apparent success also gives some orca groups ammunition to seek a second attempt. Luna, a lone male orca, continues to frolic with boaters in Vancouver's Nootka Sound. As recently as last May Canadian scientists decided not to interfere and let nature take its course. The Orca Conservancy for one hope that Springer's return proves the same course could be taken with Luna to re-introduce him to his native L-pod.

"'We hope that we give Luna the same chance that we gave Springer,'" explains Michael Harris. 'Let Luna hear his family. If you give these animals a chance to repatriate with other orcas, away from humans, if you give them a choice between humans and orcas, every time they choose other orcas.'"

Springer and her family in the Northern Resident Community appeared to be joining in the chorus to rescue and repatriate Luna to the Southern Residents.

DFO's last argument for not taking action to save Luna—the lack of funds—was also addressed at a press conference at Seattle Aquarium in October 2003 conducted by U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, the Regional Director of NOAA Fisheries, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Navy. Sen. Cantwell et al announced a commitment of "$100,000 USD or more if needed" toward the immediate rescue and repatriation of Luna to Puget Sound and called on the Canadian government to match it. All indications were that DFO would, and that Luna might soon be going home.

As expected, a few days later,the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Robert Thibault, announced that Canada would match the U.S. offer with $135,000 CDN. However, DFO, without consulting its Scientific Advisory Panel, announced that Luna would not be moved until the spring of 2004.

The decision to delay the operation drew a wave of objections from scientists and advocates on both sides of the border, most of which were recommending immediate action—Southern Resident orcas were still present in Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia, Luna's repatriation site, and most importantly, boat traffic in the area was on the wane. Conditions were perfect to for the repatriation attempt. And yet, DFO decided to wait. One scientist on the Advisory Panel reported the federal government had prohibited him from commenting publicly on how best to move Luna.

"Lance Barrett-Lennard, a research scientist at the Vancouver Aquarium, said news last week that the federal government wanted to wait until spring for the move was a surprise. 'That caught us unprepared a little bit – (the panel) was not notified. It was not our recommendation.'"

Luna was relegated to another winter and spring alone in Nootka Sound.

At an Orca Conservancy Conference on Orcas Island, Washington on April 5, 2004, DFO finally unveiled its plan to rescue and repatriate Luna. It would involve two phases -- "Plan A" would be to attempt to employ a DFO boat in leading the orca out of Nootka Sound and into Southern Resident whales expected to appear at least in passing off the mouth of Nootka in May or June. If that proves impossible, then in June DFO would go to "Plan B," the hard capture and translocation of the orca to a repatriation site at Pedder Bay, on the southern end of Vancouver Island, where he would be released to his family.

However, the Canadian government was getting repeated warnings from non-government organizations like Orca Conservancy that opposition was growing among the region's First Nations to the rescue of Luna. The Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation[2] of Nootka Sound were now calling the orca "Tsux'iit," the nickname of their beloved Chief Ambrose Maquinna, who passed away just days before the orca appeared in the Sound. Legend had it that the Chief told his people that when he died, he would return as a wolf or a kukawiin (orca). Many in the band believed that Luna was in fact carrying the soul of their departed Chief. In any event, the Mowachaht/Muchalaht began to voice their objections to DFO and its primary contractor, Vancouver Aquarium, coming into their ancestral waters and removing the whale.

Non-government organizations came out strongly in support of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht, demanding that DFO do a better job consulting First Nations in the matter—as was done successfully with the Namgis First Nation during the Springer effort. Meetings ensued between DFO and Mowachaht/Muchalaht Chief Mike Maquinna, the son of Ambrose, but the impasse continued. Other First Nations bands throughout BC also expressed their support for the Mowachaht/Muchalaht and their opposition to the capture. At this stage, Orca Conservancy initiated an informal mediation between Chief Maquinna and DFO. In April, through an introduction from Namgis Chief Bill Cranmer, the organization sent its Board Member Fred Felleman to Gold River to meet with Chief Maquinna and discuss the crisis. The Mowachaht/Muchalaht reiterated their position, but gave its assurance that it would not block efforts to reunite Luna with his family via Plan A, the boat-follow option. As summer approached, the band actually began providing material support to what was now being called "the soft introduction" of the orca to its natal pod.

By May 2004, DFO and Vancouver Aquarium, assisted by NGOs, were initiating Plan A. The first step was to train Luna to follow the designated DFO boat, hopefully out of Nootka Sound and, if and when the time came, into the path of passing Southern Resident orcas. DFO agents reported that the whale responded positively to the training, and video shot by KING 5 News (NBC Seattle) proved that the whale was following the boat well outside the entrance to Nootka Sound, a critical threshold if the team needed to intercept a passing wild group. NGOs began establishing a sightings network along the remote west coast of Vancouver Island, utilizing existing land-based spotters as well as sophisticated underwater microphones, or hydrophones, sourced by Orca Conservancy and American Cetacean Society/Puget Sound [3] and operated by Keith Wood of Anon.org at Yuquot (Friendly Cove). The coast was also monitored periodically by volunteer pilots looking for whales.

Hopes for the boat-follow rose notably in mid-May 2004 when some of Luna's family were sighted off Strawberry Island, BC, on the west side of Vancouver Island but still some 100 kilometers south of Nootka Sound. The pod never came closer. In late May, researchers confirmed that the rest of the Southern Resident Community of orcas had in fact taken the route along the east coast of Vancouver Island, eliminating any chance of a natural reunion. By June, DFO began preparations for Plan B.

"With the recent sightings of Luna's pod in the Juan de Fuca Strait, we believe the chances of a natural reunification in the Nootka Sound area have been exhausted," said Marilyn Joyce, Regional Director, DFO Canada.

"It was like finding a needle in a haystack," conceded Michael Harris, President of Orca Conservancy. "And it's tempting, because there's still L-Pod off the coast, so it's still tempting to say, 'Hey, we can do this,' but you know, they gave it the best chance they can give it, and it just didn't work out."

At this time, Orca Conservancy's Michael Harris was invited by Chief Mike Maquinna to his house in Gold River to discuss the crisis. Harris proposed a unique mediation—a First Nations-assigned monitor and a photographer, both of which would be given unfettered access to the operation at all time. The NGOs, led by Orca Conservancy, and the U.S. Congressional delegation supporting and helping to fund the Luna effort would stand with the Mowachaht/Muchalaht as it crafted a Demand Letter to DFO. The Mowachaht/Muchalaht would assign the monitor (a position later given to veteran Ha-Shilth-Sa reporter David Wiwchar) and Orca Conservancy would provide the band a veteran network photojournalist (Kevin Ely) on the first critical capture day. Should the First Nations deem the operation is going forward in a manner that's disrespectful to Tsux'iit, they would have two (non-violent) ways of putting a stop to it—through the print pieces published by Wiwchar, and more immediately, the compelling video that the band's photographer would be able to distribute to media satellite trucks covering the story at Gold River. It was clear to everyone that public pressure was the primary reason DFO was finally intervening on behalf of Luna; public pressure, presumably, could also put a stop to it. The Demand Letter was written by Chief Maquinna and sent to DFO Canada and its counterparts in the U.S., and after significant pressure on the U.S. side, DFO finally assented to the mediation. The capture would go forward.

On June 15, 2004, DFO began trying to lure Luna into a floating pen in order to rehabilitate him and prepare him for translocation. As the operation got underway, the Mowachaht/Muchalaht and other First Nations members took to the water in traditional canoes, much like the Namgis did when Springer arrived in their ancestral waters, singing songs to their soon-to-be-translocated visitor, and some believed, their Chief. However, the singing apparently proved too irresistable for the curious orca—at least more so than the DFO capture boat trying to lure him into confinement. The orca approached the First Nations canoes, and the surprised band members began interacting with him. What transpired thereafter is a matter of opinion. Some onlookers believe that the Mowachaht/Muchalaht decided to seize the moment before the eyes of the world's media and make a bold statement about Native sovereignty. Other witnesses believe that Luna simply was compelled to the singing and caressing of the people in the canoes. In any case, what is clear is that the distraction the Mowachaht/Muchalaht created prevented the capture team from luring Luna into confinement, despite repeated attempts by DFO over the next several days.

Some said Luna appeared at this stage to revel in the cat-and-mouse game with federal agents and the Vancouver Aquarium capture team. At times, it became a source of amusement for onlookers. At one point in particular, the orca allowed the capture team to lead him to the opening to the seapen, but then at the last second ducked under the escorting DFO boat, surfaced on its stern and pushed the vessel into the seapen. That was as close as Luna ever came to being captured. In the ensuing days, however, the tug-of-war on Nootka Sound ceased to be comical. In fact, it escalated in dangerous ways, with First Nations members claiming that DFO vessels were taking aggressive actions around their canoes and rocking them in their wake, in waters cold enough to be fatal to anyone falling overboard. Tempers were rising fast and authorities on both sides of the border raised concerns. Finally on June 24, 2004, DFO stood down. Luna once again was left to his own devices in Nootka Sound.

At this time, American science writers Mike Parfit and his wife Suzanne Chisholm would spend much of the next year-and-half in Nootka Sound making a commercial documentary they would later call "Saving Luna." Parfit and Chisholm submitted a formal proposal to DFO to create for the orca a "Human Pod," a team assembled and authorized to provide Luna the company he craves, while keeping him away from risky situations.

"Keeping people away from Luna so he does not get habituated hasn't worked, because Luna won't stay away from people," Chisholm explained to the Victoria Times-Colonist. "We think the only way to keep this highly social animal alive is to give him a human family until his whale family comes to get him."

“Parfit and Chisholm thought a whole new approach was needed to protect Luna from boaters and boaters from Luna," according to OPERATION ORCA: Springer, Luna and the Struggle to Save West Coast Killer Whales. "They proposed the creation of a surrogate family, a 'foster pod,' to which Luna could attach himself. A select group of people, including the Mowachaht/Muchalaht, would be authorized by DFO to associate with Luna, keeping him out of trouble but also teaching him to follow along beside them. Eventually, Parfit hoped, Luna would be encouraged to swim to the outer reaches of Nootka Sound, where he might encounter his own family and be reunited with them. Meanwhile, Parfit had come to believe that Luna craved and needed human contact and that it was wrong to deny it. Luna had a deep emotional impact on people. While knowing not to anthropomorphize the animal, Parfit, Ed Thornburn, the Kakawin Guardians and others who came into regular contact with him could not help feeling that Luna’s insistent interactions with people showed that he was desperately lonely. They were caught in a conundrum. Luna needed to be kept wild, which meant interactions with him had to be kept at a minimum. But he was an intensely social animal. How could that sociability be appeased in the absence of other whales?

“The downside of Parfit’s proposal was that it would further habituate Luna to human interaction and lessen the chance that he might ever reintegrate with his family group. When Parfit’s plan got no official response, he more or less initiated it himself. During the winter of 2005-2006 he and Chisholm began operating their own stewardship program, spending time in their Zodiac watching Luna and from time to time leading him away from troublesome encounters with fish farms or other boats. Where this would have led is anyone’s guess."

By early 2006, Luna's visitors gradually waned. The filmmakers, DFO and the Mowachaht/Muchalaht had neither the resources and/or the inclination to continue braving the winter waters of Nootka Sound to keep company with Luna.

On March 10, 2006, what many warned was inevitable happened—Luna approached a boat he had grown familiar with, the ocean tugboat General Jackson, to engage in playful activity, to which the crew responded accordingly. Underestimating the power of the vessel (tugboats have much more powerful engines than other ships of their size), Luna was quickly pulled into the propeller blades and killed. Because of the nature of his death, Luna's remains could not even be recovered for scientific study.

Luna's death was met with both anger and frustration. Michael Harris of Orca Conservancy, which since 2001 had led the campaign to force the hand of the Canadian government to intervene on behalf of Luna, was particularly outspoken about the loss of Luna. He noted DFO's refusal to adequately fund a First Nations stewardship program in place in Nootka Sound, as well as the agency's failure to enforce laws that should have restricted public access to the orca and prevented commercial filmmakers like Parfit and Chisholm the opportunity to interact with the whale and further acclimate it to humans and boats. Harris also criticized DFO more broadly for its gross negligence throughout the crisis and in the end missing an rare opportunity to rescue and repatriate a critical member of an endangered transboundary population of killer whales—a listing that in the U.S. his organization Petitioned and later won an historic District Court case to achieve.

Moreover, DFO was criticized by many NGOs and orca advocates for its lack of transparency during the crisis, the depth of which was revealed later. Through documents obtained through the Canadian Access to Information Act, it showed that DFO was in frequent communication with Marineland of Canada Inc. regarding the final disposition of the orca, entertaining an ongoing discussion with its President John Holer on the possibility of removing Luna to his aquarium and marine mammal storage facility in Niagara, Ontario—despite overwhelming public opposition on both sides of the border to putting a critical member of an endangered orca population into a captive display facility.

"This is the Katrina of orca advocacy," Harris said. "We saw a perfect storm gathering, and they sat around and did nothing, and now we've got a dead whale! It's incredibly tragic and frustrating."

"Unhappily, for many reasons the entente cordiale that had been established around Springer broke down when the scene shifted to Nootka Sound," write Daniel Frances and Gil Hewlitt in OPERATION ORCA: Springer, Luna and the Struggle to Save West Coast Killer Whales. "The collaborative atmosphere was absent in Luna's case. In its concern for security and secrecy, the Canadian government created an us-and-them atmosphere in which many of the old suspicions resurfaced. The NGOs, again symbolized by (Dr. Paul) Spong, were excluded from the process and became critics instead of partners. First Nations were not adequately consulted and attempts to manage the new provoked an adversarial media. The whole episode collapsed in an embarrassing and very public setback for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

"However, the failure to rescue Luna should not overshadow the fact that efforts to rescue marine mammals at risk in the wild can succeed," Francis and Hewlitt conclude. "Before Springer, there was no reason to think it could be done. Now there is."

Legacy

In 2007, CTV produced a made-for-television film, Luna: Spirit of the Whale, [4] starring Adam Beach, Jason Priestly, Tantoo Cardinal, and Graham Greene. While the film is fictionalized account of Luna's story, it does include many real-life aspects of Luna's story and was filmed on location in Nootka Sound and at Gold River on Vancouver Island.

The song Tsuxiit from Islands' 2006 record Return to the Sea is named after Luna, with footage of Luna taken by Nicholas Thorburn serving as the music video for the song.

Further reading

• Francis, Daniel (2007). Operation Orca: Springer, Luna and the Struggle to Save West Coast Killer Whales. Harbour Publishing. ISBN 1550174266. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• THE LUNA FILE, Orca Conservancy -.
• Luna Stewardship Site
• Photos of Luna - June 2005