Baby orca free after month trapped in Canadian lagoon

An orphan orca calf that has been trapped in a lagoon for more than a month off the coast of British Columbia is finally free.

The orca had been stuck since 23 March after its mother died, sparking a huge rescue effort off Vancouver Island’s west coast.

Repeated efforts to coax or carry her out a narrow path to open water were unsuccessful.

But on Friday, the calf managed to swim out on its own thanks to high tide.

The escape marks a happy ending for the Ehattesaht First Nation, who led the rescue efforts and affectionately named the whale Kwee-sa-hay-is, meaning Brave Little Hunter.

The two-year-old female calf had been stuck in the tidal lagoon after her pregnant mother was stranded and later died on a sandbar. The lagoon is near the coastal village of Zeballos, located on a narrow inlet on Vancouver Island that flows out to the Pacific Ocean.

“Today the community of Zeballos and people everywhere are waking up to some incredible news and what can only be described as pride for the strength this little orca has shown,” said Chief Simon John in a statement on Friday.

Chief John said the orca swam away at 02:30 local time (8:30 BST), “during high tide on a clear and glass-calm, star-filled night”.

The 15-year-old mother’s death was captured on video in March, and repeated attempts to save her at the time were unsuccessful.

For weeks after her mother’s death, the young calf had been unwilling to swim through the narrow channel and under a bridge into open water, prompting a team of First Nations community members and federal marine mammal experts to come together to work on freeing her.

This led to several fruitless rescue missions. In one attempt, rescuers tried to catch the orca and move her using a sling. In another, they tried to communicate with her using recorded whale sounds to convince her to move.

At one point, a violinist from Nanaimo, BC tried to serenade the calf in a bid to entice her to swim away.

Chief John said protective measures are now being put in place to shield the calf from boats or humans in the area.

The focus now, he said, is on reuniting her with her family.

“Every opportunity needs to be afforded to have her back with her family with as little human interaction as possible,” Chief John said.