Brave Little Hunter, the orphaned orca that escaped a tidal inlet near Zeballos in late April after being trapped there for a month, has not been seen for several weeks.
Social-media posts have reported sightings of lone, smaller orcas, including a report near Sooke. Brave Little Hunter’s family pod of Bigg’s orcas has been spotted in recent weeks as far north as Alaska.
But a spokeswoman for Fisheries and Oceans Canada said there have been no confirmed sightings of the young orca.
“The weather on the west coast of Vancouver Island has been windy and rainy, which means very little visibility for sightings and few vessels on the water,” the federal agency said in a statement Wednesday.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada collaborates with a network of researchers, non-governmental organizations and coastal First Nations who send photos of whale sightings for information and analysis, and to identify orcas.
Fisheries and Oceans’ Marine Mammal Unit went to Esperanza Inlet on May 31 during a break in the bad weather but did not find Brave Little Hunter.
“This is good news,” said Lara Sloan, spokesperson for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “It means she has moved on, possibly with a Bigg’s pod, or is roaming the coast looking to meet up with a pod.
“We won’t know until she is photographed with other whales. This will likely be in the summer, when the weather has improved and dedicated personnel that specialize in whale sightings are out on the water.”
The young killer whale — named by the Ehattesaht First Nation — became the subject of international attention amid efforts to free her from the lagoon where her mother died.
The calf eluded her would-be rescuers and eventually escaped the lagoon on her own by swimming through a narrow channel and into Little Espinosa Inlet.
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