| Subject: It looked pretty sick... |
Author:
Kathyrn
|
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Date Posted: 15:46:07 06/15/02 Sat
Author Host/IP: 209.240.222.131
In reply to:
The Veeckster
's message, "Orphaned orca whale captured in Puget Sound!@$#%$$!!! :)" on 19:34:53 06/13/02 Thu
>I hope the little orca gets a clean bill of health and
>gets to see her family! :)
>
>Orphaned orca whale captured in Puget Sound
>Experts hope to reunite her with her family
>June 13, 2002 Posted: 5:57 PM EDT (2157 GMT)
>
>
>
>A juvenile orca whale approaches a boat during a
>practice run to rescue her in the waters off Seattle
>on Wednesday.
>
>
>OFF VASHON ISLAND, Washington (AP) -- Divers captured
>a 2,000-pound orphaned orca in Puget Sound on
>Thursday, beginning a weekslong effort to reunite the
>young whale with her family.
>
>The lost killer whale, originally from a pod in
>Canada, has been alone since January off the north end
>of this island, southwest of Seattle.
>
>Her eagerness for company had convinced scientists
>that she could not safely remain in Puget Sound, where
>she could be injured by a propeller or inadvertently
>damage a small boat.
>
>The 11-foot-long orca was guided by snorkelers and
>rescue boats into a sling and then hoisted by crane
>onto a 65-foot boat. A thick foam pad was placed on
>the boat's deck for the whale and ice was on hand to
>keep her cool as temperatures neared 90 degrees. She
>offered no resistance.
>
>The effort was overseen by the National Marine
>Fisheries Service, which planned to temporarily hold
>the orca in a 1,000-square-foot pen at its Kitsap
>Peninsula research station west of Seattle.
>
>The orca will be treated -- she is known to have worms
>and an itchy skin condition -- before being taken
>north for release near Canada's Vancouver Island.
>
>There, she was to be held in a netted-off cove until
>her family, known as A-pod, returns in late June or
>early July. The whale, estimated to be about two years
>old, apparently became separated from them after her
>mother died last year.
>
>The young whale's plight has captured the imagination
>of residents in Puget Sound, where the orca has long
>been a cherished icon. Local newspapers and TV
>stations have showered her with front-page attention.
>
>NMFS Regional Administrator Bob Lohn said the reunion
>effort is expected to cost at least $200,000. Animal
>rights activists announced a fund-raising campaign
>Wednesday, saying the rescue could cost up to
>$500,000.
>
>Orcas, often called killer whales, are a species of
>dolphin. The number of whales in Washington state's
>three resident pods has dropped from 98 in 1995 to 78
>today. The government is to decide this summer whether
>to list the orcas as an endangered species.
>
>Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights
>reserved. This material may not be published,
>broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
-----------------------------------------
I am sure they will patch her up and get her home with her pod.
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