6:06 PM Fri, Mar 10, 2006 | Permalink |
Luna the orca strayed from his pod five years ago and befriended boats off Vancouver Island, but the unnatural friendship ended Friday when a tugboat propeller struck and killed him.
Despite the successful repatriation of Springer, the young orphaned female orca found between West Seattle and Vashon Island, scientists became increasingly divided over whether Luna could successfully rejoin the L pod that lives primarily in U.S. waters.
This debate had raged within the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans and among U.S. and Canadian scientists. As Luna became older, he gravitated toward boats and even people for "social" contact. As the debate dragged on, and young Luna became older and some presumed, less able to reintegrate with his pod, should he have been left to fend for himself? Should someone have stepped in? What do you think?
Obviously, Luna should have been reintergrated with his pod. The Indians should have been educated about the necessity of doing this.
I think if Luna had been put back with his pod, he would be alive today. His pod would have kept him away from boats by meeting his social needs and giving him a role to fulfill in the pod. This should never have been allowed to happen by the decision-makers involved. The loss of any orca is a tragedy and the loss of a young male is especially so. This is like letting a child run in traffic as its playground - is this "nature taking its course?" What were the First Nations people thinking? It is just very sad that this young animal had to die as a result of politics only thinly disguised as having something to do with ancient tradition. Why was this misguided view allowed to supercede reason at the expense of Luna? Why was reunion debated at all after the success with Springer? If your child was missing and found after a few years, would you not recognize him and welcome him back? Of course you would. So would Luna's pod if only given the chance. This was an unnecessary, cruel death - it is inexcusable.
I agree, if everyone was on the same page, Little Luna would be alive today, I am very saddened to hear about this, I couldn't help but feel devastated,Now as said above his pod will never know what it is to have Luna back and vice versa, this is certainly unexcusable!!!!
I am very saddened by this tragedy--and angry, very angry. I will never forgive the "scientists"--especially the Canadian ones--who would not cooperate in rescuing Luna as Springer was. The "attempt" to save him was pathetic. While I am sympathetic to the beliefs of the natives in the area, they did NOT have the right to condemn this beautiful creature to such an ignominius death. Legal action could, and should, have been taken to remedy this problem. I personally feel guilt that I did nothing other than feel bad about this...and now it's too late. We all know that without extreme measures and human assistance, orcas will become extinct. How can we live with that?
Of course Luna could have been saved, but it wouldn't have been at the hand of the officials.
It would have been through the efforts of the Natives.
I am angy at the news reports that say the Natives "lured" Luna away from capture efforts. Luna followed them. They would have saved him. I am also saddened that the efforts at a relationship with "officials" has failed. There is still as much misunderstanding and hate as there was in the days of involuntary boarding schools, and mass murder.
The statement that the natives did not lure Luna away from the relocation attempt is ludicrous, since they knew full well that there banging of oars in the canoe would draw him to them, and then away from rescuers. Since everyone knows by now that orcas crave social interaction, it is inexcusable that the Canadian F&O authorities would both fail to facilitate relocation as well as ban human interaction with the whale. Fault lies primarily with F&O Canada for failure to either relocate Luna or else open the way for U.S. or private interests to get the job done.
The First Nations offered to take Luna home to L-Pod.
They weren't allowed.
If the First Nation really had offered to re-unite Luna with the pod, Why the hell did they lure Luna away from those who were trying to do that very thing??? Sometimes the hypocracy of being "Politcly Corect" is almost overwelming.
It's too bad that Luna could not have been captured. He like to be w/ humans and he would have been a excellent addition to any "Sea World type" lifestyle.
As the sone of a native canadian abo, who lived as a american, My father being Billie TwoWillies, of the Athabascan, said that Luna wanted to be w/ the humans.
Luna was a gift that we were supposed to recognize, but the locals were more interested in a power play then the learning of a beautiful creature that had the desire to be w/ us, humans.
note to local indian nation. There is a racoon on my land who insists that he is a leader of the
upper skagit. How do I get that information to the rest of the natives and aboriginals?
ya-Ta-hay
It is truly heart breaking to lose such an amazing spirit and character as Luna, and disappointing that the efforts to reunite Luna with with the L pod were not pursued to the fullest. What a devastating way to learn the lesson. I hope in the future Luna's experience will be an example to those making the "political" decisions.
I have a niece and nephew living in Pennsylvania that had the opportunity to meet some of the J,K, and L pods on a trip out here to the pacific-northwest in 2004, and we have since given them the gift of adopting L-57 "Faith" from THE WHALE MUSEUM. I encourage anyone whom is moved by the loss of Luna to support his pod and the program! www.whalemuseum.org
Perhaps more efforts on our part will be the answer to preventing any other loss of this magnitude.
While it's certainly true that the many entities involved failed to work together to ensure Luna was returned to his pod, it seems sadly that much of the blame has to fall to First Nations with the Canadian authorities coming in a close second. In attempting to flex their cultural and political muscle, they lost sight of the most important issue. The well being of Luna. Spirits or no spirits, Luna was first and foremost an Orca. A species of Toothed Whales that live in social groups, refered to as Pods. He did not want to be with humans, like all orcas, Luna's survival was dependent on his interaction with the other members of his Pod. Separated from the Pod Luna began to interact with whatever came near him. His only chance for suvival was to be reunited with L-Pod, by the appropriate authorities. Those authorities however allowed cultural sensitivities to override what should have been their primary mission, to get Luna back to his Pod. That should have been everyone's mission.
Luna deserved so much better.Everything possible should have been done to reunite him with his family.He must have been so lonely.I am ashamed I didn't do anything to help.Hopefully this lesson has been learned by many.If there is a next time let us all do everything we can to avoid the same fate as Luna.Write letters or e-mails to your Member of Parliament or Congress.Get your friends to write.Start a petition and get everyone you know to sign it.And don't give up.If you have special training or skills (ie fundraising or lawyer,etc.)volunteer your time or skills or knowledge.This must not be allowed to happen again.Do it in memory of Luna.He deserved our help.Let us all do the right thing.I feel so saddened by his passing.Mike Giffin.
I have been involved in the move to Reunite Luna for about 3 years now. I still can't totally face that he has been killed. It is a tragedy. DFO is mostly responsible. When they finally took the initiative to get him back to his family, they let MMFN push them around and gave up. MMFN DID LURE Luna away. They PETTED him AND FED him candy. If it were me, just your regular white person, DFO would have arrested and fined me and got on with it. MMFN did offer to try to take Luna home but not until AFTER the potlatch -which was just recently held. How can anyone in their right mind think that Luna would have follpwed them in their canoe all the way from Nootka Sound, across open water, for days or months on end, to look around and try to catch up with his pod? This is so ludicrous. Luna attached himself to humans because he had no one else. Orca are very social and stay with their families forever. Luna was a baby when he showed up in Nootka and that became his home. He had no one to be with other than people. He even played with sea lions, transient orca, dogs, boats, logs, piping, whatever he could find that he might get a little attention or affection from. He should have been brought home to his family in one quick, fell swoop. It could have been done if DFO would have pulled their heads into the sunshine. I met some of these DFO officials and, one in particular, should be re-assigned to work with inanimate objects rather than anything that lives and breaths and is in need of compassion. As to captivity, what a treat that would have been for Luna to spend the rest of his life endlessly swimming in circles in a tank with nothing but cement walls. Boy, if we were lucky, he could perform tricks for us too.
I be 90% of seattle residents believe this is a waste of a blog and not "real news".
Everything has really been said but I will nonetheless add my two cents worth. While I empathize with all First Nations people, the responsibility for Luna's tragic end must fall squarely on their shoulders even though this beautiful creature became a pawn between the natives and a somewhat feeble Federal Government department. A lesson learned I hope even at the expense of one of the planet's most gorgeous creatures. Let them always swim wild and not in theme parks!!!
The fact that Luna became more dependent upon human contact is proof that wild animals should remain just that. It is evident there could be no positive outcome from this, yet no one in a position to make the right decision did so. It's yet another story of a being, whether it be human or otherwise, falling through the cracks due to an increasing lack of action by those who should be protecting those who cannot protect themselves. Hopefully, something will be taken from this tragedy, so that history will not repeat itself. As for the moron who chose to remain anonymous while proclaiming it wasn't "real news", I pray to God you don't procreate and raise yet another narrow-minded, ill-informed idiot such as yourself.
Had plans to reintegrate L98 been started early enough, the chances of success would have been quite high. The science for this type of rescue had been estabished with A73 very recently, and Luna was an excellent candidate for another such rescue. The big loss with his death was in the additional loss of genetic material for the southern resident orcas - L98 represented a relatively 'unpolluted' orca, who, when mature, could have helped to father new calves in a population that is still diminishing. I think the fact that all parties involved did not act cooperatively and immediately to rescue L98 represents a sad state of affairs - evidence that, in this case, 'politics' are more important than true, cooperative conservation efforts.
Just a note to tell all you northwesterners that it is a treat for us to return after several months in the SW deserts of Arizona and California. We noted all the rain you had this past winter. Believe me, we missed it there in the southland. We are native Puget Sounders and are glad to be back in spite of the unseasonable weather. This is truly god's country.
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