06:42 PM PST on Friday, March 10, 2006

From NWCN.com Staff and Wire Reports

GOLD RIVER, British Columbia - Canadian officials believe a killer whale struck and killed by a tugboat off Vancouver Island is Luna.

AP

Luna plays in the waters of Nootka Sound in Yuoquot, B.C. Canada in this June 16, 2004 file photo. Luna was believed by local aboriginal people to be the reincarnation of their late chief.

Luna, known to scientist as L-98, wandered away from the L pod in Washington state waters five years ago and stayed in Nootka Sound. Apparently lonely, it would bump into boats and play in wakes, even letting humans pet him.

The Canadian Fisheries Department says Luna was swimming in Nootka Sound under the 104-foot tugboat today when it was hit by a propeller. A federal fisheries official said the incident was an accident.

"In every case of solitary whales around the world, be it belugas up in St. Lawrence River and other places, they often get tied and get caught in these propellers," said Michael Harris, Orca Conservancy. "In this case, it really was an accident waiting to happen."

In 2002, marine mammal experts had successfully had moved another lone orca, named A-73 or Springer, from Puget Sound back to her home pod in British Columbia, but attempts to move Luna ended in failure.

Despite efforts by American and Canadian officials, an attempt to move Luna back from Canada to U.S. waters in 2004 was thwarted when Indian canoes with the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation lured it away.

The Mowachaht-Muchalaht believed Luna embodies the spirit of their dead chief, Chief Ambrose Maquinna, who had said he would return as a killer whale. Three days after Maquinna's death in 2001, the whale showed up in the sound.

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Luna's overly friendly behavior with humans eventually lead to frustrated boaters around Nootka Sound threatening to dynamite, harpoon or shoot Luna.

Fred Felleman with the Ocean Advocates/Orca Conservancy said Luna's social behavior led it to flirt with danger. He says the death is especially disappointing because of the failed attempt to return Luna to its pod. He faulted Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans poor relations and ineffective communication with the Mowachaht-Muchalaht.

"I'm just really sorry that there was so much bureaucratic inaction and inability to communicate effectively with the Native Americans up there that really has resulted in this tragic event of today," said Felleman.

"All of us are complicit, all of us had something to do with the death of this orca," said Harris. "The bottom line is that we all couldn't get on the same page about doing the right thing, and frankly now we know doing the right thing was putting this orca back into his population."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.