07/16/2002

The Associated Press

ROBSON BIGHT, British Columbia - A day after being released in her native waters, an orphan killer whale who spent six months dodging ferries near Seattle went to the beach with her family.

The 2-year-old whale, dubbed A-73 for her birth order in her family group, visited a favorite killer whale "rubbing beach" here Monday evening with a group of about a half dozen members of A-clan, said Lance Barrett-Lennard, a Vancouver Aquarium whale expert who is monitoring her.

"It's a good start," Barrett-Lennard said.

AP/Vancouver Aquarium, Sandra Stone Members of the U.S. care team hold A-73, the orca nicknamed Springer, as they prepare to release her into Dong Chong Bay at Hanson Island, British Columbia, Sunday.

Earlier Monday, the young whale had been seen swimming a quarter-mile to a half-mile behind a group of A-clan whales, and she was seen swimming alone in the early afternoon before showing up with the beach party group.

A-73 did not appear to be bonding with any particular female, said Graeme Ellis of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Whale experts say that would be an ideal alliance for the little whale, who missed months of education when she wandered south last year after her mother's death.

She was captured near Seattle on June 13 when her health worsened and her increasingly chummy behavior around boats raised safety concerns. She was pronounced in perfect health after treatment by U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service scientists and a group of private caretakers. Last Saturday, she was transported about 350 miles by high-speed catamaran ferry to Hanson Island near here.

A group of A-clan whales answered her cries Sunday and entered the small bay where she'd been penned for less than 24 hours. She was released and swam out into the waters off Vancouver Island's northeast coast, not joining the other whales but staying within vocal range.

Barrett-Lennard and Ellis tracked her Monday in a motorboat, using the last of three transmitters attached with suction cups before her release.

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But this was only her second day of freedom. There are weeks of summer ahead here as orcas gather to feed along what Barrett-Lennard calls the "salmon highway."

Ellis and Barrett-Lennard eventually pulled their vessel back to chat with a reporter and others aboard a commercial whale-watching boat. They moved away because A-73 had fallen behind her group and seemed drawn to their engine noise - a habit she picked up in her solitary travels.

AP/Cheryl Hatch Veterinarian Pete Schroeder, left, watches the orca, Springer, spyhop after she's released into her new temporary pen near her native waters at Dong Chong Bay near Telegraph Cove, Canada, Saturday.

When all her transmitters have fallen off, Canada has a monitoring network of government staff, area residents and other volunteers along the hundreds of miles of coastline on both sides of Vancouver Island and all along the Inside Passage that separates the island from the mainland.

Killer whales, actually a kind of dolphin, are found in all the world's oceans. The inland resident populations of British Columbia and Washington state feed mostly on salmon, while transient coastal populations eat marine mammals.

The resident groups are struggling now with dwindling salmon runs, increasing human encroachment and pollution.