Orphan Orca, Saving Springer Documentary

funding for this program was provided by the national oceanic and atmospheric administration providing forecasts and research into weather and climate-related events and acting as steward for america's coastal and marine resources [Music] orphan orca saving springer january 14 2002 begins like any other work day in seattle washington commuters hurry on their way the streets are congested and the ferry plows its daily course across puget sound [Music] but today an unexpected guest joins the morning rush [Music] first spotted by a tugboat captain a baby orca whale swims dangerously close to the bastion island ferry [Music] it is alone dodging boats in one of the country's most crowded waterways the orca whale population in the northwest is declining scientists fear that this baby orca may become another casualty the baby orca appears on the evening news and becomes an instant celebrity soon people in the seattle area and all over the world are wondering who is this wayward baby and where is its mother a dead adult female orca washes up on the beach in dungeness washington could she be the baby orca's mother noaa the national oceanic and atmospheric administration is responsible for whales under the marine mammal protection act the stranding team gathers samples to determine the cause of death and tries to identify the orca three distinct populations of orcas inhabit the waters of the pacific northwest offshore orcas eat fish and hunt in a range extending from queen charlotte island to thousands of miles offshore transient orcas hunt marine mammals such as seals and otters and range as far as the outer edge of the continental shelf resident orcas follow runs of migrating fish into defined coastal areas individual whales can be identified by unique markings on the dorsal fin such as nicks and scars and the pigmentation of the gray saddle patch at the base of the fin the shape of the fin helps researchers distinguish between offshore transient and resident orcas an offshore orcas fin is rounded but has a sharp angle at the rear corner a transient orca's dorsal fin is pointed a resident orcas dorsal fin is continuously rounded [Music] the dungeness whale is identified as a transient the baby orca eats salmon which suggests it may be a resident orca the dead female is not the baby's mother resident orga whales live in small family groups called pods at the heart of the orca pod is the mother whale a mother and her children even her adult sons stay together as a family all their lives the mother whale passes the traditions and habits of the family along to her offspring those mature lines form the structure of all resident orca pods [Music] the pods join together to form extended clans and communities resident orcas are organized into two distinct communities southern resident orcas feed in the waters off the southern half of vancouver island and into puget sound the northern resident community travels between frederick sound alaska and the inland passage of vancouver island in puget sound ken balcom from the center for whale research interacts with the small whale compares the baby's dorsal fin and markings to photographs of the resident community and determines its sex the baby is a female in the northwest we have photo id efforts taking pictures of every whale from almost date of birth through their growth phase to maturity we share our pictures with each other keep track of every whale and when we see one missing and it turns up somewhere else everybody is excited and notifies each other it's a comprehensive study that's going on from here to alaska the baby's age sex and eye patch markings suggest that the little orca may belong to the northern resident community of wales each summer the northern resident community returns to vancouver island's inland passage following the salmon the orcas congregate at johnstone strait from orca lab a small research station on hanson island marine biologists use underwater microphones to monitor and record orca vocalizations each of the family groups possesses a dialect that's unique to that particular family group socially all of these groups relate to one another they know each other really well but they retain their own dialects these dialects are reflective of a very long period of social stability they may very well be part of the glue that keeps the community together using recordings of her squeaks squeals and other vocalizations orca lab confirms that the baby girl belongs to a group in the northern resident community called a4 pod the a4 pod uses 12 discrete calls other killer whales don't the young orca is a two-year-old female a73 the number indicates her birth order in the canadian a pod her nickname is springer springer and her mother sutledge a45 had not returned with their pod the previous summer so orca lab was concerned that both had died springer's mother is presumed dead and 300 miles separates puget sound and johnstone strait where the northern resident community will soon arrive to feed on the migrating salmon without human intervention it's doubtful that springer will ever be able to find her way home noah must make a decision about springer soon some activists want to leave her alone and let nature take its course they say her capture could kill her or result in a lifetime of captivity others argue that unless the whale is captured and her medical needs addressed she will die a slow and lonely death in puget sound orca organizations want the whale returned to her pod in canada but canadian maritime officials will not accept her unless she's healthy enough to return to the wild [Music] bob lawn of noah holds a press conference to announce the agency's decision human hazards for the orca continue to grow in fact just this morning we observed her becoming far too familiar with the fairy rubbing up against it looking for signs of human contact with that in mind we expect to affect a rescue of the orca on thursday or friday of this week depending on several factors the factors include first of all the direct results of the rescue team observations noah brings in jeff foster and his team of specialists to help plan springer's rescue it was kind of unusual to see a solitary animal and so we begin we began to watch her at that time it was very apparent that her she did have a skin problem and she had a very strong smell to her to her blows we did some analysis and we we found that she had what's called ketosis ketosis can be an indication of starvation and that raises the team's concern team members rub the baby's tail fluke with a soft rope they want her to become accustomed to the sensation so she won't panic when they use it to control her during the rescue we're just kind of trying to keep her interest in the boat and uh you can see that she's responding very well to the uh the interaction her skin it must be very itchy for her and and she sure likes the sensation of being able to rub her down but with the decent work that we're doing right now and the conditioning we just want to make sure that we can get our tail stock up so that we can so we can easily slide the loop around her tail [Music] the best chance to reunite springer with her pod is in summer while the whales feed in johnstone strait by early fall the pod will migrate into deeper waters the noaa team decides to transport the baby to its manchester facility in puget sound for medical evaluation and care we're at the beginning of many decision points our plans for now are limited to the rescue the transportation to the facility out here to medical assessment and treatment for a 73 the day before the rescue attempt a noaa crew tows a 40 by 40 foot net pen out into puget sound capturing springer in a net pen will lessen the stress on the sick baby the team can use the net pen only in calm weather conditions strong currents or high winds might tangle springer in the nets and she could drown the day of the trial run is mild springer rubs herself against the stick the team has used to get her accustomed to their presence it would have been pretty easy to put a tail line on her but we want to test the different methods and again we want to do it as safely and humanely as possible for the animals restoration of a juvenile orca back to its community has never been tried in this form before and we don't know if it will work there is a chance that the stress or pressure or unforeseen events may result in the loss of life for this organ the june morning of the rescue is calm and warm as the team approaches the rescue site the wind picks up looks like we've got two of the smaller rescue boats and they're right next to each other and they're obviously talking about what the plan is going to be for today we also have the barge with the crane and we also have a noaa enforcement boat there's going to be a lot of pointing and and calling people this way it's going to be difficult there may be some shining we want to keep our our voices down as much as possible we should be able to do that brad once i'm in the water brad is going to be giving the cues off this boat so so key in on him and we'll just uh try to make this go as fast and smoothly as we can the team leaders decide not to use the net pen but the soft tail rope to control the whale [Music] as the rope tightens around her tail fluke springer becomes upset and attempts to dive soothing and calming her the team works to ease the specially made stretcher around her the baby's vocalizations increase she is clearly upset but securely positioned between the two team boats secures the stretcher the crane boat approaches cables and ropes are attached to the stretcher [Music] springer is hoisted out of the water and into the air [Music] she falls silent gently she is lowered onto a piece of foam rubber where the team will keep her skin wet and cool jim mcbain of seaworld a member of the veterinary team begins the examination her condition is a concern she is not a robust killer whale everybody's been hearing about ketosis and ketone smells from her almost since this started and that's one of the things that we want to answer is does she have any actual that would be inherited metabolic abnormalities that would prevent her from being normal blood and urine samples are taken and express mailed to several labs across the country vancouver children's hospital will run springer's urine sample to analyze her metabolic system it's a crucial test if any contagious diseases or inherited health problems are found she will not be released springer makes the short journey to the net pen at the manchester research facility without incident either the catch of the day or the new baby we've adopted however you you take it we have some measurements for you she is right around 11 feet long and weighs a slender 1240 pounds if you ask how she's feeling i think perhaps the best sign was watching her 30 seconds after she was in the pool she swam around anxiously for a moment bumped against one of the divers who scrubbed her side she seemed to take pleasure in it she rolled over and had her tummy scratched so i think she's on the right track springer survives the capture but her future is uncertain will she be healthy enough to return to canada or will she spend the rest of her life in an aquarium tomorrow the veterinary team will continue its work and wait for the lab reports that will determine her fate [Music] springer becomes accustomed to her temporary home as scientists monitor her activity [Music] what's nice about the this monitoring system is it's a remote monitoring system so we can minimize our presence out around the pool side so that she's not getting so accustomed to to people being around because we don't want her to get accustomed to humans any more than she already has when she was out off bash on island within the week the test results are in springer has no serious metabolic problems but she is underweight her skin is in poor condition and she is infected with intestinal parasites salmon injected with antibiotics are sent down a shoot into the pen to treat her skin problem the scientists do not want springer to associate her food with people the biggest challenge right now is to keep her mentally stimulated so we try to do that with various objects in the tank enrichment devices that are natural like kelp and you know water and logs and that kind of thing and just to try to keep her as active and stimulated as we possibly can over the next few weeks springer gains 150 pounds her skin condition dramatically improves after nearly a month she is healthy and ready to go this will be her last night at the manchester facility tomorrow she will begin her 300-mile journey home [Music] [Music] [Music] today is taking her home day 35 years ago i took shamu south to san diego and now i'll be able to pay back take one back to the wild no young orca has ever rejoined its family pod after separation [Music] everyone hopes springer will be the first [Music] the team pulls up the bottom of the net pen and prepares to put the whale on the stretcher and lift her into a transport box on the high-speed catamaran [Music] the cradle is the box it will transport her and she'll be hanging in the stretcher it'll be a lot like a hammock she'll rest very comfortably there and then we'll fill that with water so she'll be neutrally buoyant keep the water circulating throughout the the voyage keep her nice and cool and nice and moist then we'll work our way up north we're monitoring her respirations to see if she's calming down and decreasing her respirations if the increase we want to make sure that it's not because there's too much pressure on our chest once in a while we'll take a look at her eyes maybe move this membranes make sure she's okay this is the first time we've ever done something like this to this extent it's a huge experiment and we hope that it really works out fine once we're up there we don't really know what to expect we're looking for certain groups of animals is our preference and that would be a24 which is her grandmother she's a matriarch in that pod if that isn't an option then we'll try to go to uh a11 group and then those are another group that she's related to since we've changed the pitch to the boat it's uh she's starting to vocalize you know things have just changed now she's so looking around she's trying to see what's going on and i had a good girl after 10 hours the catamaran arrives the non-gheez band of the hanson island first nation waits for springer in dongchong bay the killer whale is integral to their folklore and art to welcome springer home they release 40 salmon into her holding pen vessels crowded with spectators watch as she is transferred to a barge and taken to the net pen as evening falls springer is gently placed inside the pen after all the work expense and anticipation will springer know she is a killer whale and go with her pod will the pod accept her that night several orcas from the a-pod draw near the pen springer and the whales call back and forth to one another under the canadian moonlight [Music] the next morning the a-pod returns to the bay the team attaches a temporary radio transmitter to springer's side the transmitter will track and monitor springer's [Music] it behavior it's being done now finally it's time [Music] as members of the apod come close to the net pen the team pushes springer under the edge of the pen over here at last springer is free in her home [Music] the team is elated springer quickly swims toward her relatives then she turns away keeping her distance from the pod [Music] during the following days scientists use the radio transmitter to track and observe the young whale at first springer keeps her distance swimming near but not joining the pod at times she continues her dangerous habit of approaching boats this is springer we want to try to give her every chance we can at one point scientists look on in amazement as a51 a sixteen-year-old female named modalis rounds springer up and pushes her toward the pod nodalis had lost her first baby two years earlier and seems to adopt springer at the beginning of autumn springer swims up the coast to alaska with her pod she must survive the harsh winter oceans and all the hazards faced by her species because of their position at the top of the food chain killer whales are especially sensitive to changes in the health of the ecosystem eight years ago we began to experience very unusual losses of females in the prime of their life and i think there are five of them now and this is startling and very worrying some researchers fear that orcas are doomed to extinction because they have so few breeding age members left young animals such as springer's mother are vanishing seven of the last eight calves born to springer's immediate family have died [Music] as spring turns to summer millions of salmon begin the return to their rivers of origin in vancouver's inland passageway [Music] as they've done for thousands of years members of the apod returned to johnstone strait there is no sign of springer every day whale watching boats loaded with tourists leave telegraph cove eager to catch a glimpse of humpbacks corpuses and orcas gathering to feed on the returning salmon [Music] no one sees spring [Music] finally on july 9th observers aboard the whale watcher niad explorer spot a small killer whale swimming within a larger pod springer has come home it was uh quite spectacular that um that here was this whale coming back with its family after spending the whole winter who knows where out in the middle of the north pacific back at orca lab staff members confirm that springer is traveling with her great-grandmother sidika a30 and her adopted mother nodalis a51 i'm sure she's a legend she's a living legend already [Music] spring is a remarkable story in lots of ways and it's inspirational too springer shows us that it's possible for an individual orca that's been separated from her or his family group for a period of time to find a place again if we know the social place that an individual fits into we can put her or him back there and give that individual a really good chance of resuming a normal life in springer's story there is hope she could have been left to make her way as best she could in puget sound she could have died from stress during the rescue attempt she could have been released and not joined her pod living the rest of her life as a solitary animal instead she swims free with her family the rescue team and the world learned that one lost and lonely baby could go home [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] funding for this program was provided by the national oceanic and atmospheric administration providing forecasts and research into weather and climate related events and acting as steward for america's coastal and marine resources

Channel: noaa

Views: 483,544

Keywords: whales, fisheries

Id: e7CQ5KuY400

Length: 28min 55sec (1735 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 24 2017