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American Morning

Orphaned Orca About to Be Reunited With Extended Family

Aired July 12, 2002 - 09:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: This is a story we've been following for a little while here.

An orphaned 2-year-old is about to be reunited with her extended family in Canada. She is a killer, a killer whale, a whale who wandered into Washington's Puget Sound last January.

And Lilian Kim is standing by in Manchester, Washington. She is going to give us the latest on this rescue operation.

Lilian, what's the word out there?

LILLIAN KIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, the latest is, is that this operation is currently in a holding pattern. The catamaran, which will transport the whale back to her home waters off the Canadian coast, is experiencing mechanical problems. Crews will be looking at that boat, and hopefully, it will be fixed by the end of the day.

As for the whale, she's doing quite well. She currently resides in a net pen right behind me. You can't see her, because scientist have put barrier around the net pen, but that's where she is swimming around. She is called A-73, but she's also known as Springer, or BOO, short for Baby Orphaned Orca. She is a young killer whale. She is 2 years old.

First appeared near Seattle in January after being separated from her family around the time of her mother's death. Last month, scientists captured the orca, then moved her to this sea pen to give her medical attention. They took blood test, skin biopsy, a gas analysis and urinalysis, and they were all deemed acceptable, no sign of contagious diseases that would put the Canadian orca population at risk.

Now with her clean bill of health. she is scheduled to embark on a 350-mile journey in hopes of reuniting with her pod of extended family members. The hope is to take her to the northern end of Vancouver Island. That's about 350 miles away, about a 10-hour ride, but as I said earlier, there are mechanical problems on that catamaran, so at this point, the operation on hold.

HARRIS: Here's what I want to know. You said they are going to reunite her with her pod? How they do that? They just take her to a corner somewhere in the ocean and just drop her off, or what? Have they been tracking the family that this orca left behind or what.

KIM: These pods are carefully monitored, and they know that her pod comes to the northern tip of Vancouver Island every summer, and they expect that pod to arrive in that area in a couple days or so. So they will then release her as soon as they see that pod that area. But they know that this is a gamble. There's no guarantee. Scientist said never before have they successfully reintroduced a while to its pod. So this is going to be a very interesting situation, and if they pull it off, this will be history making.

HARRIS: All right, and we'll be watching to see if they do pull it off.

Lilian Kim, thanks. Appreciate it. Take care.

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