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CNN Live Today

Interview with Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard

Aired July 17, 2002 - 11:24   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: An orphaned killer whale is tagging along with family members after her release back into native waters. The 2-year-old orca was found a month ago, wandering alone in Puget Sound. She was captured because of concerns about her health and her safety, and on Sunday, she was set free in the waters off British Columbia. Whale experts say that so far, she's doing fine.

Let's check it out right now. Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard is a whale expert with the Vancouver Aquarium, which is involved in this rescue, and he joins us by phone now from a boat that has been following the orca on her return to freedom. What's the latest word now?

DR. LANCE BARRETT-LENNARD, WHALE EXPERT: Good morning. Yes, this morning A73, as we know her, or Springer, is out in Blackfish Sound, not too far from where I am speaking to you from right now. And she is by herself. She has been spending some time with her family pod, and some time on her own. I this the fact that -- that she's mixed in with the pod from time to time is obviously good news from our point of view. We would love to see her reattached permanently, but the glue takes a long time to set in killer whale society, I think.

HARRIS: Is that right? How does that work?

BARRETT-LENNARD: Well, killer whale pods are incredibly stable. Nobody ever leaves. You are born into your pod, you live in your pod, you die in your pod, and neither males nor females.

So you would think they would be inbred, but they are not because mating occurs between pods. Pods join up, mating occurs, everybody goes home again. But that means that membership or entry into a pod is certainly not a trivial thing.

This little whale has been out for a long time. We are not sure if they even recognize her as a former pod member, and if they don't, it could be very time consuming and difficult for her to get back in. If they do recognize her as a member, but she is not quite right, or she doesn't have the stamina to keep up with them, and she likely -- there's a good chance that eventually she will be able to work her way back in. All bets are off right now.

HARRIS: Could that stamina issue be a problem, since she was pretty much caged in, or left in small area, and not able to get out swim and really work herself into good shape?

BARRETT-LENNARD: Sure it could. When she was captured, she was in very poor condition, had very little stamina. Her stamina improved in captivity, but she didn't have much exercise, because, as you say, it was a pen situation, and so now that she is back in the wild, she is covering a lot of ground, swimming more and more quickly, but she has got to work up that strength.

HARRIS: Is there a belief that her mom is still in that pod? And if so, would her mother be the first to recognize her?

BARRETT-LENNARD: No, her mother, we believe is dead. We suspect that that has something to do with how she became isolated in the first place. Her grandmother is still alive, however, and as in killer whale societies, the grandmother plays a very important role, and that grandmother hasn't -- she and another small part of the group have been out of the area for the last few days, since just before the release. We expect them -- in fact, there are rumors that they came back into the area yesterday, and if those turn out to be true, then she will likely encounter her grandmother in the next day or two, and I think that might be informative, might be helpful.

HARRIS: Now, is Springer able to go out and fend for herself in getting food and everything too, in case this pod doesn't really take her in and bring her in, and include her in all -- I guess, the whale games and all that or whatever?

BARRETT-LENNARD: Yes, if she sort of lives out her life, or lives out the next few months as kind of a solitary whale that is not really part of a pod, we think that she should be fine for food. She was feeding herself in Puget Sound, maybe not entirely adequately, but nonetheless, she was catching a lot of fish. There are a lot more fish up here. In fact, it's a very good season for salmon this year, and she chased fish actively, and caught them, and she seems to be foraging out there right now. So, we're not particularly worried about the food issue.

HARRIS: How about her communications with the pod? I know you have been monitoring them, and that has got to be a good sign that they are at least -- there is some squeaking and some chattering going on there.

BARRETT-LENNARD: Yes. She is definitely talking back and forth to the pod, if you like. She -- when she -- when the pod comes into acoustic range, she gets very excited, she heads towards them. She calls quite actively. We are listening to her calls, and she still uses -- and I think a very fortunate thing that it works in her favor -- she still uses the so-called dialect, or the set of calls that are characteristic of her pod. So even though she was isolated for so long, she didn't forget those calls.

HARRIS: That's amazing. They have a dialect. You can actually tell where they come from, then.

BARRETT-LENNARD: Yes. You can listen to them, and if you are familiar with that sort of thing, you can identify the pod that they came from based on the set of calls that they use.

HARRIS: Let me ask you this, finally. I am trying to imagine in my head what happens here. So when she is away from them, she signals out to them, and then she what -- swims toward them? Do they accept her or do they swim away from her or what?

BARRETT-LENNARD: Well, so far we've seen sort of both reactions. We've seen them -- each time that that has happened, they have been curious about her. On one occasion they let her approach quite closely, and then turned and slowly swam away from her, as if they very confused. On another occasion, when she called, they let her join right in with them, and they all swam to the famous rubbing beaches here in Johnston Strait, and -- it is a very social activity, and rubbed on these smooth stones on the gravel beaches. And on that occasion, she seemed to be let right back into the group. One thing that we are concerned about is that she still shows a strong attraction towards boats. She developed this bad habit in Puget Sound of approaching small fishing boats, or sport fishing boats, really. And...

HARRIS: That could be dangerous, couldn't it?

BARRETT-LENNARD: It could be dangerous, and she has done that a couple of times here. So all the boaters in area are asked to stay well back from her, and they seem to be doing that, by and large. That's a behavior that we hope changes soon.

HARRIS: This is fascinating. Lance Barrett-Lennard, we thank you very much for your time this morning. You would think this sounds like just a little fun project to take a fish out -- or take a mammal out swimming, and just having fun with it, and watching it play with its family, but that's really serious work that you're doing out there, and very interesting. No doubt you are going to learn a lot. Good luck. We are going to be watching to see how every thing turns out for Springer.

BARRETT-LENNARD: Thank you very much.

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