Luna (L98) was a six-year-old orca, separated from his Southern Resident L Pod family when he was about two years old. Resident orcas usually spend their entire lives with their pod, so Luna’s situation was unique. Luna made his home in Nootka Sound, on the west coast of Vancouver Island in Canada. Luna tragically died on March 10, 2006.
Luna was an incredible little whale. Against all odds, he survived for four years without the guidance of his pod. He spent his time foraging for salmon, playing, and calling for his family. When he needed companionship, he often turned to people or boats. Many people around Nootka Sound looked out for him and tried to keep him safe.
Luna brought thousands of people together from around the world with one common goal: to reunite him with his family. ReuniteLuna.com was created to provide information to the public and to lobby the Canadian government to reunite Luna. The visitors of this site had an impact as the Canadian government planned an attempted reunion, but eventually called it off in June of 2004.
ReuniteLuna.com will focus on ensuring that there is a plan in place that will make certain that a future solitary orca, such as Luna, will be reunited quickly and efficiently. ReuniteLuna joins other NGOs in calling for the establishment of a bi-lateral orca commission that meets regularly and has a mandate that will see an improvement in the habitat of orca whales. ReuniteLuna also calls for a workshop to discuss what went right and what went wrong for Luna, with the aim of developing a plan to ensure that a tragedy such as Luna’s will never happen again.