News Releases

We’re back on the water again, after a temporary setback. Our trusty little red Zodiac, Patches, suffered a foot-long gash in early July, while tied up at the Gold River dock. (You can sometimes see a photo of Patches tied up at the dock with Luna beside it on the Reuniteluna.com homepage -- that photo was taken by Ryan the first time we met him and Kelly in Gold River in May, 2004)

Zodiacs are great for zipping around Nootka Sound, and especially good for tying up on the rocky shores here, but they don’t do so well when they can’t hold air. So Patches is in the repair shop, getting yet another one of its namesakes. We never did find out exactly what happened to Patches but it was most likely accidental. The Gold River docks are enormously crowded, and it was probably inevitable that another boat would run into it. It’s like a game of paper, rock and scissors; but when you’ve got the rubber boat and everyone else is bashing around in aluminum, you don’t win often. We’ll use the Mowachaht/ Muchalaht boat launch ramp from now on.

We’re now cruising around in a slightly bigger, much older black Zodiac, which we’ve christened Blackfish. Blackfish gives us a smoother ride through the rough afternoon chop of Nootka Sound, and has plenty of room for our cameras, fuel tanks, peanut butter sandwiches and golden retrievers.

On Wednesday morning we headed out in Blackfish to the Mowachaht/ Muchalaht First Nations monitoring point, which is a land-based observation station near Luna’s home territory. Jamie James and his crew were hard at work, keeping their eyes peeled through spotting scopes, watching for anyone who would stop in Luna’s territory. There were literally dozens of sportfishing boats -- “sporties” -- which blasted through. Virtually all of them ignored Luna, who was busy foraging. Once, when one appeared to slow down, Jamie and one of his crew hopped into their vessel, the Wi-hut-suh-nup, and raced over toward the boat. But the boat had vanished. Maybe they saw Wi-hut-suh-nup coming to intercept them, maybe they weren’t actually stopping in Luna’s territory to try to play with Luna. But there’s no question that the First Nations presence out there is a huge deterrent to anyone stopping to mess with Luna.

Jamie and his crew expect to spend much of the summer out there, keeping their eyes open and their boat ready to intervene. We are approaching the busiest time of year here -- there are literally hundreds of sporties out there, enjoying the beauty of Nootka Sound -- so it’s a relief to know that Luna has plenty of friends here who are looking out for his safety.

Despite this, we worry a lot about Luna -- we hear ugly rumours up and down the sound about someone planning to poison him. One sporty we talked to yesterday said, “It was fun when Luna first got here, but it's no fun now. Someone’s going to shoot that whale!” We certainly hope this guy was wrong, and we told him that, but he’s convinced it’s going to happen. The idea of Luna getting shot is not news here; many people have been speculating about such an outcome for years. One guy said the same thing last year to a woman who works on Nootka Sound, except that he vowed to do it himself. “I’m gonna shoot that whale!” he told her. She replied, “If you do, you’ll be next.”

There are people who are frustrated with the possibility of having a Luna encounter, and upset by the idea that sometimes it might be a little bit inconvenient to have him here. But on the bright side, many -- in fact, probably most -- people we talk to understand that we humans are in Luna’s territory, and we have to be aware of that, and respectful that this is his home. One American visitor whose sailboat was recently damaged accepted responsibility. “I guess it is my fault for coming here,” he told us. “I should have known better.”