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Luna, a four-year-old orphaned orca, comes to the surface to say hello as he sprays mist through his blow-hole at Mooyah Bay near Gold River.

A wave of emotion -- from heartache to happiness -- washed over the village of Gold River Friday with news that Luna, the six-year-old killer whale that first visited their docks off Nootka Sound in 2001, was killed in a tragic accident with a large tugboat.

"I'm disappointed like everyone else," Grant Howatt, owner of Air Nootka, said. "It's a shame it came to this. "

Brad Unger, owner of Gold River's Super Valu store, said his customers wore long faces Friday: "Luna became part of the community. He wanted to play, that's all he ever wanted to do."

Known as L-98 to scientists, Tsuxiit to First Nations, and Luna to the public, the killer whale born in 1999, inexplicably left his L-pod in 2001 for Nootka Sound.

Socially starved for attention, the lonely whale hung out at Gold River's boat docks delighting children, locals, and tourists as he rolled, and jumped and splashed. But he also angered boaters whose vessels he thrashed during play.

"He's just a big child -- 6,000 pounds but he was still just a child," Howatt said.

Jerry West, publisher of the Record newspaper in Gold River, reports both support and antagonism toward Luna in the town. "But I think the support outweighs the antagonism."

John Rozek, owner of the Ridge Neighbourhood Pub, on a hillside overlooking the town of Gold River, said everyone with a drink in their hand had a strong opinion about Luna -- love him or hate him.

"I always had the feeling this was going to turn into a tragedy," he said.

Keith Bell, 71, had two recreational boats damaged by Luna. Every time he'd repair a vessel, Luna would wreck it. And when he'd move his boat, Luna would find it.

But it was when Luna nearly killed him and a friend that Bell had had enough.

"I don't think anyone in Gold River is as happy about it as me," Bell said with a laugh. "He wrecked my boat and made it impossible for me and anyone who went out in the inlet."

Bell was in a 14-foot aluminum boat, on his way to retrieve another boat that Luna damaged, when the whale swam up underneath the dinghy and lifted it in the air -- three times.

"It all happened pretty fast and it was pretty scary."

Once back on land, Bell took his charge to the local police station.

"This was attempted murder as far as I was concerned," Bell said. "The RCMP just laughed at me."

Cougars that attack villagers are shot, Bell said.

He didn't see why the killer whale should be treated any differently. Bell didn't care what happened to Luna or how he was taken out of Nootka Sound, he just wanted him gone.

Alberto Girotto, owner of the cargo-passenger boat MV Uchuck III, said Luna became too accustomed to playing with boats and people: "Humans caused the problem as far as I'm concerned and unfortunately his demise has come at the hand of a boat."

However Girotto admits after a while it was impossible to ignore Luna's antics.

"Our crew and staff is pretty attached," he said.

His two-year-old daughter doesn't know the word whale.

"She thinks all whales are Luna."

But if some people thought of Luna as a pet, the Mowachaht/Muchalaht band of Gold River thought of Luna as sacred, embodying the spirit of Chief Ambrose Maquinna, who died at about the time the whale turned up. In June 2004, they lured Luna out of Gold River to foil a plan by scientists to capture and relocate him.

Mowachaht/Muchalaht Chief Mike Maquinna said his community is grieving "a family loss.

There's an attachment to the whale culturally and spiritually."

Unger also believes Luna was home in Gold River: "My personal opinion is if he wanted to leave he would have left. He was happy here and that's why he stayed."

But Girotto said he anticipated Luna would one day grow up and find his family or make his own.

"We were all hoping the whale would become old and mature enough to find a mate outside Nootka Sound."