ORIGINAL STORY POSTED LAST NIGHT:
The famed orca, commonly known as the killer whale, has long captured the imagination of animal lovers the world over. From the whimsy of Free Willy, to the outrage of Japan’s brutal capture of orca pods, and certainly the horror of a trainer’s accidental death by an orca at Florida’s Sea World, this majestic beast (in truth, a dolphin, though the largest of the species) has inspired both terror and fascination.
Still on the endangered list in some parts of the world (a status currently being argued in Washington State’s Puget Sound), the survival and well-being of the killer whale is important to many from the perspective of wildlife and marine preservation. Which is why the news of a family pod of twelve killer whales (some stories say the number is eleven) trapped in the rapidly closing ice of the eastern top of the Hudson Bay in Quebec, a death sentence for the group, has created such an outpouring of concern.
CBC News covered the story:
Twelve orcas were spotted at the breathing hole at the eastern top of Hudson Bay by an Inukjuak hunter Tuesday. The federal government is sending a team of experts tomorrow to evaluate whether they can be saved.UPDATE ON THIS STORY: As of this morning, a shift in the winds and an opening in the ice created a passageway for the trapped whales. As of 8:00 AM Quebec time, they were well on their way.
Earlier Wednesday, Peter Inukpuk, mayor of the small Inuit village, called on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to send out an icebreaker to help the whales.
He conjectured that the pod, consisting of two adults and a number of younger whales, could be a single family. He said it’s clear that the whales are in trouble.
“It appears from time to time that they panic,” said Inukpuk. “Other times they are gone for a long time, probably looking for another open space, which they are not able to find.”
Two scouts sent to check on the killer whales around 8 a.m. local time found a passage of water had been created in Hudson Bay all of the way to the open sea – nearly 25 miles away — and the ice hole that the animals had been trapped in was empty, said Petah Inukpuk, mayor of Inukjuak, an Inuit village home to 1,800, in Quebec.recurring incidents will graduate to larger scale instead of whales people in unimaginable circumstances do to global warming, but half of the ov't refuses to except it IMOthey believe but to admit would bring on "REGULATION" they would rather opt for tragedy then lose a dollar by keeping the earth safe. despicable them.
“They are free. They are no longer here. When there is a new moon, the water current is activated. It could have helped … completely trap them, but in this case it caused an open passage out to the open water,” he told NBC News, adding that they probably freed themselves overnight. “It was mother nature that helped them. … They are no longer icelocked.” [Source]
