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A 3 kW sonar can deliver 120 dB to a killer whale at 18/28/33/38 kHz at 800 meters range.
Is sonar noise responsible for Luna’s behaviour last year?
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"The fact that we have shown the world, Canada, British Columbia, the United States, DFO, that we can do things without confrontation, is strong and powerful."
Mike Maquinna

Recent Updates/News/Articles and Websites about Luna: page 1 I 2 I 3

Mowachaht/Muchalaht Stewardship Updates:
(Submitted by Roger Dunlop R.P. Bio., Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council)


July 12th, 2005
Great News! Last night we received some good news from the DFO staff working with us on the Mowachaht/Muchalaht Stewardship Program. The DFO Pacific Region has been directed by the Minister to provide funding to Mowachaht/Muchalaht to make the project work. They also wish to develop and sign a Stewardship Agreement for the 2005 Luna Stewardship Project based on the proposal MMFN put forward. We have not been informed of how much funding was allocated by the Minister and how much will be delivered to MMFN to assist the Stewardship Program.

“The Stewardship Program is up and running at the Muchalaht Marine, the Observation Post and oversight patrols. Thank you from Mowachaht/Muchalaht to all those people who wrote letters to the Ministers supporting the 2005 Mowachaht/Muchalaht Luna Stewardship Program.”

July 11, 2005
Jamie James, an NGO representative raising funds for the Luna Stewardship program, and I went to the Observation Post at Hanna Channel and set up our stuff on Saturday. We changed the LunaLive.net batteries, as the poor weather was not providing enough light to keep the batteries charged.

On Saturday, July 9, we did not observe any interactions with Luna. He foraged all day near Anderson Point. One fishfarm boat took off straight across the inlet toward Luna, but when they noticed the Mowachaht/Muchalaht boat moving on a interception course turned back to the Atrevida fish farm and parked.

On Sunday July 10th we observed one sport skiff coming up Zuchiarte and stopping about 100 yards east of where Luna was blowing and diving at the south point blinker at Concepcion Bay. The boat took off without Luna coming to their boat. Luna continued foraging.

We counted traffic rates all morning while keeping an eye on Luna’s position. At one point there were nine sport boats passing by and two low-flying floatplanes overhead at once. Not many people are travelling at moderate speed to reduce noise levels through the Gore Island to Hanna Channel area.

A second interaction developed in the afternoon when the “Guppy-2” with two young male occupants came out of Hanna Channel. They saw Luna blowing at Anderson Point and went straight over to him and stopped. I saw the driver in an orange floater suit bend over and pet the whale through my telescope from the beach. We jumped in the We-hut-sun-nup (We have improved our response time now to about two minutes!) and went over, with a DV camera running, to offer assistance. They had both engines tilted up and Luna was rubbing the Guppy-2. We introduced ourselves, and asked if they needed assistance. They said they “couldn’t get away from this whale.” I instructed them to drop their engine, start up, drive away and Luna would get out of the way. They didn’t get going immediately so I instructed them to try driving away again, and added “without petting the whale this time”. There were very aware of the DV camera in my hand. They put their engine in started up and left. Luna went back to foraging without coming to our boat. The DV tape will be made available to DFO if they want it to follow up with the occupants.

This morning (July 11th) I walked down to the beach when I got up and Luna breached in front of me and then began tail slapping. Luna was on the north side of the channel on the path between Hanna Channel and Gold River. A white Bayliner from Washington with three ~50 year-old males, came out of Hanna Channel running on their kicker engine. They went directly to Luna so I went out to offer assistance in the boat. They claimed they “hadn’t seen the whale” that was rubbing and swimming along with the boat. They said “What whale? We haven’t seen any whales.” Anyhow, their main engine was broken down and two other boats with their party were coming to join them and tow them to Gold River. Luna was pushing the boat and once lifted the running un-guarded kicker up with his head. I picked up Jamie from the beach and we went back where the Bayliner was under tow by his companions. When Luna switched attention to us we slowed to allow the gap between us and the tow in progress to widen to about 300 m before slowly turning and leading him back toward Mooyah for a couple of hundred yards. We sped up to disengage from the whale and Luna went back to foraging immediately at Anderson Point. Later we overtook the boat being towed into Gold River by his traveling companions.

The Observation Post stationed at Luna’s home range area in now manned and running. The response time to interactions with Luna is almost immediate. Luna’s home range will be under surveillance all summer by the MMFN Stewardship Program. Interactions will be documented on video, where possible, and provided to the appropriate authorities if an interaction appears to be deliberate. We also learned another 7.6 m grey Zodiac rigid–hull vessel recently stopped to visit with the whale just before the weekend. I also spoke to a gentlemen visiting a marina who went fishing in Luna’s home range and Luna rubbed on his boat on Thursday or Friday. When I asked if he was running his fishfinder he noted the whale was focused on his transducer until he turned the machine off. This area is not yet closed and people can fish right around Luna. The requested closed area inside should kick in on July 15th will reduce the number of people and traffic in Luna’s home range, the number of people stopping to interact with Luna, and the number of interactions occurring.

Remember, the best thing the boating public can do for Luna is not present yourself as another opportunity for interaction with the whale. Without you there stopping in his home range, or using sonar nearby, there are no boating interactions with the whale.

PS Residents of Yuquot reported a baleen whale, likely a gray whale, had washed ashore in the Beano Creek/Bajo Creek area of outer Nootka Island over the weekend.

July 8, 2005
No interactions with Luna have been reported or observed since the two sport boats fished or stopped in Luna’s home range on June 30 and July 1, 2003. The article in The Province newspaper of July 6th incorrectly reported a first public interaction with Luna in 2005. The two aforementioned interactions make three reported since October, 2004, following an interaction with the first vessel of 2005 earlier in June in Hanna Channel. These interactions with Luna rubbing on boats will only continue if people choose to stop near Luna to satisfy their own curiosity. If people follow the Luna Boating Guidelines (“Guidelines”) it will vastly reduce the interactions that will occur with boats. The Guidelines were developed for the safety of both the public and Luna. We request that boaters transit Luna’s core home range quickly and do not stop to try to see Luna. A telescope is now available at Tuta Marina on Hanna Channel for members of the public who wish to take the walk along the beach to the observation post to view Luna. People can also catch a glimpse of Luna without disturbing him by taking passage from Gold River on Nootka Sound Services coastal freighter, the Uchuck III, on one of its regular trips each week through Nootka Sound.

The Draft 2005 Mowachaht/Muchalaht Luna Stewardship Plan seems to be acceptable to DFO. We have had no further comments on the objectives Mowachaht/Muchalaht presented following our initial discussions and revisions (attached). Mowachaht/Muchalaht and DFO have agreed on the core program objectives. Local staff are working to implement the program. We await final word next week on possible funding assistance from DFO to support the stewardship efforts being undertaken by Mowachaht/ Muchalaht First Nation. MMFN and the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council have provided a significant portion of the budget required through staff time, vessels, equipment and operating expenses taken from other fisheries management programs. Several more groups have come forward to offer support in fundraising for Luna’s necessary stewardship. The most recent budget projection for the program is attached.

The Mowachaht/Muchalaht hosted a coordination workshop with local Fishery Officers and key Mowachaht/Muchalaht staff involved in the stewardship program on July 7, 2005. MMFN and DFO staff that will be on water and providing education materials at the Muchalaht Marina attended the meeting. The staff met at Tsaxana, where people got acquainted and arranged procedures for communications, roles and coordination on the water. MMFN will undertake to implant the 2005 Stewardship Plan. DFO staff will undertake their normal fisheries enforcement duties and will respond to any assistance requests by the public. A Coast Guard SAR crew stationed at Nootka Light will respond to marine emergencies. At the workshop I provided background on the 2004 program review and sonar/fishfinder physics and killer whale hearing. Weekly update and coordination conference calls between key DFO and Mowachaht/ Muchalaht staff have been arranged for Thursdays. DFO kindly provided Observe, Record and Report and public communication training for MMFN staff.

Boundaries for a temporary recreational fishing closure to provide Luna with passage to the outside was discussed with DFO fisheries management staff earlier this week. An area was agreed to take forward that provided for enforceable boundaries. I expect the area closure may be implemented along with the long established terminal finfish closures in Muchalat Inlet that occur on July 15th every year.

An observation post/stewardship base was established earlier this week on a point about 500 m along the beach east of Tuta Marina on Hanna Channel. A trail will be eventually cleared from the marina but until then access from the marina is easiest on foot at low tide. The Mowachaht/Muchalaht stewardship staff will be out at the observation post and on the water henceforth. The 2005 Guidelines will be distributed shortly in Nootka Sound as DFO will be printing the brochures next week. Look for copies in local newspapers in the next few editions. The 2005 Guidelines will be distributed at Muchalaht Marina to all boat traffic from 4 AM to 8 PM every day, and at all other available outlets in Nootka Sound.

July 1, 2005
This weekend, July 1, DFO will have Fishery Officers patrolling Friday and Saturday in Nootka Sound. A Coast Guard SAR Crew is stationed at Nootka Light for the summer. Jamie James and I will be on watch and setting up the Stewardship Observation Post at Tuta Marina on Hanna Channel on Sunday.

Starting with an article run in The Record this week we are directing the public to visit Tuta Marina if they want to view Luna unobtrusively. My spotting scope will be available to visitors to use at the land-based (non-intrusive) observation post. We have the cooperation of the marina
owners, Larry and Shirley Andrews, who are Mowachaht/Muchalaht. We purchased some hand-held scanners yesterday so the crews and visitors to the observation people can hear the underwater sounds on the hydrophones while watching Luna all without disturbance. We are encouraging the public to take the Mowachaht/ Muchalaht Yuquot National Historic Site
interpretive tours via scheduled day-trips on the Uchuck III, and catch a glimpse of Luna along the way. We hope this discourages boat traffic and allows people to see Luna without further risk to the whale.

A joint coordination workshop will be held at Tsaxana, on July 7th to work out details of coordinating two agencies with our stewardship operation. We will focus on roles, coordination, and protocols. Coast Guards role is SAR. DFO patrols fisheries and will respond to calls for
assistance. The Stewardship crews will receive Observe, Record and Report training from our local Fishery Officers. MMFN will be educating the public at their Muchalaht Marina, on the water and Observation Post. Over 90% of recreational boaters in Nootka Sound will pass over the newly widened boat ramp.

DFO is working on boundaries of a requested temporary recreational fishing closure through Zuchiarte Channel as a path to the outside for Luna without noise and boats. We gave four supporting reasons for the closure from advice at the May Luna Stewardship Workshop. MMFN has recommended specific meets and bounds for the area to DFO for the closure to be most effective in meeting the four objectives.

The most important message we learned at the 2004 Luna Stewardship workshop is that Luna will survive longer if there is fulltime pro-active oversight to minimize interaction by the public. MMFN and NTC have committed Jamie's time and my time, and the boats and some
fuel. This funding comes at the expense of the loss of other long term fisheries assessment and monitoring programs. MMFN need additional funds for the education effort, and for three people to fill the two shifts on the water, fuel, and food. My latest budget projection is attached. We
thought the land-based site would also reduce fuel costs but that is offset by extra food costs for staying all week at Tuta Marina & Campground. We are still about S100,000 short. We need the sound equipment (or to borrow it, any volunteers?) for ultrasound monitoring. Any funding you can raise and provide for Luna until he decides to depart would be very helpful.

MMFN put up a 4' X 8' information board at the Muchalaht Marina tonight. We are posting information and have put up the MMFN sonar non-use request signs up. We will be putting up a poster summarizing the 2004 Stewardship Review results and noise findings. Wayne Lord has got the staff at the marina handing out last years Luna Boating Guidelines for the weekend. We await DFOs revisions of the 2005 Guidelines, and our final review, before printing.

An old acquaintance, who is a fund-raiser called me and is going to try to help out collecting donations for Luna Stewardship through a school distributed coupon book. I hope lots of people buy the coupon book from students next fall all over BC. Several other NGOs have offered to help fund raise for Luna including the Centre for Whale Research. Keith Wood of ANON put in a huge effort much at his own expense into the Lunalive.net sound monitoring hydrophone system.

June 21, 2005
We watched Luna for several hours today. We have learned how to visit his territory in our small Zodiac without attracting his interest. With the permission of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation, we travel close to the edges of Nootka Sound, land on the rocks and watch Luna from the shore. This works out pretty well. Although most television footage has concentrated on Luna’s past activities at the Gold River dock and his behaviour near the First Nation canoes last year, most of the time he leads a busy whale life in familiar waters, and doesn’t pay much attention to the people passing by. Over the years he seems to have created a complex and active way of life for himself, which includes frequent periods of foraging, some resting, and occasional periods in which he appears to be playing.

Today we saw him several miles from the Gold River dock. The tide was particularly low this morning, giving us a lot of open rocks to watch from. At first he was simply foraging in a low-key way that gave the impression that he had already feasted, but then, at 8:50 AM, he did three spectacular breaches, one after another. The sun was behind him, and each time as he leaped clear out of the water, he shone.

Then he went back to feeding. His dives ranged in length between 1 and 2.5 minutes. Several boats passed, including two or three slow working boats that he could easily have reached and followed, but he ignored them all. Around 9:30 we saw him resting at the surface next to a big cedar log. After a few minutes of that, he started playing with the log, then got very active with a smaller log nearby -- a skinny log about five or ten feet long -- sometimes pushing it with his nose, sometimes appearing to move it with his pectoral fin, sometimes submerging it with his body, then letting it surface again. Once or twice it looked as if he had turned it upright so it stuck straight up out of the water. We were watching from about a kilometer away through binoculars, so couldn’t quite identify all his behaviours, but it certainly looked like play.

Although there have been several recent reports of other orcas in Nootka Sound, we did not see any of them. (this update submitted by Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit)

June 20, 2005
Jamie James of Mowachaht/Muchalaht called at 4:15 PM today to relay information that the two orcas recently observed with Luna were still in Muchalat Inlet this morning. The two unidentified orcas, one female and a juvenile, were in Kings Passage when the crew arrived at the MMFN shellfish farm. Luna was not with them. Jamie also reported that Ray Williams had just radioed the office to report he had just seen five killer whales. Ray saw them pass Yuquot (Friendly Cove). The whales were last observed headed in the general direction of Zuchiarte Channel. MMFN is distributing camera equipment to the shellfish crew today so they can photograph any orcas they see for identification purposes.

Mowachaht/Muchalaht and Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council staff will be meeting with appointed DFO staff on Friday June 25th to work out the elements of a 2005 stewardship program for Luna and get it underway. Activities necessary to protect Luna during the noisy season in Nootka Sound as well as contingencies will be discussed. This planning session follows agreement on June 16, 2005, between Mowachaht/Muchalaht leaders and senior regional DFO staff to collaborate to assist Luna.

You can contribute directly to the Luna Stewardship Plan by clicking: www.westcoastaquatic.org/helpLuna.htm.

                                                                                        ...updates continued: 1 I 2 I 3

News/Articles about Luna

Nov. 18, 2005: Famous whale's small talk is big news for researchers read
Nov. 3, 2005: Tsux'iit stewards work for less read
Oct. 6, 2005: 'Leave Luna alone' scientific panel said read
Aug 24, 2005: Whale saga continues read
Aug 11, 2005: Tsu'xiit Stewards receive funds read
Jun 30, 2005: Tsu'xiit disables Coast Guard boat read
Jun 29, 2005: 5 Tonne Challenge read
Jun 2, 2005: MMFN announces new guardianship for Tsu'xiit read
Mar 26, 2005: Tsu-xiit speaks to pod read
Oct 21, 2004: DFO backs stewardship guardians read
Oct 21, 2004: A day in the life of Tsu-xiit's stewardship guardians read
Oct10, 2004: Tsu-xiit plays with gillnetters read
Sep 9, 2004: Stewardship Plan in place for Tsu-xiit read
Aug 26, 2004: Mowachaht/Muchalaht work to protect Tsu-xiit read
Aug 19, 2004: A first-hand encounter with Luna in Nootka Sound read
Jul 29, 2004: Gold River supports deal to keep Luna in local waters for summer read
Jul 23, 2004: Luna's third anniversary in Nootka Sound read


Links to websites about Luna

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