kʷiisaḥiʔis Needs Us — UPDATE
SHE’S FREE!!!!
(This is me, editing the original story, because she DID it! In the middle of the night, at high tide, following a trail of seal meat, she finally made it out of the lagoon she was trapped in and now she’s away up the inlet.)
— — — — But I’ll leave the original below.
There is a remote inlet on the Pacific side of Canada’s Vancouver Island called Zeballos. It is the home of some of Vancouver Island’s wildest, most untouched country. The narrow inlet travels deeps into the belly of the island and often offers shelter to sealife from the wilder open ocean.
On March 23, 2024 a pregnant mother Orca got stranded in the inlet’s shallow waters and died, leaving her two year old cub, kʷiisaḥiʔis, orphaned at an age too young to survive alone. kʷiisaḥiʔis needs her pod, and her pod is in the open ocean, far away from where her calls can be heard.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/04/19/vancouver-island-orca-calf-rescue-seal-meat/
kʷiisaḥiʔis (pronounced kwee-sa-HAY-is) has been swimming around the inlet where her mother died and refuses to leave, so marine rescue efforts have been engaged to lift her out of the inlet and get her closer to her pod, where they can hear her and come and get her. Her grandmother is nearby as well.
The rescuers have been feeding her, and she’s not losing weight, but she can’t survive here if she stays. At the end of Zeballos inlet is a small First Nations community known as Ehattesaht Nation. They are a warm, loving community who has been heartbroken at the tragedy of both the mother’s death and the baby’s current state.
They have made great sacrifices as a small community, to try to save kʷiisaḥiʔis but the sheer scale of what’s required is a great strain on their humble Nation. They’ve started a GoFundMe to gather the resources for her rescue. It’s a dangerous operation which will require airlifts, trained marine rescuers and, likely, a whole lot of patience and time.
We are a small island up here. There aren’t many of us, and those of us who come here to stay do so for the wild, unviolated nature here. This little creature’s tragedy has captured our hearts in a way few things do. We want to get her to her pod so she can survive.
We love her.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/kiisaiis-brave-little-hunter-baby-orca
Not to make this about me, but I think maybe I am so profoundly affected by her because I, too, lost my mother too young, and I feel her loss keenly. To be motherless is heartbreaking. But kʷiisaḥiʔis also represents hope, and endurance, and the will to overcome her challenges.
I wrote this article because I want the world to know that this little baby lost her mum, and she needs our help to find her family, and I hope you will give to this fundraiser.
kʷiisaḥiʔis means “Brave Little Hunter”.
It’s perfect for her, and I hope you’ll help.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/killer-whale-calf-orphan-rescue-underway-1.7172018
Thank you for reading this.
