Scientists say they still don’t know where the young male killer whale rescued from the Dungeness Spit’s inner bay might be swimming.
A small radio transmitter placed near the dorsal fin didn’t work, or fell off, and the orca hasn’t been seen since late Friday.
When last spotted, the five-ton, 22-foot orca was in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, apparently in reasonably good shape, heading west toward the open Pacific at speeds up to 7 or 8 knots.
“Where is it now? Nobody knows, we never did pick up a signal Friday night or Saturday afternoon,” Brian Gorman, National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman, said Sunday.
After three days of efforts, the killer whale was towed by rescuers into the Strait on Friday after swimming lethargically in the bay, despite no apparent health problems, and repeatedly beaching itself near a dead female orca believed to be its mother.
Scientists are making arrangements for more studies on the dead female after a necropsy failed to turn up an apparent cause of death.
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