Springer, the orca calf that got separated from her pod in Puget Sound earlier this spring and who was captured for rehabilitation on June 13, is going back to her family this week with the help of a boat from South Whidbey.
On Friday, whale rehabilitators from the National Marine Fisheries Service will take Springer out of her pen near Bainbridge Island and load her aboard the Catalina Jet, a high-speed catamaran owned by Freeland’s Nichols Brothers Boat Builders. From there, it will be a 10-hour, 300-mile trip to where Springer’s family pod is currently swimming, just off the coast of north Vancouver Island.
When asked this week to donate the use of the boat to this, the first-ever effort by humans to reunite a lost orca calf with its pod, Nichols Brothers owner Matt Nichols said he was happy to help. He said the 144-foot, 40-knot Catalina Jet is the perfect craft for the job — something someone associated with the whale rescue figured out when they decided to take Springer home.
“Somebody told them about our boat,” he said.
That somebody was Bob McLaughlin, a member of Project Sea Wolf, an organization that tracks orca pods and that assisted in rescuing Springer. Past associations with Nichols convinced him the company would have the boat to do the job. As luck would have it, Nichols Brothers had a catamaran in stock, for sale and, in this case, available for a fast cruise north.
McLaughlin said the catamaran will provide the smoothest, fastest ride possible for the whale and is far superior to using an aircraft.
“If we’d had to design a boat for this, we would have designed it just like (the Catalina Jet),” McLaughlin said. “It’s incredible.”
The Catalina Jet will leave Langley about 4:30 a.m. Friday for a one-hour cruise to Manchester on Bainbridge Island. There, it will pick up Springer and head north at the best speed possible.
While on board, the whale will float in a 15-foot-long tank filled about 36 inches deep with water. McLaughlin said Canadian organizations tracking Springer’s pod will direct the Catalina Jet and crew to a nearby drop-off point once they get close to the family group.
Nichols said state and national media will be covering the trip and Springer’s return to her pod. That’s fine with him, because he still has a boat to sell.
“It’s going to be exposure like you wouldn’t believe,” he said.
Nichols and his grandchildren will take the trip along with the federal whale experts.
Those involved with Springer’s rescue, like McLaughlin, expect the orca calf to re-enter her pod and mature into a healthy whale. Springer was a curiosity in Puget Sound for more than a month this spring when she made regular close passes to ferries and other boats in the Sound.
