Rescuers are working to save an orphaned orca calf stranded in a remote British Columbia lagoon

A team of rescuers are working to save an orca calf that has been stranded for nearly two weeks in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island, off the west coast of Canada.

A team of rescuers are working to save an orca calf that has been stranded for nearly two weeks in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island, off the west coast of Canada. The calf became stranded in the Zeballos lagoon after its mother got trapped on a sand bar in the lagoon’s shallow waters and died on March 23. The mother was pregnant at the time of her death. Officials have been monitoring the calf daily and working to formulate the best plan to relocate the animal and reunite it with its family pod. “We realized that time is not on our side so we now are working on logistics of a rescue operation,” Paul Cottrell with Fisheries and Oceans Canada said on Thursday. Cottrell explained crews have tried multiple methods to get the calf to leave the lagoon on its own, including “acoustic playbacks” – playing the sounds of other orca whales. So far, nothing has worked. Officials initially planned to transport the calf using a helicopter, but have pivoted to using a truck and boat to avoid stressing the animal. They hope to lure the calf into an area where they can move it onto a truck then drive the animal and place it on a boat, which will bring it into a net pod, Ehattesaht First Nation Chief Simon John said.