It's hardly black and white

Gold River, Canada — A sport fisherman was out on the water in August when a young killer whale suddenly approached his 20-foot craft and began to push against the auxiliary engine. The whale pushed hard enough to break the propeller. The frightened angler gunned his main engine and fled. Back at the dock, the skipper of a gillnet boat reported that he too had come close to the orca, though he had found joy in the encounter.

"He was swimming right alongside the boat all the way in and surfing in the wake." He smiled. "It was pretty neat."

Interactions like these have become common over the last 4 1/2 years in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, ever since a baby orca adopted the waters as its new home. There are some, though, who aren't sure their new resident is a good fit.

"What's exhilarating for some could be terrifying for others," says Bill Shaw of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans. "It's fear of the unknown." Like many who live in the remote inlet town of Gold River, British Columbia, Shaw and other authorities agree that the resident orca, known as Luna, is not being hostile or aggressive, just overly playful.

"Any animal that comes up beside you like this and starts rubbing against your boat and then turns upside down and hangs on with his pectoral fins, you know he's just playing."

Still, at 18 feet in length and weighing more than 3,000 pounds, the sheer bulk of this 6-year-old whale creates the potential for a serious accident.

A handful of anglers are so irate at Luna's disruptive antics that they've threatened to shoot or poison him. An unassuming and affable Shaw says he's been "parachuted in" to defuse the conflict. "The whale is not the problem," Shaw contends, "people are."

To understand just how volatile the situation has become, consider the primary characteristic of the southern resident orcas of Puget Sound, which were given protection just last month under the Endangered Species Act. The largest members of the dolphin family, these killer whales are remarkably social and have developed tightly knit family structures.

According to Department of Fisheries and Oceans marine scientist John Ford, "It seems to be the key feature to their social structure, where dispersal from the natal group is essentially nonexistent." Put simply, these animals follow their mothers throughout their lives, which is roughly the same lifespan as a human's. Scientists are thus baffled by the infant orca that arrived here on its own in July 2001, about 200 miles northwest of his pod's prime territory in the waters off Puget Sound.