Efforts to save orphaned orca calf on Vancouver Island enter 5th day [Video]

The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.

The baby Bigg’s killer whale’s mother suffocated on Saturday morning after getting stranded on a gravel bar in low tide in Little Espinosa Inlet, near the village of Zeballos on northern Vancouver Island.

A heroic community effort to save the mother’s life has now turned to helping the approximately two-year-old calf out to open ocean, where it will hopefully connect with its relatives.

The local Ehattesaht First Nation named the baby kʷiisaḥiʔis, or “Brave Little Hunter.”

“This is a very difficult situation with a high likelihood of not being successful, but that’s not going to stop us,” said Paul Cottrell, marine mammal response team member with Fisheries and Oceans Canada at a media briefing Wednesday.

The rescue effort …