Stranded orca calf swims to freedom after being stuck in B.C. lagoon for more than a month [Video]

For more than a month, a large team of experts carried out a co-ordinated effort on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island, seeking to free a hungry orphan whale calf trapped in a brackish lagoon. The Bigg’s killer whale, named Brave Little Hunter by the local First Nations, evaded every effort to coax her to freedom, proving to be both smart and stubborn.

But early Friday morning, with just a handful of rescuers watching, she chose her own time to brave a shallow, narrow channel to escape the lagoon. Kwiisahi?is (pronounced Kwee-sa-hay-is) in the local Nuu-chah-nulth language, is finally free.

“At 2:30 a.m. during the high tide on a clear and glass-calm, star-filled night, Kwee-sa-hay-is swam past the sandbar her mother passed away on, under the bridge, down Little Espinosa Inlet and onto Esperanza Inlet all on her own,” Chief Simon John, of the Ehattesaht First Nation, announced in a …