WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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[sil.]

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To me he seems to be on a mission.

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Only he\'s fully aware of what it is.

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He is really persistent and
tries lots and lots of things

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and he\'s extremely charming.

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We do have a problem here,
it\'s a safety issue.

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It just wasn\'t just a whale.
He was brought here

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for some reason.

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That was my greatest honor,
you know, be his friend.

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[music]

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He must have been like a child
getting lost in a supermarket.

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And he\'s just wandering up an aisle,
turned around and his family was gone.

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[music]

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Then, he went looking for them,

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nobody was there.

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[music]

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[sil.] This little whale is special to me.

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He and I came from the same place.
I grew up in Canada

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on the west coast of British Columbia and
he was born in the sea near my home.

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Where I grew up

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everyone loves these orcas.
Scientists know each one by markings.

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So when a little whale was born,
he was given a number, L 98

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and a nickname, Luna.

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My family\'s like most people, we
all scattered as the kids grew up

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but it\'s not like that with orcas. These
big families stay together for life,

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hunting, playing and whistling
through the sea, aunts and uncles,

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brothers, sisters, grandmothers, daughters,
grandsons. Personally this would drive me

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to the brink of insanity, but with
orcas it\'s perfectly natural.

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In these close family\'s

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nobody just gets lost,
but somehow Luna did.

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In the winter these whales travel far.

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People don\'t see them much. So no one
really knows how it happened. But one day

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in a fjord called [4:01]on the
west coast of Vancouver Island,

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about 200 nautical miles from his family
summer home, Luna found himself alone.

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He was less than two years old.

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[music]

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Much later, when scientists came to listen with
hydrophones, they found out that in his solitude,

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Luna called out everyday but
only the deep rocks answered.

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[music]

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One day not long ago,

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journalists Mike Parfait and his wife Suzanne Chisholm
returned to the town of Gold River in Nootka Sound,

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it was the last of many journeys
in the making of this film.

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Years before they\'d come just to
write a short magazine article.

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Now they were coming back to old friends and
familiar places and the story of the lost whale

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to change their lives.

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When they first came here years ago,
they hadn\'t planned to make a film.

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They certainly didn\'t plan to get involved in the story
themselves and they didn\'t plan to break any rules

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but all those things happened and
a lot more that nobody expected.

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And Suzanne and Mike

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and I are here to tell you why.

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This is a place called

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Mooyah Bay. There\'s a logging camp
back there and a kind of a wide spot

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in Nootka Sound up here. And
this is where Luna showed up

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out in this part of Nootka Sound. And it all started
right here just like an old-fashioned adventure story.

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You know, the sea, the ship and journey.

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[music]

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The old freighter called the
Uchuck III travels up and down

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Nootka Sound almost every day, bringing supplies to the logging
camps and the fishing resource scattered along the shores.

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[music]

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One July day,

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Donna Schneider, the ship\'s cook, looked out the
galley door and saw something she\'d remember forever.

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Yeah, we saw him right in
this area here in Mooyah Bay.

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Quite often I look at where he been. I look
back and I could see the swell and awake.

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Oh, my god. So I ran up to Shaun and he saw, I was looking
at that and he goes I… I think it\'s a Pilot whale.

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And then we came back and then we saw.
I said Shaun,

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that\'s not a pilot whale, that\'s an Orca.
So we just sort of sail them by

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and you see him and then you think, well,
we won\'t see him again. It kept showing up,

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kept showing up. And then when we kept seeing
them, we sort of went, something weird here.

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[music]

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Many people hope that someday we\'ll meet
an intelligent being from another world.

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Hollywood tells us the stranger will
come flying down in a spaceship

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and he\'ll look a bit like us.

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Most importantly, they\'ll have a mind like ours and
we\'ll figure out how to communicate right away.

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[music]

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But maybe it won\'t be like that.

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[music]

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Maybe it will be like this.

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[music]

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[sil.]

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[music]

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A few months after Luna was first seen,
he started to pop up and boats and docs

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in Mooyah Bay as if to say hello.
How are you? I\'ve never seen you.

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That whale needs and wants and craves
attention. It was incredibly surreal

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and I remember being amazed that he wanted
to see us as much as we wanted to see him.

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People here responded with a funny
combination of \"Oh\" and disbelief

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and compassion. I think when they saw this
little whale all alone, they recognized

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that he needed something.

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We were coming back on Sunday afternoon, it was in Mooyah Bay and
then he just right up to the boat and he was under the boat and just…

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He just looked so lonely. He\'s just like a little
lost pup and you just… They just broke your heart,

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they\'d have leave him because you know, he\'s
all alone and he just wants that interaction.

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I mean, right off the back, you know, oh, man, this… this
thing isn\'t like a reptile or some. It\'s got emotions.

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I mean, that big guy would look and bring his eye
right there and he\'s looking at you. It wasn\'t like

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a dog sniffing your leg or something.

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He was communicating. He would come up and roll in his side and
look right at you. You know, it\'s not a predator or something.

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That\'s somebody just wanting to… to born.
If you look in his eye, you know,

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there\'s more there than most of my guests.

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Orcas live about as long as humans and Luna was only two.
Scientists weren\'t sure he could survive on his own.

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Such a young killer whale
all by itself ran,

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counter everything. We thought we knew about killer
whales. We thought that… that it would be like

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laying a baby in the forest. He\'s
Mowgli, the jungle boy of… of whales.

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There are times in your life
when you reach a point you say,

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this will be with me till the day I die.

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Fisheries Officer Ed Thorburn was told to keep an eye
on that little whale. Definitely pushing it towards us,

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that\'s for sure. Trying
to get us a way, are you?

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It turned out that Lunar was getting plenty of fish. He
didn\'t seem hungry at all, but he kept coming up to Ed\'s boat

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and doing things like this.

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Well… well, what it\'s saying?

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[sil.]

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So he had this little piece of wood, so
he came and he balance it on his nose.

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And then he just flipping
that back past his blow hole.

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I was thinking he was entertaining himself.
And… and I didn\'t realize it was probably

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something to do with socializing as well.
If he wasn\'t hungry,

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maybe he was just lonely.

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Killer whales have… have social needs that are as strong as
those of humans perhaps… perhaps more so. In fact I think

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I stick my neck out and say they really… they are really are stronger
than humans. I\'m sure you could damage a whale psychologically by,

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you know, by depriving it of contact.

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But Lance was talking about contact with other
whales. This little guy didn\'t have any whales.

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So he apparently decided that if you can\'t be with
the species you are, make friends with the species

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you are with.

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[music]

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I\'d say personality wise, he…
he sort of knew what he wanted.

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He was somehow spunk. He was lively, he was
engaging, he\'s kind of pushy. I would say he was

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sort of an outside the
envelope kind of whale.

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[music]

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I touched him. Now I touched him that much.

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You know, you just… How can you not touch
the whale when he comes over there?

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My granddaughter, one of
my littlest granddaughter,

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I\'m the queen of the whale touchers.

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You know, it was a… it
was a beautiful feeling

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communicating with an animal like that.
Did it scare you?

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Don\'t you bite me.

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Don\'t you bite me.

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[music]

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Now I… Now I touched him
these many times. Yeah.

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[music]

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He was very gentle. Like, he would… You\'d be padding him like
on his… on his nose and stuff and he would just open his,

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and start to open his mouth.
And then I would just

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slowly put my hand and then she
would open his mouth right up.

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His tongue is very raspy.

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My heart just goes like this
when I get close to this…

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[sil.]

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Do you recording this?

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Okay, what was that, Fred?

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He always wished that you could
communicate with wild animals like that.

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And when a wild animal actually
comes and makes contact with you,

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it\'s an amazing thing.

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The first thing that comes into my mind

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when I see all of this, is that, of
course Luna was looking for friends.

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The friendship, that\'s a human idea.

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Scientists call it anthropomorphism,
when we use human ideas like

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friendship to describe animals\' feelings.
And for years,

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they\'ve said that was wrong. That\'s one of
those words that the anthropomorphic police

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would not like to use for a long time,
that sort of friendships in animals.

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But as scientists have learned more about the way
humans and animals experience similar emotions,

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some now use words like
friendship themselves.

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Whales have developed friendships and understanding
how friends interact with each other

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is great stuff. But how should humans
interact with the friendly whale?

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Nobody knew. A lot of
people wanted to find out.

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When news of the whale started to travel,
people, they just got really excited.

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You know, they know we\'d see him. So I\'ve
seen the (inaudible), you see the whale?

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Oh, yeah, I saw him. You know, I do really excited. You
know, everywhere you went, people are talking about Luna.

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Like many residents around
Nootka Sound, Luna went to work

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in the timber industry.

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[music]

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Some of the crews said they ought to get him
goggles and a hard hat, put him on the payroll.

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At Thorburn started calling him Bruno.
I thought, boy, Luna is a…

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That\'s a… It\'s a girls name. So I thought well, here he is
playing with logs. I mean, he\'s pushing 40 footers around.

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But I just (inaudible) Bruno
because it was more appropriate to

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what he was doing and he was a boy and I thought, you
know… Ed got so interested that he did some research.

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Checking about whether this
baby whale was dangerous.

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I mean there have been incidents where killer
whales have been responsible for deaths.

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You know, like in aquariums. But there
is no history of a killer whale

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ever having a nasty experience
purposely with the human in a while.

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He likes us it seems, so we like him.

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Which you can never tell that
with a cougar or a grizzly bear,

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whether they like it or they
want to eat you, you know.

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How often in our lives do we
have a chance to be this close

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to something this phenomenon and share
some space in some time and some moments.

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We humans build a wall in our
minds out of fear and respect

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between ourselves and wild beings.
Luna was breaking it down.

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When he pops up and he looks
at you, and you can see…

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I mean, the… the eyes are
the window to the soul.

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You know, we\'re just escaping sometimes because you just look
at him and he would look at you in the eye and you would be

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mesmerized or something. It look like he\'s
just looking right into you. You know,

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the way that you regard to give in
a… in a fairly studied kind of way

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and in a sort of contemplative way.
You had the feeling that he knew

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what he was doing.

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You know, killer whales, they come in all the time, they come up and they\'ll try to steer away
from you all the time and stuff like that, but for a killer whale to be interested in you…

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They just had a way of getting inside,

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I mean, of my head and my heart.
And it seems like

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my spirit or my soul,
like my skin was dancing.

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[music]

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Suzanne and I first got to
Nootka Sound and started

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watching Luna from the shore. We
had that same feeling of kinship

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even from that distance. But… but why?

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How could an animal so different that you
could almost call him an extraterrestrial,

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have anything in common with human beings.

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But maybe he did. Once we
humans thought animals

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were here just to serve us. Once
philosopher said they had no thoughts.

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But today, while radio astronomers
listen for other voices in space,

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biologists were listening to
other minds here at home.

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Right here on Earth

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there is now evidence that lives we once
barely noticed are both more mysterious

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and more familiar than
we had ever imagined.

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[music]

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Whales have been in the sea

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for 50 million years. Humans have
been on land for as long as we know.

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But both of us built our surviving
by learning to depend on

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family and friends. So
in our separate ways,

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both humans and orcas have learned
the same thing. In solitude,

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we are incomplete, we cannot bear it.

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Many scientists think that this
kind of complex social life

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requires the most intricate
intelligence of all.

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You have to be smart to get along.

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So maybe that\'s why they
seem so strange wonderful.

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Maybe when we humans looked in Luna\'s eyes,

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we saw something we recognized,
the intent, the awareness,

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and the longing of a fully conscious life.

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[music]

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We\'re living in historic times. It\'s just so
powerful, it\'s really a hard thing to explain.

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The intensity of this contact
meant different things

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to different people. At the
mouth of Nootka Sound,

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there\'s a point of land and little cove,
there\'s a light house here and an old church.

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The people who now call themselves

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the Mowachaht/Muchalant First Nations
have lived here for over 4,000 years.

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[music]

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For the Mowachaht/Muchalant people,

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tradition explained what was going on. So there
is supernatural creatures in our belief system,

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aquatic is the wolf

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is our one of our most respected creatures

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on the land. This counterpart
ocean is the Orca,

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he\'s connected with truth the justice.

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The bands old chief Ambrose McQuinny

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died the week Luna showed up. He
had told his friend, Jerry Jack,

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that he\'d come back as an orca.

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\"I\'m 74,\" he said, \"Getting closer
to heaven. He was real happy!

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When I go home, \" he said, \" I\'m
gonna come back as an orca.

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Man, it happened! It happened!

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The First Nation started
calling Luna \"Tsuxiit,\"

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
Ambrose\'s nickname. To them, he didn\'t
just raise questions, he promised answers.

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
To me he seems to be on a mission.

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
Only he\'s fully aware of what it is.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
He just wasn\'t just a whale. He
was brought here for some reason.

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
Tsux\'iit is the

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
wolf of the sea and we hold him
in the highest regard, you know.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
Like, I put my life on the line for his protection.
It\'s just no questions asked, I do it.

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
[music]

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
That summer Luna turned three years old.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
Now there was another intense
reaction to all this content.

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
Some people thought it was wrong.

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
When I heard that Luna was alone
it was kind of like my heart,

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
you know, my heart clunked. You know,
he might come up and bump and…

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
Toni Frohoff is a biologist. Sometimes in
other parts of the world, solitary whales

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
or dolphins tried to make contact with human
beings. Tony studies those rare events.

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
You see in the media a lot of
the, really beautiful aspects,

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
that\'s the light side of it but
there\'s a very, very dark side.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
The dark side is the human side.

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
There\'s always risk of
injury to the people.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
There is always risk of
injury to the whale.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
One of the whales Kathy
kinsmen tried to protect

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
was a little beluga named Echo.

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
Echo played with people in Newfoundland.
But one day

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
he came back to the dock with this.

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
[music]

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
This is one of only a few times Cathy
herself interacted with the whale.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
Veterinarian told her that tension might help support
Echo\'s immune system. So Cathy spent all her daylight hours

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
by Echo\'s side for two
weeks as he tried to heal.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
[music]

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
Echo survived but this kind of pain

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
is tragically common. In the
long-term our research has shown,

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
the more interaction dolphins
and whales have with people,

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
the more likely they are to
suffer injury and death.

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
So it became this huge dilemma on Nootka
Sound for people who cared about Luna.

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
Your natural instinct was to give Luna that attention that he
was looking for, but…but what if it was dangerous for him?

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
What were you supposed to do? At the West Coast
office of the Canadian Department of Ocean,

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
there was a firm answer.
Stay away from him.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
I think that\'s my underlying philosophy
that I tried to get message out everyday

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
when it comes to other marine mammals. I really want nature
to go about its business with the least interference

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
from us really. You\'re… you\'re
being a friend by staying way.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
I felt that he was desperately
lonely and needed this contact.

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
But everything I was told was, it was a
bad thing to. So that\'s where I stood.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
So that summer, a group of organizations
joined to bring a kind of tough love

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
to Nootka Sound, to rebuild the wall between
us and wild beings that Luna was breaking.

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
It was called Stewardship. Hey, guys,

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
it\'s an offense under the Fisheries Act to
touch this whale. Yeah, but you stopped,

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
you know, she came right under the middle of the area.
There\'s been a lot of global attention on this whale.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
It\'s up to $100,000 fine under the
Fisheries Act to disturb the animal.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
The young women were idealistic,
sincere, and determined.

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
Where did you… Please don\'t touch it.
Okay. When I was 21,

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
I would have given anything to have a summer
job like this. Babysitting a whale, awesome.

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
But this wasn\'t fun. They
had to be the bad guys

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
and tell people to stop doing something
incredible. And Luna was absolutely

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
no help at all. Folks, this
is not a watchable whale.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
Okay. I need you to exist the area.
Watching this whale or interrupting

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
with this whale can be shut you $100,000 fine in
the Fisheries Act. This whale is not watchable.

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
Just not stop in this area. Okay. Watching
him can be considered disturbance under

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:40.000
the Fisheries Act. Gradually increase
speed. Get out of here high school.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
In the beginning people
were very receptive.

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
They were very… Oh, okay, thank you very
much and we\'re out of here. Michelle Keeler

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
was one of the stewards. And then it was amazing the amount
of votes, they had engine troubles right in Mooyah Bay.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
It was just amazing.

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
[music]

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
Keith Bell of Gold Rever didn\'t much like being
told what to do. There was two girls on the Zodiac,

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
one was taking video and the other one
was asking questions and I thought I was

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
being checked out by the fisheries. And they
are thinking, where did DFO even find you two.

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
You know, so it was difficult to be taken
seriously. Sometimes Luna made it hard for anyone

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
to take anything very seriously.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
So touching him is 100,000 bucks pop
right now. What? We\'re out here to…

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
to make that happen. Luna,
you\'re not helping.

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
[music]

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
Push Luna.

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
Do you wanna turn off

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
your engine for a moment? Now see if he\'ll
follow me. The Stewards developed a technique

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
for trying to stop Luna\'s interactions,
they called it ditching him.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
I felt really bad actually because we would
umm… Basically we were tricking him. Okay.

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
Take off. If he was along side of a boat and
pushing them around and they couldn\'t get away.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
If we came along side, Luna would come along side our boat, you
know, put fender out of something, entice him to come over.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
We were sort of say, hey, come on, we\'ll play with you, we\'ll
do it. As soon as the other boat was far enough distance

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
than we would ditch him. So the contact wasn\'t
stopped, it was just made inconsistent.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
That must have been pretty
hard on Luna as well. One day,

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
we have all these people around, everything was great
and the next day nothing because we\'d show up.

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
And it would just rip your heart out. I don\'t want to be making
your life miserable but I… I know this isn\'t good for you

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
or at least I think it\'s not because what
do we know. I don\'t know that we know that.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
Maybe you he\'ll just keep
following the tug. I don\'t know.

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
Luna apparently figured out that if the stewards saw him coming,
they dash away, so he developed a more subtle approach,

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
which Suzanne later called stealth whale.

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
No, you know, I don\'t see him.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:23.000
[sil.]

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
I mean he\'s really persistent and tries lots and
lots of things and he\'s extremely charming.

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
I mean you might know what\'s right. And what you
think is right and what you think you\'re gonna do.

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
Here he comes. He likes my bracelet,
sometimes which is kind of…

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
And then you get yourself in that situation with him there and
I think it\'s really tough, I think it\'s asking people too much

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
to restrict themselves because people are dying for that kind
of interaction. Because I\'m not supposed to touch you sweetie.

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
Oh, we\'re on a terrible situation.
It was pretty obvious

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
from the get-go that this was not going to be a sustainable
means of, trying to prevent types of interactions

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
because all we are doing was interacting with
them in order to prevent more interaction.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
As the steward saw more of
Luna in these situations,

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
they came into conflict with themselves.
They were trying to rebuild the wall

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
that Luna had broken, but they
loved him when he came through.

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
You\'re pretty, Luna. Yes,
you are very pretty.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
When you feel like you
have that connection,

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
this is, there\'s nothing else like I\'ve never experienced
anything like it. You know, I love my dogs I love all the animals

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
I\'ve ever had, umm…but this was
different, this was different.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
No-one one how Luna

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
felt this connection but he seemed
to feel something and it was strong.

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
He was all scarred up from prompts and other
sharp things on boats but that didn\'t stop him.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
When the Uchuck was told not to stop
to see him anymore, he adapted.

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
That\'s when he started traveling with us.
Just like, well, you guys are gonna stop,

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
I\'m gonna with you. He started
a sort of commute by awake

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
for 15 nautical miles back and forth from his home waters
of Maurya Bay to a place that was way more entertaining,

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
the Gold River docs.

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:28.000
[music]

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
But if it was fun for Luna, it was not
fun for fisheries Officer Ed Thorburn.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
We had to get it out that… We were serious
about interaction and… and we would,

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
we would deal with it. Well, I was
just… I was just padding him,

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
like padding his nose and stuff. Sandy Bohn was
showing Luna to her mother and father at the Doc.

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
We\'re standing there and I knelt
down came right up to the edge and…

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
and turn sideways looking at me
and so I just started padding him

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
because I knew that\'s what he wanted.
Like he was just sort of floating there

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
and then when I knelt down he just sort
of rolled over and had to look at me.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
[music]

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
And all of a sudden I heard this, you there, get your hands off
that whale and stand up right now. It was a police officer

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
coming to take her away.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
Sandy was charged in court
with disturbing a whale.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
Luna was not called

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
as a witness.

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
After months of worry
about the $100,000 fine,

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
Sandy was slapped with a $100 fine.
Did she regret it?

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:58.000
No, not at all. This is the
best $100 I ever spent.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
Luna was determined and the
tough love was inconsistent.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
[sil.]

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
Now some people wanted to do anything
they could to help him get home.

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
[sil.]

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
So a noted Orca biologist
named Ken Balcomb,

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
who has studied his family for over 30 years
offered to leave Luna back to his pod,

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
with a little less tough
and a little more love.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
It was just this cosmic coincidence and
we were given a million dollars boat

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
and the donor felt that, well, this
would be a really great way to start,

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
you know, the use of the boat, go up and
save that little whale, I\'ll pay for it.

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
Ken\'s idea offered Luna
a bit of companionship

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
and the chance at getting back with his family
and it would cost the government nothing.

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
But at the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans,

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
Maryland Joyce\'s boss turned down the idea

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
because he didn\'t want Luna to
have more contact with people.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
Here, it was like everything
was coming into place

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
and we were given a boat,
a magnificent vessel

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
and money to do it but I was
told that I would be arrested.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
[music]

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
Just tell them to doc as usual.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
Okay, Luna is coming back.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
First minute we got there was mayhem, it was absolutely insane.
That\'s their business, ignore the whale, just ignore him.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
[sil.]

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
It was summer again,

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
Luna was four years old. Another batch of young
women came north to administer tough love.

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
Now it was so tough, you weren\'t
even supposed to look at him.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
You were instructed not to make any contact
with Luna, no, especially eye contact

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
because it\'s just as bad as, as touching him
really. He\'s got something in his mouth.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
Yeah, he\'s carrying a stick.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
When Mike and Suzanne got to Nootka Sound, Luna
found their boat at the dock. They were determined

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
to follow the tough love rules but they saw
how hard it was for both people and Luna.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
Luna kept finding attention one day

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
and then getting the next. And a lot of people along the
Nootka Sound were saying the whole policy was cruel.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
We can\'t undo what\'s done.
This is like God\'s gift

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
and you guys are just blowing it. Yeah. This is
now a lonely animal that\'s looking for comfort.

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
And who made those rules in the first
place and who says they were right?

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
We had come down a couple
times after I had been fined.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
We were watching around the boats, looking
for someone to pay attention to you.

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
It was very upsetting to see him
and I\'m gonna start crying.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
[music]

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:28.000
[sil.]

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
Then, a lot of boredom or
enthusiasm or maybe just chance,

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
Luna started playing with the floodplains.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
It\'s very bad situation.

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
Why don\'t you guys get your boat and lead
him out of here instead of taking pictures?

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
You just gonna wreck that,
worth a bundle of money.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
And that\'s when I became more
insistent that we had to do something

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
because all you needed was something to happen to one
of these planes, somebody get hurt seriously or die

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
and it would probably
stealth a demise of Luna.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
He said do everything in your power to get that animal
off the sea plane. He said, if you have to touch him,

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
do it. Ed said, keep him
safe, he won\'t get shot.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
Now stewards had to do exactly what
they had been told would hurt him,

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
they had to look at him and
they had to play with him.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
[music]

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
We\'ve gotten so used to him,

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
but then at that moment in time, I popped out, I went, whoa,
wait a minute. And I remember thinking, this is so out there.

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
How did it happen that I\'m here

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
nursing a killer whale with the fender and
it\'s looking up at me with direct eye contact?

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
It\'s just wow.

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
[music]

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
Good timing because look
it\'s coming through here.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
You just ignore the flood
plane, you understand?

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
Yeah. You\'d be a good
whale and (inaudible).

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
Good whales don\'t play
with flood planes. Well…

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
Well, I… I broke down,

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
I was… I had tears. I said I\'m leaving. I
can\'t do it. I can\'t do this. I can be here

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
and be a part of this and
then watch this animal die.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
Tough love wasn\'t working.
Being friendly was illegal.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
So now there was a different idea.

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:58.000
[music]

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
Luna\'s apparent loneliness
captured hearts everywhere,

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
from this near-by school to other nations.
Now many people demanded

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
that Luna be caught and carried South, in the hope
that his family would find him and take him back.

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
New stories about this campaign
were seen in many countries.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
Luna seems to be perfectly normal, healthy… One of the
leaders of this effort lived in the Canadian prairies,

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
long way from the sea.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
We have a river running through Saskatoon
that\'s about as, as wide as a street.

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
You know, so we don\'t have any whales there. But he started
a website that quickly registered over 10,000 people.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
All over the world, people
from… from England,

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
from Japan, Africa, you know, every
continent that people put effort

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
into reuniting Luna and that was
the moonshot for these people.

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
That was for them sending a rocket to the moon. If we can get
Luna back to his pod, that\'s what they set out to accomplish.

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
Senators from both Canada and
the United States got involved

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
and the US offered $100,000 to
help pay for a reunion attempt.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
At first the department said
no and people got angry.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
Certainly there is a tremendous amount
of political pressure. You know,

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
people would write me because
I just want to spit on you.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
Apparently the pressure worked. Suddenly
the department changed its mind.

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
Oh, man, Luna is gonna be reunited. This
is gonna be the greatest thing ever.

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
Luna\'s days in Nootka Sound are numbered. The Department
of Fisheries and Oceans says the four-year-old orca

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
is now a danger to himself and to people.
As I said we really

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
did hope that Luna could just go on his way
without us interfering with him. Who knows what

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
he has on his mind but anyway we\'re
making decisions for him, you know.

00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:03.000
[music]

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
The decision was made. Next spring,
the department will capture Luna,

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
put him on a truck, drive over 200 miles
and turn him loose near his family.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
There were cheers in public

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
but there was trouble behind the scenes.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
The department\'s own scientists weren\'t
sure Luna\'s family would accept him.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
Most of us are not, we\'re not convinced that it would be successful. Some
people have a blind faith, that there\'s absolutely no question it\'ll work.

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
But a lot of us who actually know these animals in
great detail from studying them in an aquarium,

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
setting, studying him in the
wild, we\'re not so certain.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
What would happen if the
reunion didn\'t work?

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
[music]

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
Marine parks have taught a lot of
people about the amazing intelligence

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
and beauty of orcas. (inaudible) ambassadors
for their species and it is our responsibility

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
to not only provide them with the best care. So
many of the people who know orcas in the wild,

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
this looks like a prison.

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
But very quietly, the department made detailed
arrangements to send Luna to an aquarium

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
if a reunion attempt was made and didn\'t work
right away. Due diligence demands that okay if…

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
We do take this whale down to highly populated
area where there\'s hundreds of times more boats,

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
more potential problems for people and the
whale, what are we gonna do about it?

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
And that was the reason behind
discussing captivity options.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
That was their bottom line.
There were gonna sell him

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
to an aquarium. The department didn\'t
say much about the captivity option,

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
but rumors flew like sparks in the wind to Nootka
Sound and set a fire among the First Nations.

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
I mean, that was totally
disrespectful for the First Nations.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
If you want to capture a whale and throw him
in a cage or something, it\'s like no way.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
But now there\'s a new unexpected opposition.
Certainly it has a lot of cultural and…

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
Now Chief Mike McQuinny, Ambrose\'s son, started
telling the press Luna shouldn\'t be moved at all.

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
Myself and our people of our
nations would prefer that uh…

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
nature take it\'s course. Uh… Meaning
that, the whale need to be left alone.

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
The department spent the
winter making capture plans

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
and trying to maintain the
wall between species.

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
Friendship with that whale would have been the worst thing
that you could have done to him. And even if he\'s, you know,

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
frustrated, disappointed, whatever those
feelings a whale might have. I don\'t think

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
Luna was really into frustration
and disappointment.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
So he took us 3,000 pounds of muscle and charm and went
to the slow boats, where they\'d known them for years.

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
Where we catch up to the boat and then
go right to the front, right to the back

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
and he put his tail up on the… There\'s some teeth
on the front of the boat. I mean, just lay there

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
and he\'d fall off and he\'d back up and flip over and
get his tail in there again, it\'s just hilarious.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
It was time for Nootka
Sound to say goodbye,

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
an unexpected guest had come,
he had needed something.

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
People loved him but didn\'t agree on how to
show it. It couldn\'t even agree on who he was.

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
Was he a problem or a spirit?
Or he\'s just a lonely kid?

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
I think that Luna

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
has a very special situation and he\'s
impacting people in a really brand way.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:48.000
[music]

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
It was spring, the Department
brought people, money,

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
intention to Nootka Sound. And suddenly,
Luna started getting where he wanted.

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
He hung out with the crew that
was building the net pen,

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
and Ed Thorburn was told to train him with play
because the last game would end in the net.

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
When we get the net pen in place, what we\'re
gonna try and do is, have him follow me

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
into the net pen, close the gate.
But you know,

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
that\'s a lot of credibility I\'m gonna lose with the
animal too. Yeah, I feel guilty now and I have done it.

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
[music]

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
People have been asking us the question of,
\"Are we going to intervene on capture?\"

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
I can\'t really answer that at this time.

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
But the anxiety level is up. Most
people didn\'t think this little band

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
could stop the Department. Ed Thorburn didn\'t
think that even try. My own personal belief is,

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
they won\'t interfere but they
won\'t assist. And Suzanne

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
and I came down to the dock one night, two days before the
capture was scheduled and here are two canoes out on the water.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
Luna was with them, so was Ed
Thorburn, that was a surprise.

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
But we guessed that he made a deal with them
to let them sink to Luna and say goodbye.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:18.000
[music]

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
That night a researcher who\'d been listening
for months recorded these underwater calls.

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
So I remember thinking like this is new. I just
remember, they were different, they were like,

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
it\'s more… Yeah, it was more
like he was singing himself.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
[sil.]

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
The Capture Team gathered over 150 strong.
The press was here,

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
Marilyn Joyce was here, the
project manager was here.

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
We\'re getting pretty close right now. DFO given the
go-ahead to do the capture at this point. So right now

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
I\'m…I\'m not too anxious. But
as the capture day approach,

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
the Department got more and more secretive. Now
all of Nootka Sound was suspicious that Luna

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
might not be going home at all. There
is just too many unanswered questions

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
and everyone kind of knew that once
it went into net, it was gone too,

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
well, SeaWorld or another
form of captivity.

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
So I think even people that want to minded that, just got put off, then
the government was lying to them and…and… and treat people like morons.

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
The time came,

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
it was the 16th of June, almost three years
since Luna showed up in Nootka Sound.

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
Dozens of journalists came to Gold River.

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
Most of them planned to be here just one day, everyone
expected that Luna would be in the pen by nightfall.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
They were right.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
The Mowachaht/Muchalant people took the only
weapons they had, belief, canoes and song

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
and went back out on the water.
They hadn\'t been saying goodbye.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
They\'ve been saying hello. The number one
priority was just to keep him away from the pen.

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
Somewhere along the line,
it dawned on us said,

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
\"My god we\'re fighting for his freedom.\" Like we\'re
fighting for… The time it seemed like for his very life.

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
To everyone\'s astonishment,

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
including the paddlers themselves,
Luna followed them 30 nautical miles

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
from the pen but something
else happened that day.

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
As the canoes went through Luna\'s familiar home
territory of Mooyah Bay, suddenly Luna started jumping

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
and splashing. In all these miles,
this was the only place he did this.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
Orcas often flap the water
to communicate but…

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
but what was she trying to say?
Orcas probably

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
don\'t use anything like what we think of as
language, but he was doing all kinds of things

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
to try to get through to us. You know, we were all kind
of wrapped up in a story about wild life management

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
and ancient traditions, but… but maybe Luna\'s idea
about what was going on was entirely different

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
and he was shouting at us to pay attention.

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
After that when ever he slapped the
water I wondered, what are we missing?

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
The first-day we knew we were in trouble.

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
So that\'s when we decided okay, this
is now a totally different story.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
Early the next morning, Ed Thorburn went far
from the pen and started bringing Luna back

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
but the canoes got in the way.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
We ask you not to interfere
with this operation.

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
They strike me as being very
ready for action, these boys.

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
I uh… keep in the middle. The
press called it a \"Tug a Whale,\"

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
but maybe Luna was more like life in a pod.
Only ever seem

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
to want from us was contact. Now every day
was full of people who sang and played

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
and looked him in the eye. People
here thought this was a fight

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
but maybe Luna thought he\'d already won.

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
You must take your vessel
100 meters out of this area

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
or you will be charged… The
story Mike and Suzanne

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:45.000
had thought would be simple
to cover, it wasn\'t.

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
Ed was barking and everyone
to keep a distance as if

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
he was the one in charge, on
paper he was, on the water,

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:08.000
he was a bigger guy.

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
On the morning of June 22nd,
after a full week of this,

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
Luna chose Ed and the canoe fell behind.
But then,

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
this most social whales decided
to play Bruno in the logs

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
and the canoe caught up. Ed got him out of a logs but
then Luna had to say hello to a prawn fishing boat

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
and the canoe came singing along.

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
That was impressive. I mean we really

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
were impressed by their… their determination
and that\'s when it was solidified to me

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
that they weren\'t going to go away.

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
They paddled on and on into the growing wind, and
ancient people trying to make a modern legend

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
to see his spirit with a little whale.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:08.000
[music]

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
But Ed wasn\'t going to go away either.
Beyond an island

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
he lured Luna back to play and the canoes
couldn\'t catch up. Two hours later,

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
Mike and Suzanne climbed a hill to capture
pen just in time to watch Ed lead Luna

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
into the pen. My chest and my
heart, everything was really heavy.

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
I started to cry because I
thought, oh, my God I\'m…

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
To me it was like holy cow. You know,
this is… this is actually gonna work.

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
But this was odd. The gate of
the pen wasn\'t yet clothes.

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
I was willing to kill somebody,
I was… I was so furious,

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
it was unbelievable. I know it was a source of
frustration I think for Ed and the DFO crews

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
and everybody\'s like, what, you got him and
you got to pull on that. It was like, no,

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
we\'re not gonna pull it unless we\'re really set, we\'re going to get
him. He was so baffling. They had been trying so hard for days

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
to catch him and all of a sudden here he is in the pen and
we were sure that they would close the gate but then,

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
suddenly like a Hollywood movie, we hear these
canoes in the distance, all were singing and…

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
and Luna must have heard them too because all of a sudden he
slips out of the pen and… and swims off to be with his friends.

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
It was a loom flotilla.

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
But then Ed went out and Luna went over
to say hi, and then out of the flotilla

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
came a little tin boat
driven by a guy named Rode

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
and it turned into another little tug of whale.
Suzanne and I were still up on that hill,

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
all caught up in this political fight. Which I
guess shows you how easy it is to get accustomed

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
to even the most extraordinary thing.

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
I mean there are political
fights everywhere

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
but where else in the world with a little
wild whale by his own choice take all day

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
and make all this effort and swim,
I don\'t know 50 nautical miles

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
just to spend his time with human beings.

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:18.000
[music]

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
Two days later, the department gave up.

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
[music]

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
All of you, we did it.

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
We went to see it with some water
junk food and baloney sandwiches.

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
[music]

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
I was really disappointed. I was really relieved.
We are a prog nation. A sense of relief.

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
It was unbelievable, it was great. Our grandfathers are
smiling at us today. It was like kind of disbelief.

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
But also a sense of what\'s next. I would have
been in those canoes. We didn\'t get to done.

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
I was so proud of them. And it was a tremendously
emotional moment. Sophie is still free ho-hoo.

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
There\'s no way that we comprise
our position in anyway.

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
And out position is,

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
let nature take it\'s course and
leave Tsux\'iit alone. Yeah.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
That was exactly what happened.

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
Luna was left alone.

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
Now that the human flight was over,
the canoes were taken off the water.

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
Ed no longer went out to play.
And you could feel that feeling,

00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
like, you know, you could just feel.
He must have,

00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
what did I do wrong? How
come everybody hates me?

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
Mike and Suzanne were still here.
We just, we just couldn\'t leave.

00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
The big trouble on that Nootka Sound ended for
the press, that apartment, the First Nations,

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
but not for Luna.

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
With so many of his friends gone, Luna
started making more contact with people

00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
who were definitely not his friends.
Keith Bell sail boated him and douched,

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
and when Luna him in a skiff, Keith called
the police. If you\'re going to get the RCMP

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
into any action at all, you\'ve got to lay a
charge of some kind, and I wanted to lay a charge

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:29.999
of attempted murder on the whale. Well, this is the…
this is the tiller of the boat and he broke this uh…

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
Whale charged with attempted murder.
The press couldn\'t resist.

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
Even in a paper in Montreal and then came
back to Gold River on the Chicago News.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
But the RCMP said, unfortunately
they couldn\'t prosecute Luna

00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.999
because they didn\'t have jurisdiction. He said,
well, that… that whale doesn\'t belong to us,

00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.999
anyway it\'s an American whale.

00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:59.999
Keith was not amused. I wanted the RCMP

00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.999
to get involved in it because it\'s a cooker in our
backyard, they would come and shot the cooker.

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.999
This was the sort of thing that
made some people want to kill Luna.

00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.999
If you drop the kicker Motor often
enough, the bracket would break

00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.999
and the motor would be gone.

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
I think most people are afraid
of things you don\'t understand.

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.999
So they treat it like a rat and shoot it.
To here the amount of people

00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:34.999
that were willing to go shoot it themselves
just because they bump their kicker bracket or,

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:39.999
you know, says something I\'m not
sure what it says but it\'s not good.

00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:48.000
[sil.]

00:58:55.000 --> 00:58:59.999
And then, the Department told the first nations to run
another one of those tough love stewardship programs

00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:04.999
that didn\'t work. Jamie James,

00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:09.999
who was the fisheries manager for the
First Nations had a different idea.

00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:14.999
I thought it was

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:19.999
kind of my responsibility to ensure that, you know,
go see him and say, you know, you\'re safe here.

00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:24.999
You\'d see a friendly face
sort of thing, you know.

00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:29.999
The strong, the bond that me and Luna had,
I think I owed it to him and, you know,

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:34.999
let him know I\'m still here.

00:59:35.000 --> 00:59:39.999
[music]

00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.999
Jamie just ignored the
wall between species.

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:49.999
Luna would come up and play,
then he\'d go off and go fishing,

00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:54.999
then he\'d come back. No
pressure, no ditching.

00:59:55.000 --> 00:59:59.999
[music]

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.999
I was out there in Nootka
Sound for about a week

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:09.999
filming Jamie with Luna.
All this time we had been

01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:14.999
told that this kind of relationship with Luna
was wrong, but this just seemed natural.

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:19.999
[music]

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:24.999
During the short time that fall
when Jamie was being his friend,

01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.999
Luna got into no trouble at all.

01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:38.000
[music]

01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.999
You know, Luna was a pretty strong
character. He learned to survive on his own.

01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.999
He did all himself. He fed himself,
you know, he did everything he could.

01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:54.999
So I mean, really I didn\'t do too
much other than be his friend.

01:00:55.000 --> 01:00:59.999
That was my… my greatest honor
was being able to do that.

01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:04.999
But the Department told him to stop.

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:09.999
[music]

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:14.999
That next summer, Luna turned six years old

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
and things got worse. People knew it couldn\'t
go on this way, something would happen.

01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
Would it be shot or hit by a prop?
Would he accidentally spill a kayak

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
into the cold water and bring tragedy
to the people he so wanted to befriend?

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
The department knew the risks were
growing but it did nothing new.

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:43.000
[music]

01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:54.999
Then one day, a First Nations
community came through Mooyah Bay.

01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:59.999
Mike and Suzanne sat back and watched the most simple
but mysterious thing at the heart of the story.

01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:04.999
The young whale making human friends.

01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.999
[music]

01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:14.999
The First Nations though he was supernatural
and… and we didn\'t, but the reality was

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
we all knew we were trying to learn something
here that…that none of us understood.

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
There\'s a lot of lessons

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
to be gleamed from the soul adventure.

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
And people have to just take it for
what it\'s worth. It\'s gonna be…

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:39.999
It\'s gonna be different for each one.

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.999
That day, when the peddlers
tried to go to shore,

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:49.999
Luna didn\'t seem to want them to leave.
Again and again

01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.999
he turned the bow away from the beach. Finally
the peddlers got a toe and they left him.

01:02:55.000 --> 01:03:03.000
[music]

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:14.999
One day a man named Alan Dunham,

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:19.999
was crossing a passage and Luna tried
to keep him from going ashore too.

01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:24.999
When I saw this I thought this will
be the excuse. If he spills this guy,

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:29.999
that Thorburn will be here tomorrow with
cops and nets and guns. But Alan was calm

01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:34.999
and Jamie was nearby, so was Mike.

01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:39.999
They gathered around Alan.

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.999
Luna looked as if he was just

01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:49.999
waiting to see what this
meeting was all about.

01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:54.999
Then Jamie and Luna turn this moment
away from disasters so easily.

01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:59.999
Jamie looked in his eye

01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:04.999
and Luna rested at peace and safe.

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
[music]

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
But the department still had no plan for Luna
except to wait and let danger come again.

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:23.000
[sil.]

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
[music]

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
One day during this difficult summer,
Mike was it the log sort in Mooyah Bay

01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
watching Luna play Bruno in the logs.

01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
And then, stealth whale came to visit.

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
So Mike zipped over to the doc
hoping Luna would go back

01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
to being Bruno.

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
No luck.

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
[music]

01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
Finally Suzanne and Mike pulled the boat
all the way out of the water and left Luna

01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
waiting for them to come back.
It was just a momentary thing

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
but suddenly I\'d had
enough of ditching him.

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
So I broke the rules. I looked at him.

01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:34.999
And I felt kind of Vertigo, it was like

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.999
looking over a cliff into time.

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.999
And I thought, millions of years these whales
have been in the sea and people have only started

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.999
getting to know them in the last few
generations. Millions of years apart

01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:54.999
and we made it doc in Mooyah Bay and we look
at each other and we recognize something.

01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:59.999
This isn\'t casual stuff, I thought
this isn\'t insignificant.

01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.999
I don\'t know what it is, but
it\'s not insignificant.

01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
I looked at him. I look at that awareness,

01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
it looked back at me and I thought, we\'ve treated you
with inconsistency. We\'ve treated you with distain,

01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
but still you trust us.

01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:24.999
How in the world I thought will
we ever be forgiven by life,

01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.999
by nature, by ourselves if we suffer

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.999
just because you\'re
trying to be our friend?

01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:43.000
[music]

01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:49.999
You know, journalists are never supposed to get involved in
the stories or trying to cover or try to change the outcome,

01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:54.999
but for us it felt unethical
not to do something.

01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:59.999
Here we were, where we supposed to just
stand by and…and not help this whale?

01:07:00.000 --> 01:07:04.999
So we took a deep breath
and we took a stand.

01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:09.999
We started saying that maybe
what Jamie had done was right.

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:14.999
Suzanne and Mike asked the Department for a permit
to work with Jamie, scientists and the public

01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.999
to keep Luna safe by having boats
always near him, like a pod

01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:24.999
and by giving him consistent careful
interaction when he needed it.

01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:29.999
We just thought that

01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:34.999
if you could, if you could give Luna
friendship at boats, who were safe.

01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:39.999
He might not go looking for
that boats that were dangerous.

01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.999
They sent their request to the
department and the press.

01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:49.999
They brought in a boat Mike could sleep on, Suzanne
stayed on land to argue for their proposal.

01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:54.999
Mike went off to watch Luna and to wait for an answer. You know,
we couldn\'t really do anything until they gave us a permit.

01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:59.999
But I thought at least I
can keep watch for him.

01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:04.999
Uh…Any sign of Luna? No, not yet. He
should come the fall off very quick.

01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:09.999
So on a day time I would watch from a distance and at
night, I\'d anchor, put down the hydrophone and listen.

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:18.000
[music]

01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:24.999
And soon they got a message
from the department.

01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:29.999
It was very simple. If they got caught
interacting with Luna, it said,

01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:34.999
they could be charged with crime.

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:39.999
You are trying to assume you know what they need because
you can give it to them versus trying to understand

01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:44.999
that these are intelligent and social creatures and they
have their own needs, we just don\'t understand them.

01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:49.999
So why would we assume that we know how to fill that gap
for them and that it will be better for them, board him.

01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:54.999
[music]

01:08:55.000 --> 01:08:59.999
Luna challenged some of the deepest things
people believe about who humans and animals are.

01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:04.999
Mike and Suzanne weren\'t just
watching all this anymore,

01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:09.999
they were part of it now.

01:09:10.000 --> 01:09:14.999
In November,

01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:19.999
the Mowachaht/Muchalant people held a potlatch for
Ambrose McQuinny, four years after his death.

01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:24.999
This was the official end of mourning.
And now many people believed

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:29.999
Luna would disappear.

01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:34.999
Right after the memorial potlatch for my grandfather
Ambrose, a lot of us knew that he was gonna go

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:39.999
but we didn\'t know how he was gonna go.
We didn\'t know if he was gonna die

01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:44.999
or he was just gonna leave the territory.

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.999
I can foresee the time when… when he
figures. Well, I\'ve done my best,

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
you folks aren\'t learning
anything, it\'s time for me to go.

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
That he\'s giving us every chance.

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
You know, he\'s saying, here come
on, check it out, you know, like,

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
there\'s still a beautiful world.

01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:18.000
[music]

01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:24.999
Mike and Suzanne kept trying to get
that permit. The department was

01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:29.999
kind of waiting and the First Nations were
let him go. So Suzanne and I went to offices

01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:34.999
and talk to bureaucrats and scientists who
listened politely and we said, all he needs

01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:39.999
is some kind of consistent contact to keep
him safe, why not give them a chance.

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.999
Again and again the answer was no.

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:49.999
In terms of the proposal, moving
to that next level of engagement,

01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:54.999
certainly we\'re really reluctant
to move down, yet another step of

01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.999
creating even closer bond with people.
West Coast Vancouver Island North,

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.999
storm warning upgraded…

01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:09.999
[sil.]

01:11:10.000 --> 01:11:14.999
Winter came to milk us out.

01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:19.999
[sil.]

01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:24.999
A fisherman told me right here on the doc, he
said, Luna is gonna be killed this winter.

01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:29.999
And I said, look, somebody goes out there and
shoots Luna there, they are gonna get caught,

01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:34.999
they gonna get arrested. The guy said, no they aren\'t. There\'s
lots of bad weather out there, nobody is ever gonna find out.

01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:39.999
After the storm, Mike went
back out to Mooyah Bay,

01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:44.999
Luna wasn\'t there.

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.999
He spent the night but there
were no calls on the hydrophone.

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:54.999
In the morning Nootka Sound
looked really big and empty.

01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:59.999
And I realized that for Suzanne and me
life had been completely transformed

01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:04.999
by our affection for a little whale.

01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:09.999
Maybe it was

01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:14.999
that bond we so rightly call friendship.

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:19.999
The girl\'s like missed

01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:24.999
but holds like iron.

01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:29.999
He went looking far from Mooyah
Bay out toward the open sea,

01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:34.999
then he thought he saw spout.
He aimed the camera.

01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:43.000
[music]

01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:54.999
He slowed the boat and
Luna came right over.

01:12:55.000 --> 01:12:59.999
[music]

01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:04.999
The truth is that moment is that when
he came over and I, I sang to him.

01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:09.999
I was so happy, I sang and it\'s a…

01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:14.999
it\'s a good thing it wasn\'t recorded.
Than I thought,

01:13:15.000 --> 01:13:19.999
we humans don\'t even understand each other
and we still do what we can. I mean,

01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:24.999
that\'s what it\'s all about.

01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:29.999
So I thought well, if I have to be some kind
of Luna outlawed or trying to keep him safe,

01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:34.999
that\'s what I\'ll do.

01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:39.999
I leaned across the wall. In that
cold water, his skin was warmth.

01:13:40.000 --> 01:13:48.000
[sil.]

01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:54.999
All my education

01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:59.999
and training involves things
that you can somehow quantify,

01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:04.999
but there are these comprehendables almost,
you know, these things out there that

01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:09.999
something\'s going on, something is
going on in a interconnectedness

01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:14.999
of a lot of life on this planet.

01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:19.999
If we\'re going to get it that
big sort of unmeasurable thing

01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:24.999
out there as to what are the connections
in the species, I think he had it,

01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:29.999
he was just as curious about
us as we were about him.

01:14:30.000 --> 01:14:34.999
Over the next few weeks,

01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:39.999
Mike smuggled friendship into Nootka Sound.
He knew he might be caught.

01:14:40.000 --> 01:14:44.999
But at least when Luna was
with him, Luna was safe.

01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:49.999
[music]

01:14:50.000 --> 01:14:54.999
And getting to know Luna was…was
not like one of those fairy tales

01:14:55.000 --> 01:14:59.999
where people and animals just sort
of meet and start chatting. Up close

01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:04.999
Luna was…was of anything, he was the more
mysterious than he was at a distance.

01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:09.999
He was a complete life, you know,
full of awareness and complexity,

01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:14.999
has deepened and unfamiliar
as to see itself.

01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:19.999
When I talked and Luna slapped his tail,
neither of us had a clue what the other meant.

01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:24.999
[music]

01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:29.999
We were like a couple of kids, you know,

01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:34.999
alone in a playground with no language
to help us, who played anyway,

01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:39.999
because what we shared mattered.

01:15:40.000 --> 01:15:48.000
[music]

01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:59.999
I used to think that the age
of exploration was over,

01:16:00.000 --> 01:16:04.999
that there wasn\'t much left as strangeness and beauty
on this planet that humans hadn\'t already seen.

01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:09.999
Thankfully,

01:16:10.000 --> 01:16:14.999
I was wrong. The people of Nootka Sound

01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:19.999
who looked into Luna\'s eyes would far into the edge of
the unknown when they tried to be friends with a whale.

01:16:20.000 --> 01:16:24.999
[sil.]

01:16:25.000 --> 01:16:29.999
On the 5th of March,

01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:34.999
the builds pump quit in Mike\'s boat and
the rain filled it halfway up with water,

01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:39.999
which made it very heavy. With the motor
roaring, he could only go eight knots.

01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:44.999
Luna love that blast and splash and
he surfed along for at least a mile

01:16:45.000 --> 01:16:49.999
but then Mike had to leave Luna for
a few days for a family visit.

01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:54.999
Then on the day Mike was
supposed to come back,

01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:59.999
a newspaper asked him for a photograph
and he watched the tape again

01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:04.999
and stopped it right there.

01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:09.999
So the last time I saw Luna,

01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:14.999
was the last time everyone saw Luna.

01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:19.999
[music]

01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:24.999
It was an accident. He got too
close to a big propeller.

01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:29.999
But I\'ll never get over that I
promised I\'d keep watch for him,

01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:34.999
but I wasn\'t there.

01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:39.999
[music]

01:17:40.000 --> 01:17:44.999
The day after Luna died,

01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:49.999
Mike and I went out to Mooyah Bay with
Donna Schneider, who have loved him

01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:54.999
since that 1st July day, so long ago.

01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:59.999
We just kept thinking that Luna was gonna do
stealth whale right out through the flowers.

01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:04.999
[music]

01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:09.999
It\'s almost as if an alien came
down and we shot it, you know,

01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:14.999
because it was blocking traffic. But
that was one who stays in my life.

01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:19.999
Just the bottom of my
heart, just fell. I just…

01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:28.000
[music]

01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:58.000
[sil.]

01:19:15.000 --> 01:19:23.000
[music]

01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:34.999
To Suzanne and me, this last journey
was sad, but it was wonderful.

01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:39.999
Suzanne and Donna organized it, but
it was three months after Luna died

01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:44.999
and we had no idea so many people would
come all the way to Nootka Sound,

01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:49.999
just to go out to Mooyah Bay and
throw flowers for a little whale.

01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:54.999
This is his place and soon
we\'re going to slow down

01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:59.999
and come to a stop. And give us
a chance to think about Luna,

01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:04.999
so keen to our friend.

01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:09.999
To me it was like an Irish wake,

01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:14.999
you know the best kind of farewell.
You laugh, you cry,

01:20:15.000 --> 01:20:19.999
you… you laugh again and you\'re
really glad you knew him.

01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:24.999
He has become

01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:29.999
a part of me. In that sense
he lives on, you know,

01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:34.999
like he made a difference. I mean, he
made a difference in this life here.

01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:39.999
But I think everybody that\'s
been connected with Luna,

01:20:40.000 --> 01:20:44.999
it is something special. Just the
experience of knowing that whale

01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:49.999
was worth everything that happened.

01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:54.999
He was a gift to the whole
town, you know, for the kids

01:20:55.000 --> 01:20:59.999
just to come down and see him and I will
never ever forget that, that will be

01:21:00.000 --> 01:21:04.999
with me forever.

01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:09.999
In telling this story first of all,
I know this is one of the many ways

01:21:10.000 --> 01:21:14.999
for being to, I remember Luna
and his… but the easiest ways.

01:21:15.000 --> 01:21:19.999
One night, and this must be about 11 o\'clock or summer again,
totally dark, we had a little bit of a flashlight and,

01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:24.999
you know, that phosphorous since in the
water that glow and they disturbed, right.

01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:29.999
So we had Luna coming with us and oh,
man, it was just amazing you ever see.

01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:34.999
He comes up beside the boat and he\'s just swimming next to us
while we\'re bringing him over and he just glowing in the water.

01:21:35.000 --> 01:21:39.999
You didn\'t see Luna, you saw the outline
of Luna and it was just amazing thing

01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:44.999
you could ever see, it\'s just… It was like
Luna dance in the sky over the stars, man.

01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:49.999
So, you know,

01:21:50.000 --> 01:21:54.999
every time at night if I think of
Luna, I\'ll look up at the stars.

01:21:55.000 --> 01:22:03.000
[music]

01:22:05.000 --> 01:22:09.999
All lives end but the best leave gifts.

01:22:10.000 --> 01:22:14.999
Millions of years

01:22:15.000 --> 01:22:19.999
had made Luna different from us,
but he had come through that wall

01:22:20.000 --> 01:22:24.999
because of what we shared.
He too had carried

01:22:25.000 --> 01:22:29.999
that need for others across the greatness
of time because it is necessary,

01:22:30.000 --> 01:22:34.999
not option.

01:22:35.000 --> 01:22:39.999
As Luna taught us just by who he was.

01:22:40.000 --> 01:22:44.999
This thing we call friendship
is bigger than we know.

01:22:45.000 --> 01:22:49.999
[music]

01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:58.000
[sil.]

01:23:25.000 --> 01:23:29.999
You see him out there anywhere? Chisholm: I
don\'t. I thought he was out there by that point.

01:23:30.000 --> 01:23:38.000
[music]

01:24:20.000 --> 01:24:24.999
So when your little boy grows up, how you\'re going
to explain all this to him? Uh… I gonna tell my son

01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:29.999
about the greatest thing that\'s
ever happened to me in my life.

01:24:30.000 --> 01:24:38.000
[music]