Orca "Springer" Alive & Well 10 Years After Incredible Rescue

http://www.ctvvancouverisland.ca   / ctvvi   TELEGRAPH COVE -- With a fish in her mouth, a young orca is set free. "Springer" swam toward her family in the Johnstone Strait near Port McNeill in 2002, the stunning conclusion to a six-month resuce. "Human problems got set aside for a few minutes and everyone pulled together for Springer. What a wonderful success story" says Zoologist Anna Hall. Especially when you see how it started. The calf was found orphaned in Seattle Harbour, wasting away without her mother's milk, and hundreds of kilometres from home off northern Vancouver Island. Over the next few months, Springer was nursed back to health in Washington State. By the time she was released back home, people from two countries had come together to stand-in for her family. "If it had to be done it got done. People stepped forward. Money was needed, people with money came forward, boats were needed, people with boats came forward. Veterinary expertise, it was all there" remembers Hall. Ten years later, Springer's unlikely survival is being celebrated. People will gather Tuesday in Vancouver, later this month in Seattle, and in July at Telegraph Cove. Her pod should be passing through by then, and researchers wonder if she might soon be carrying a calf of her own. "She's 12 now, she's a little bit young but it's not that unusual for a female orca. We're sitting around and year by year waiting for it to happen" says OrcaLab's Paul Spong. People all over the world got caught up in the heartwarming story of Springer's rescue. We asked Anna Hall what it is about these mammals people find so irresistible. She says first it is their astonishing size - a blue whale's heart for example - is the same size as a Volkswagen Beetle. Second she says, is their intelligence. "They've got these huge brains, what are they doing with them? In terms of killer whales the fact they live with their families their whole lives." And Springer will always have a second family that lives on land. Follow Andrew Johnson on Twitter:   / ctvnewsandrew