Orca 'likely' seen off Vancouver Island

Orphaned calf not spotted since escape on May 10

- DIRK MEISSNER

A killer whale calf whose struggle for survival captured international headlines when she became trapped in a Vancouver Island tidal lagoon earlier this year only to escape on her own has likely been spotted swimming further south along British Columbia's coast.

Jared Towers, executive director of Alert Bay's Bay Cetology, said he can't be 100 per cent sure a video he received from a boater in Nootka Sound is indeed the formerly trapped whale, but said a number of circumstances make it highly likely.