Springer the orphaned orca reappears off B.C. coast with a family of her own

Springer the killer whale swims with her calf near Bella Bella, B.C., in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Cetacean Research Program, DFO

VANCOUVER -- An orphaned killer whale who made headlines around the world when she was reunited with her pod off the coast of British Columbia has re-appeared -- with her own thriving calf in tow.

Whale researchers spotted Springer this week in the Inside Passage off B.C.'s North Coast.

"They appear to be healthy and robust ... normal in every way," Lance Barrett-Lennard from Vancouver Aquarium's Marine Mammal Research Program, wrote in an email from the field. "Great stuff."

Springer -- or A73 -- was two in January 2002 when she was found in Puget Sound, near Seattle, ailing and separated from her pod of northern resident killer whales. Her mother was dead.

Unlikely to survive on her own, she was captured and confined in a huge ocean net pen for about a month while Canadian and American officials came up with a plan.

On July 13, 2002, Springer was transported by high-speed catamaran to Blackfish Sound, near Alert Bay off northern Vancouver Island, and held in a floating net pen until her pod appeared.

She is believed to be the first orca to be rescued, rehabilitated and successfully released back into the wild.

Springer and her calf -- A104 -- were first seen last year and the latest sighting is reassuring to biologists that the young whale has survived the most dangerous period of life for the animals.

"This sighting is great news for everyone interested in the welfare of killer whales off the west coast of North America -- and will be particularly gratifying to those who were involved in the many aspects of Springer's identification, assessment, rescue, rehabilitation, transportation and release 12 years ago," Barrett-Lennard wrote to the aquarium.

The northern resident pod that remains year-round in the coastal waters of central and northern B.C. is listed as threatened in Canada.