Ms. Fair stated that it moved slowly at first and then swam away.The happy ending was good for the whale. It returned to sea six hours after being spotted at the shore. Canadian authorities confirmed that the orca was a Biggs killer Whale of the West Coast transient population.Just one day after an 8.2-magnitude earthquake shook the coast of Alaska, the beaching occurred. NOAA stated that the earthquake, which was the largest in 50 years, didn't cause the whale to become stuck.Toa, a baby killer whale orphan, was rescued from New Zealand and washed up on the shores of New Zealand. The whale was eventually killed by conservationists who fed it in a temporary pool. Volunteers spent many days searching the coast for Toa's family.Last year, Australian rescuers saved 108 of the nearly 470 whales that had landed on a remote sandbank at the Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania. It was one of the most extreme cases of whale beaching worldwide.Although rare, live whale strandings do occur from time to time, experts say.Jared Towers, a researcher with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (a government department) and Bay Cetology (a killer whale research organisation), said that five whales, including T146D were stranded along the West Coast over the past 20 years.He said that the whales were out hunting seals or sea-lions, and made a mistake. The tide then went out and they got stuck.
