Baby Orca ‘Pascuala’

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By Eduardo Rincón-Gallardo
On Tuesday, April 10th, the people of San Blas reported a baby whale entangled in fishing nets.

Locals and ecologists came to help the small cetacean which lay motionless on the sand and placed her in a tank by a beach restaurant called "Ramada Alicia" to try to keep her alive. There, more specialists arrived to team for solutions for the condition of the baby orca (also known in English as killer whale). It was decided to transport "Pascuala" (locals baptized her as such for her Easter arrival or Pascua) to the facilities of Vallarta Adventures in Nuevo Vallarta, where there are large pools and specialists in the care of sea mammals.

Vallarta Adventures had already notified Sea World of San Diego (there is no other place with more experience on handling orcas on earth) of the baby orca situation, so they would be prepared to participate in saving Pascuala, though Semarnat (the Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources) officials would have to authorize her transportation to San Diego, if needed. Semarnat has not authorized its transportation until it has more elements to decide on the course of action to be taken. Although Pascuala has gained weight with the care and formula feeding from the specialists, her overall health condition has not improved and her possibilities of survival are scarce with or without the most advanced care and facilities.

Meanwhile, the poor communication from those involved has fueled rumors and publications that go from asking the Federal Government for Nayarit to be custodian of the orca, to inferring that transporting Pascuala would make a lot of money to those involved. ¡Pobre Pascualita!

I greatly admire the intelligence of marine mammals and especially Pascualita, taking all the human love and care around her and not paying attention to the complicated nonsense and fuss we manage to entangle ourselves with.