The Fisheries Department says its monitoring and patrolling ocean waters off northwest Vancouver Island to ensure boat traffic doesn't interfere with an orphan killer whale calf's ability to reunite with her extended family.
DFO says in a statement it will be monitoring the location of the young female orca as she searches for her family in ocean waters near Zeballos.
The killer whale calf left a remote tidal lagoon for the ocean last Friday where she had been trapped for over a month.
The Fisheries Department says the orcas chances of meeting up with members of a transient pod of Bigg's killer whales, of which she is related, are good, but she should not be further habituated to people or boats.
Disturbing marine mammals could result in fines of up to $100,000.