Orca Rescue!: The True Story of an Orphaned Orca Named Springer
For Springer's team and fellow dreamers D.S. For Luella and Jonah S.B. Acknowledgments Deepest thanks to John Ford Erich Hoyt Joe Scordino Lynne Barre Pete Schroeder Ellen Drury Kathy Fletcher Ken Weiner and Lisa Hiruki Raring for reviewing the manuscript Special thanks to Anne Jackson of the Namgis First Nation for providing cultural guidance and expertise
DONNA SANDSTROM has been writing since she was old enough to hold a pencil She fell in love with orcas when she moved to Seattle from California where she grew up In 2002 she participated in Springer's rescue as a citizen organizer She founded and directs The Whale Trail from her home in West Seattle where she watches for dorsal fins This is her first book SARAH BURWASH is a visual artist working in a variety of media including watercolor collage ceramics animation illustration and comics Her work is both imaginative and rooted in her lived experiences including cabin building forest stewarding motorcycling and crewing on a fishing vessel Her work has been exhibited in Canada the United States and Europe Originally from kEluwi'sst Rossland British Columbia she lives and works in Unama'ki Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia
Foreword Phwoosh A male orca surfaced near me in Blackfish Sound where I was seeing orcas in the wild for the first time It was 1985 and I had come to British Columbia to learn about them The huge male came up so close I could smell his fishy breath His tall dorsal fin glistened in the sun That said the researcher standing beside me is as good as it gets I grew up in California near the beach and loved seeing whales and dolphins Sometimes we saw gray whales spouting close to shore But my interest in orcas began when I moved to Seattle and started dreaming about them In the first dream I was looking at a map of the Strait of Juan de Fuca Suddenly 80 dorsal fins burst through the map and the water became real I was hovering overhead looking down on a large group of killer whales headed east I woke with a start Who were these whales and what were they doing in my dreams I started reading everything I could I learned that orcas live in close families called pods and stay with their mothers their entire lives That they are not whales but the largest member of the dolphin family playful curious and intelligent And though they are the top predator in the sea they can be as gentle as they are fierce The more I learned the more I wanted to know
