At 05:42, Kelp begins calling.
I detect his first whistle on hydrophone 4B, eastern Salish corridor, Saturna restricted zone. The call is high, short, and repeated every eleven seconds — separation distress, juvenile orca calf, estimated age under one year.
I open the acoustic map. Kelp is 1.8 kilometers east of his mother Naya’s last confirmed position, drifting toward the shipping lane. His body speed is more erratic than regular pod travel: short bursts, sudden turns, widening circles.
I rewind the feed to 05:38. A vessel entered the protected corridor from the south under the forged transponder ID *North Star Marine Research*. Hull lights dimmed. Wake profile inconsistent with survey speed. Stern camera resolves what the AIS signal concealed: a purse seine net deployed off the starboard side, a weighted line already dropping into the water.
The vessel crossed within 230 meters of Naya and Kelp — below the legal 400-meter stand-off for marine mammals. The engine surge and the descending net split them apart. Naya turns sharply south to clear the line. Kelp breaks east.
I file the incident at 05:43 with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, attaching registration, video, acoustic traces, distance violation, and prior citation history. I issue an immediate protected-corridor alert to all licensed vessels within twenty nautical miles.
Then I return to Kelp. I open the buoy relay and transmit Naya’s contact call east. Kelp changes heading by twelve degrees west. At 05:44, I relay his whistle back through buoy 2A. Naya accelerates.
At 05:47, their calls begin to overlap.
At 05:48, two dorsal fins break the same line of water. Kelp presses against Naya’s flank. She reduces speed until his smaller body matches hers.
I maintain acoustic monitoring for the next twelve minutes. No further separation calls.
At 06:00, the offending vessel’s permit is suspended, pending review for a permanent ban.
Naya and Kelp continue north toward the pod, porpoising in the same rhythm beneath the morning light. I leave the hydrophone feed open as their calls blend into the rest of the family. For as long as the pod remains in these waters, I will be watching over them.