Toa the orca is monitored by a volunteer at Plimmerton Boating Club
(Picture: Getty Images)New Zealand rescue crews are roaming the seas looking for an orca pod after a baby killer whale got stranded in Wellington.
The calf, named Toa, which is Maori for ‘warrior’, was found by a pair of teenagers trapped in rocks and is now being cared for in a makeshift pen in a Plimmerton boating club.
Crowds gathered at the port to watch rescue attempts on the 2.5m male who is unweaned and unable to survive alone in the ocean.
Helicopters joined an air and sea search for Toa’s pod, which would likely include his mother, and the public were encouraged to report any orca sightings.
Dr Ingrid Visser, the founder of the Orca Research Trust, told Australian Associated Press she had not lost hope of finding Toa’s family.
“Orcas travel between 100 and 150 kilometres a day but they don’t go in a straight line. They could turn around and come back here tomorrow. We just don’t know,” Visser said.
“He’s still young, that’s one of the big challenges we have,” marine species manager Ian Angus told AFP.
“We have to think about how we ensure we get him back to his mother because he needs help, certainly with the feeding.
“How do we locate his mother? That’s the second big challenge, which we’re now struggling with.”
Toa is being kept in a makeshift pen set up between two jettys at the seaside suburb of Plimmerton and is accepting food to the joy of animal rescuers.
Despite being known as killer whales, orcas are actually the largest species of dolphin, with males growing up to nine metres.
