A National Marine Fisheries spokesman in Seattle, Brian Gorman, says rescuers towed it through the bay's inlet into the open water of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

It was swimming west toward the Pacific Ocean Friday afternoon.

It was the sixth attempt to free the adult male since it was discovered Wednesday in the bay with a female that beached itself and died. Five other times the male swam back to shore.

Gorman says a cheer went up among more than a dozen rescuers as the orca finally took off in the right direction.

They are still monitoring the 21-foot whale and trying to remove a float still attached to a flipper.

Tests on the dead female have not yet indicated what caused her death. Gorman says the cause of the stranding may never be known.