Luna was apparently struck in the head last week, sustaining a gash believed to be about 6 inches long and as much as 2 inches deep. Authorities were trying Thursday to confirm the extent of the injury.

The impact disabled the fishing boat's small trolling motor, said Ed Thorburn, an officer with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans based in the town of Gold River on Nootka Sound, on the west side of British Columbia's Vancouver Island.

The injury is not life-threatening, Thorburn said. "Luna has had cuts like this before."

But it has increased concern about the fate of the 4-year-old male, whose family - U.S.-based L-pod - spends summers chasing salmon around the San Juan Islands of Washington state and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates the state from Vancouver Island.

Killer whales, or orcas, are social animals, and lonely Luna's attempts to cozy up to boats have posed risks for both the whale and boaters.

The injury "is disturbing news," said Mark Pakenham, who oversees the Luna Stewardship Program financed by DFO, monitoring the whale with volunteers in small boats. "It's a fear we've been living with all along, that he'll be severely injured."

Activists are pressing the U.S. and Canadian governments to try to reunite Luna - also called L-98 for his birth order in L-pod - with his family.

And this year's window of opportunity is here, Pakenham and other activists say. This weekend marks the end of peak summer boating season, and Luna's family will be in area waters for another couple months.

"The longer we wait, the more inevitable the conclusion to this drama - in a very bad way," Pakenham said. "The whale is either going to be killed or recommended for capitivity."

The injury "should be a wakeup call that we're done waiting," said Fred Felleman of Orca Conservancy in Seattle.

Activists cite the successful relocation last summer of an orphaned Canadian killer whale - Springer or A-73, named for her birth order in Canada's A-pod - from busy Puget Sound, where she was losing weight and falling prey to worms and other opportunistic dieases.

Government officials on both sides of the border had hoped Luna would rejoin his family naturally as the pod heads up the Pacific Coast after summer salmon season.

But Luna spends most of his time near the Gold River dock - about 25 miles from the mouth of Nootka Sound. He has at times been within 9 or 10 miles of the sound's opening - within hearing distance for these vocal creatures. But the odds of his hearing his family pass by were always slim.

And Thorburn says that for the past three years, L-pod has headed south for the winter. The only killer whales near the mouth of Nootka Sound are so-called transients - coastal orcas that feed primarly on marine mammals.

"That's what Luna has to look out for," Thorburn said. A young, isolated orca like Luna "would be fair game" for these distant relatives.

Marilyn Joyce, DFO's marine mammal resource coordinator in Vancouver, has said Canada is reconsidering its earlier stance, which was to monitor the situation and hope it resolved itself.

"There is tremendous public pressure to look at some sort of reintroduction strategy," she said Thursday.

U.S. officials say the first move must come from Canada.

The injury "complicates Luna's life and the lives of a number of Canadian officials," said spokesman Brian Gorman with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle.

But "really it's not our business at this stage," he added.

It's not clear how Luna would be moved. Waters are rougher on the coastal side of the island, so the catamaran ferry used to move Springer - a speedy, smooth trip through inland waters - may not work. Pakenham suggested Luna could be trucked to the strait and then moved by boat to a sea pen near his family, perhaps in the San Juans.

There is concern that Luna may not rejoin his family as smoothly as Springer did. He's been gone more than two years and may have lost language skills. And it's still not clear why he became separated. Also, unlike Springer, his mother is still alive, though she has another calf now.

Killer whales, actually a kind of dolphin, are found in all the world's oceans.

For More Information:

Luna news from activists -- www.reuniteluna.com
Fisheries Canada -- www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
National Marine Fisheries Service -- www.nwr.noaa.gov