Rescuers plan helicopter airlift of orca calf stranded in Canada

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Plans are underway to airlift a stranded killer whale calf out of a remote tidal lagoon off Canada’s northern Vancouver Island in an effort to reunite the young orca with its extended family. Canadian Fisheries Department and First Nations officials say the plan involves placing the 2-year-old calf into a sling, lifting it out of the lagoon by helicopter and putting it in a net pen in the ocean while they wait for its family pod to be near before releasing the whale. Rescuers have been unable to coax the young whale out of the area since its pregnant mother was stranded at low tide in the lagoon and died March 23.