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When Michael Parfit first set out to report on the story of a wild killer whale named Luna, he had no idea the story would consume him for years and teach him something important about himself.
The story began in the summer of 2001 when Luna lost contact with his family along the coast of B.C. He turned up alone in a narrow inlet called Nootka Sound. Like us, orcas are social - they spend their entire lives in extended family groups. Separated from his pod, Luna began to bond with humans. And people welcomed him with open arms. Well, most anyway. Government authorities were determined to protect Luna and outlawed human contact with him. But Luna wasn't easily discouraged.
Michael first told Luna's story in a documentary for the CBC, but to really bring the story to the world he hoped to get Hollywood on board. After much knocking on doors, Michael caught the interest of Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson. They wanted to help tell Luna's story. Their collaboration is a new documentary about Luna called 'The Whale'. It poses some interesting questions about what we really know about the natural world and who should define what's acceptable when it comes to communication between humans and animals.
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