to Seattle, grave concern arose over her presence in the waters off a major metropolitan area. In one of the first media reports on January 19, 2002, the public was urged to resist the temptation to interact with this highly sociable orca, not to try to capture up-close photographs or video of her, or worse yet, do what was reportedly already happening, try to feed her. "The message we want to get out to boaters is, no matter how much you want to help this whale, do not approach it, don't feed it," Orca Conservancy representatives warned on KING-TV (NBC Seattle). "A fed whale is a dead whale." Despite the warnings, Springer became an instant celebrity, appearing regularly on the news in the United States and Canada. The beach community of West Seattle took on the look of a marine park. The orca's interactions with humans increased. The situation became untenable. Identification Killer whale experts tried to solve the mystery of this solitary, social orca, initially known to locals and ferry workers as "Baby Orphan Orca" ("Boo") or "Little Orcan Annie." They pored over high-resolution photographs taken of the young orca's markings. They also hoped to find clues in the orca's calls, which are distinctive to her pod. The orcas of Washington state and British Columbia coasts have been extensively studied since the pioneering work of Michael Bigg in the early 1970s. Each of the approximately 500 orcas which frequent these waters is named, and experienced observers recognize individuals by their unique body markings and the shape of each orca's dorsal fin. Birth records of each orca have created detailed family trees. They are considered the best-known marine mammal population in the world. Orcas in the region's inner coastal waters take two forms, "resident" and "transient" (also known as Bigg's killer whales), two eco-types that are similar in appearance but have different diets and social structures and do not interbreed. The different orca pods have developed their own unique vocalizations, using distinctive sets of calls, known as "dialects." Closely related groups have more similar dialects than more distant relatives. In February 2002, recordings and photographs of Springer in Puget Sound were sent to Dr. Paul Spong and Helena Symonds of OrcaLab and Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada biologist John Ford, who determined that the killer whale belonged to a group of around 215 killer whales known as the