federal authorities should not intervene and rescue the young orca, even if the animal was likely to die as scientists warned alone in one of the most congested, contaminated waterways in North America. "It's going to be heart-breaking if we see the worst thing happen, which is to see her die," activist Donna Sandstrom of Orca Alliance (now head of the Washington state nonprofit The Whale Trail) explained on KING 5 News (NBC Seattle), "but we would rather bear that heartbreak than to know she's enduring it alone in a concrete tank." Sandstrom became an outspoken critic of direct intervention by NMFS in the local media, often pitted against advocates calling for Springer's rescue and return to her family in British Columbia. While advocates, researchers and scientists pushed since mid-January for immediate federal action to save this wayward whale, the beginning of March brought a new discord of opinions on the matter. Activists like Howard Garrett of the Whidbey Island, Washington-based Orca Network also argued against rescuing Springer, and favored the federal government authorizing a "Social Approach," the introduction of regular human companionship for the orca, to put divers in the water with her to address the orca's social needs until she left Puget Sound on her own. Garrett's proposal of introducing regular human contact to a solitary, social, displaced orca in a major metropolitan area was considered by many scientists and advocates as potentially disastrous. The Oregon Coast Aquarium (OCA) in Newport, Oregon where the orca Keiko was kept prior to his translocation to Iceland, offered its facilities to rehabilitate Springer for a one-year period, after which a scientific panel would determine whether or not she was fit to return to Johnstone Strait, BC. Media reports soon revealed that OCA was deep in debt and bound by an agreement with the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation (FWKF) that Keiko's former tank, built by FWKF, could never again house a wild orca. Furthermore, growing scientific opinion was that rehabilitating Springer in a concrete tank would further acclimate the orca to humans and likely result in permanent captivity. It was also widely reported that OCA was in financial hardship due to controversial loans taken out for renovations. It soon withdrew its offer. In July, OCA's Executive Director, Phyllis Bell, would "resign her post with little explanation." In these first critical weeks of the Springer debate, Seattle-based non-profit Orca Conservancy, which would later emerge