Rescuers are working to save an orphaned orca calf stranded in a remote British Columbia lagoon

 A team of rescuers are working to save an orca calf that has been stranded for nearly two weeks in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island, off the west coast of Canada.

The calf became stranded in the Zeballos lagoon after its mother got trapped on a sand bar in the lagoon’s shallow waters and died on March 23. The mother was pregnant at the time of her death.

Officials have been monitoring the calf daily and working to formulate the best plan to relocate the animal and reunite it with its family pod.

“We realized that time is not on our side so we now are working on logistics of a rescue operation,” Paul Cottrell with Fisheries and Oceans Canada said on Thursday.

Cottrell explained crews have tried multiple methods to get the calf to leave the lagoon on its own, including “acoustic playbacks” – playing the sounds of other orca whales. So far, nothing has worked.

Officials initially planned to transport the calf using a helicopter, but have pivoted to using a truck and boat to avoid stressing the animal. They hope to lure the calf into an area where they can move it onto a truck then drive the animal and place it on a boat, which will bring it into a net pod, Ehattesaht First Nation Chief Simon John said.

The orca, which locals have named “Little Brave Hunter” or “Kʷiisaḥiʔis” in the Ehattesaht First Nation language and writing system, will then wait in that net pen until its family passes. It will hopefully be released and reunite with its relatives, John explained. The net pen is planned to be in Esperanza, southeast of Zeballos.

Officials hope they can implement this plan within the next week. “It’s a huge effort and we have a long way to go,” Cottrell said. “We’re hoping for the best possible outcome.”

The orca’s family pod was last spotted March 30.

Bay Cetology, one of the organizations working to coordinate the rescue, told CNN the orca is “robust, showing no immediate signs of emaciation.” There have been attempts to feed the calf, but it’s unclear if it’s eaten anything, according to the organization.

“This whale’s skin has just started to slough in sizable patches along the top of the head and base of the dorsal fin on each side perhaps due to the freshwater runoff into the lagoon it is in,” says the organization.

Moving the orca calf “will require a lot of patience as well as cooperation from the whale,” Bay Cetology added.

Orcas – also known as killer whales – are found in all the world’s oceans, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They are highly social, living in family pods of up to 20 or more whales. Calves typically stay with their mothers for the first two years of life, according to NOAA.

This isn’t the first time officials in Canada have strategized to rescue a solitary and stranded orca calf. In 2002, an orca calf who came to be named Springer was spotted alone in Puget Sound, prompting an extensive capture and relocation effort. She is considered the first orca in history to successfully rejoin a wild population after human intervention.