Hope still remains for the fate of the orphan orca calf who caught the world's attention last year, when after a month stranded inside a Vancouver Island tidal lagoon, she made a bid for freedom.

While there have been no confirmed sightings since August last year of the two-year-old female killer whale named Kwiisahi?is or Brave Little Hunter by the Ehattesaht First Nation, research group Bay Cetology has not given up on the calf.

B次元官网网址淣o news is good news for the most part,B次元官网网址� said Jared Towers, executive director of the group based in Alert Bay. B次元官网网址淚'm hoping she's still out there.B次元官网网址�

After she escaped from the lagoon in April, the calf was documented travelling alone in the waters around Nootka Island every month through to August.

Sightings were reported later in the fall, says Towers. But, due to a lack of photographic evidence, they remain unconfirmed.

However, Towers says he B次元官网网址渇eels goodB次元官网网址� about the reports, which he describes as B次元官网网址渆ncouraging.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淭here's really not very many lone baby orcas out there,B次元官网网址� he said.

Also encouraging for Towers are the photos taken of the whale in July, which indicated she was either feeding herself, or was travelling occasionally with other killer whales who helped her to feed.

B次元官网网址淪he looked pretty good,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淎nd given that she'd been on her own out of the lagoon for almost two and a half months B次元官网网址� thatB次元官网网址檚 encouraging. If she can keep that up, that would be great.B次元官网网址�

Since the autumnal sightings, Brave Little Hunter has evaded detection, but Towers is not surprised as the number of killer whale sightings normally drop during the winter.

But as the days grow longer, he is optimistic good news could be on the horizon.

B次元官网网址淚'm quite hopeful that as more people take to the water in the spring and summer, that perhaps some more sightings will come in,B次元官网网址� said Towers.

Brave Little HunterB次元官网网址檚 story of survival began in March last year when she followed her pregnant mother into a lagoon near the northern Vancouver Island village of Zeballos.

She was left to fight for survival alone when her mother died after becoming stranded on a rocky beach at low tide.

B次元官网网址 of the trapped orphan sparked a string of rescue attempts, all unsuccessful, making international headlines as the world waited for news of the calf.

After four weeks in the lagoon, it was Brave Little Hunter who B次元官网网址榮avedB次元官网网址� herself, swimming out to the ocean on her own, where researchers hoped she would eventually reunite with her natal family.

While Brave Little Hunter remains unaccounted for, there have been multiple sightings of her family up and down the Island, including a visit from her grandmother, along with four other whales, to .

The same pod of whales, identified as T109As, were recently spotted in the Tahsis Inlet, which Towers notes is close to where Brave Little Hunter was last seen in the summer.

B次元官网网址淲e just don't have really good photos of them to confirm whether or not she was with them,B次元官网网址� he said. 

Is it possible Brave Little Hunter may have reunited with the pod?

"That's one of a million different outcomes," he says. "That's the favourable one, that she reunites with her natal group." 

As for where she might show up next, Towers says anything is possible.

B次元官网网址淪he could turn up anywhere, or she could turn up in the same place that she was seen last year,B次元官网网址� he says. B次元官网网址淪he's got a very big extended family, and they were showing up everywhere from southeast Alaska down to Washington.B次元官网网址�

Towers says if the orphan orca fails to appear this year, he and his colleagues at Bay Cetology may have to consider she has not survived. 

But considering it's only been a few months since she was last seen, he says the research group will wait B次元官网网址渟everal more monthsB次元官网网址� before entertaining the possibility.

For now, Towers and his team remain positive, and encourage the public to document any orca sightings with their online photo-identification database: .

B次元官网网址淧hotographs of killer whales are really helpful, especially in remote parts of the coast,B次元官网网址� he says.