The divers quickly slipped a harness around the black-and-white whale and hoisted her by crane onto a barge for a half-hour ride to a pen at the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service base in Manchester, Washington, where they will nurse her several ailments, which apparently are minor.

Dubbed A-73, the orca suffers from an itchy skin rash and malnutrition that scientists say may be a result of digestive problems, citing her foul-smelling breath.

The whale's plight sparked an international debate over the merits of rescue versus letting nature take its course.

Many Seattle area residents became attached to the orca after she began approaching ferries and other boats last winter. Others have griped about the cost of the rescue, estimated at more than $200,000.

After about two weeks of blood tests and medication, veterinarians will decide whether the killer whale is healthy enough to risk another boat ride 250 miles (400 km) to the north to waters off British Columbia where her family, or pod, returns each summer.

From there, the orca largely would be on her own and at the mercy of dozens of whales that may have rejected her when she first got sick or refused to wait for her when she lingered behind as her mother died of unknown causes.

Researchers and aquariums captured dozens of orcas decades ago, and have attempted to return one of them, "Free Willy" movie star Keiko, to his home waters near Iceland. But never has a wild orca been reunited with its family by people.