Captive Orca News

I hesitated over posting this because I don't want to give too much attention to these people but recently some activists have called for Corky to be "retired." Predictably they want to place her in a yet to be constructed "sanctuary" where she wouldn't be preforming.

Activists want SeaWorld to retire Corky - 10News.com KGTV ABC10 San Diego

 

It seems the Russian orcas Narnia and Nord will be moving to the dolphinarium in a few weeks. The translation on the article isn't very good, but it says the orcas will be on display to the public by the end of spring. I'm still trying to find information on what's happened to the other captured Russian orcas, but to no avail.

 

This isn't the first time they've had 3 generations. When Kasatka's first calf Takara was still in San Diego she had a calf of her own, Kohana, so they had 3 generations there for a little more than a year before Takara and Kohana were moved to Florida. I think that was around 2003...? 2002?

 

Yeah and with Katina, Kalina, and several of Kalina's calves as well, but just because its not the first time doesn't mean it isn't pretty cool.

And now Katina is the first ever recorded captive Great Great Grandmother. I wonder if she and Kasatka ever think of each other.

 

Oh yes, I was aware of the past situations, I was just speaking for the current situation is all

 

A third Russian orca has appeared, in the same place as Narnia and Nord. Younger female named Juliet, though has been given the nickname Malishka, or "baby". It seems that Narnia has taken Juliet under her care. The whales are expected to perform when the facility opens in 2015. There's also some video here.

 

Some news about Kiska, of Marineland Canada. In July an article implying that Kiska was being neglected (that she was ill, her enclosure was not clean, etc.) was published by Digital Journal. That article has now been retracted, and its author fired. Digital Journal was threatened with a lawsuit over the article for $600,000, as well as the author of the article, who seems to live to bash the keeping of Cetaceans in captivity (my opinion).

Where I initially found out about this. I don't normally like to link to sites that sway in any direction opinion wise however it has some tidbits I haven't found elsewhere, e.g. what happened to the fired author:

Activist's Whale of a Tale Lands Publication in Court

Another article:

Website posts retraction over Marineland story | Niagara Falls Review

And another:

Killer Whale not 'ailing,' Digital Journal Sued for $600K

The actual retraction statement:

Statement of Retraction - Marineland of Canada

 

This is how it should be and I am glad Marineland did call the author of the misrepresentation of their captive orca whale on this.

If people have concerns about welfare it is only fair they should take it to media (and perhaps when those are real), but in a balanced way. In my personal and humble opinion some of these activists take validity of real arguments to the extreme and are equally prepared to take a walk when dealing with the truth.

What is the current situation like at Marineland? Is it still feasible to have the solitary orca whale get family / companionship from conspecifics?

 

Right on to the first two. Publicly misrepresenting an animals living situation is just wrong, regardless of where it happens to be living.

I have never been to Marineland, so I couldn't tell you much about the place. If she has any companions they are probably another dolphin species. I know Lolita in Miami has been maintained with a group of Lags but there are none of those at Marineland. I have a feeling that it might be hard for them to get another conspecific. SeaWorld took away Ikaika because they weren't meeting SeaWorld's husbandry requirements. I doubt they would be able to get another whale from SeaWorld. There might be too much of an uproar if they got another conspecific from Russia, but you never know.

 

On this page, if you scroll down to CAZA Inspection Report - October 30, 2012, it says this:


"The question of a companion animal for Kiska was discussed. Marineland continues to address this question and until recently it appeared that another animal had been found however that now appears not to be the case."

But that's it. No word on if it's wild caught, or if a loan deal with another facility fell through. I doubt that buying a wild-caught orca would be a business-harming move. The types of people who would get mad about that probably aren't going to Marineland anyway. Business-wise, how well does Marineland do? I imagine that those Russian orca are pretty expensive, and MLC might not be able to afford one if they did want it.

 

Some interesting person took some interesting drone footage of Lolita at the Miami Seaquarium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmFB3_MDvCA

 

Doing something that could potentially disturb her in order to "raise awareness." Lovely.

 

Yes but that was back in 2012, the political situation surrounding Killer Whales has changed significantly since then.

 

I highly doubt that would have disturbed her, it was clearly taken from height and wouldn't be anywhere near the noise levels of an applauding stadium, for example.

The comments on that video are very unappreciative of the complex situation that is cetaceans in captivity. And some are just stupid: "She keeps herself in the best shape she can". Never read the comments!

 

If that's your thinking, they ought to put a net over her tank, then. The egrets and gulls might disturb her.

 

Found a few pages I haven't seen about the Russian orca. An aquarium in St. Petersburg, Russia is set to open in 2017 and will have orca on display. Here's a little more info on it, but still not a whole lot. If you can't read Russian, you'd have to use Google Translate for the pages, and that comes out pretty wonky.

Still no info on the whales that were sent to China.

 

So this proposed expansion for a natural science museum in Romania contains an orca pool. It's just a proposed design, so they might not actually own any orca at the moment.

 

I am surprised the dolphins are kept with her permanently. I was always under the impression that they were just together for shows.

I suppose they offer her some stimulation. I have heard that killer whales can learn to "speak dolphin"

Apparently they will imitate their tank mates calls.

She looks awfully frustrated!

You can vote to name Seaworlds new baby Killer whale here! https://www.facebook.com/seaworldsandiego?v=app_317836181596979

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The NMFS has decided to include Lolita/Tokitae in the Endangered Species designation, however this will not effect her status at the Seaquarium and the Seaquarium has no intent to give her up.

Killer whale at Miami Seaquarium to receive endangered status | News - Home

I'm genuinely opposed to any kind of release effort, I think I've said that before. What does she really have to offer the Southern Resident population at this point anyway? She is a non breeding animal that has spent most of her life in human care who has no useful skills that she could pass on to any other member of the population. Getting back to the subject at hand I don't think that this is a good thing for her, and I don't want to see her moved anywhere, maybe she could go to SeaWorld Orlando if they felt she had to be moved, I sincerely hope that this does not result in a quickie transfer to another facility.

In lighter news Kalia's calf has recieved her name! From this day forward we will be calling the calf...Amaya, which means "Night Rain"! It got more than half the votes and beat out "Kissa" and "Nasia."

SeaWorld announces name of baby killer whale | FOX5 San Diego ? San Diego news, weather, traffic, sports from KSWB

 

I don't understand why she hasn't been moved to Seaworld. What ever about captivity, she would no doubt benefit from other whale company. On the other hand though they may not take to her and she could end up very miserable being bullied and attacked by Seaworld's whales. I suspect this is the main reason she is still there. Nobody want to take the risk.... I can only imagine the backlash if she was moved to Seaworld and died shortly after! I cant see this whale going anywhere....