I'm an orca at the bottom of my heart

I was six years old when my mom let me stay up late and watch a whole movie! Usually I had to go to bed early so I never knew the end of the films. But this time she let me finish it. It’s called Free Willy. I watched it again a few months ago and of course with adult head it’s not the best movie ever but at the age of 6, it was. For me, anyway. I still remember how I felt, what I felt about the whole story. I have never seen an orca before and I fell in love with them forever. I mean it! From that night, orca is my favorite creature in the whole universe and if you ask me which animal would I like to be… My answer would be orca, in any day of the week. 

Free Willy movie

 They are beautiful, pretty, extremely skillful and highly intelligent. I think they are perfect.  Three years ago I painted a picture about one and it’s on our living room wall. I love it and my family loves it too. It feels great to see that painting every day. 

My orca painting :)

But enough of the happy stuff, let’s began the real story:

People think, it’s ok to kill them. People think, it’s ok to capture them and put them into tiny tanks in Aquaworlds around the world. But it’s so not ok! 

Orca show in a shockingly small tank

What do we know about orcas? They live in families. Sometimes three generations swim and live together. They are talking to each other, they are singing, playing, having lots of fun. They are protecting their babies and each other and they hunt together. They are one of the greatest predators in the ocean.  Female orcas can live 70-80 years in the wild and male orcas around 60 years. In captivity they usually die in their twenties. Isn’t it interesting? And why is that? They die so young because of sadness, depression, boredom, loneliness. Just think about it, if a person feels that way for many-many years surely he/she will get cancer or try to commit suicide. Those orcas have to live in such small tanks, it wouldn’t be enough for a penguin. Those animals feel what we would feel.

Orca family in their natural habitat

Scientists are studying them all the time and they know a lot of things about them by now but not enough. I hate drones. I think it’s not fair to use that thing in a war. (I think the whole war thing is not fair.) But I found a very interesting article a few weeks ago. People took amazing pictures about orcas by drone and got a bunch of new information. The drone didn’t bother the orcas like an underwater camera, a boat or a scuba diver. Here is the link of the article (It's in Hungarian but at least check out the amazing pictures!):

http://www.origo.hu/tudomany/nagyhasab/20141010-gyilkos-balna-orka-kanada-dron.html 

Picture by drone

Aren’t they beautiful? I don’t understand people. How dare they kidnap these creatures, rip families apart forever and force them to live in a pool instead of the ocean? They are born to swim and live in the ocean! And then everyone is so surprised when a captivated orca kills someone.

In this post I’m going to tell you a couple of stories about captivated orcas around the world. Let’s start with Tilikum:

Tilikum

Tilikum was captured when he was only two years old. He was just a cute orca baby when people caught him by a purse-seine net in November 1983 in Iceland. He had to live in a very small tank in a Zoo in Reykjavík for almost a year. I can’t imagine how he must felt. Alone, scared, depressed, apart from his family forever and he was only a baby. Then he was transferred to Sealand of the Pacific in Canada. He was kept with two older female orcas, Haida II and Noolka IV. Who knows why they behaved so aggressively toward him. Later he had to move to a tiny medical pool, so he could be protected from the other two. He had a really hard life. The three orcas had to sleep in a floating metal box in complete darkness at nights. The owner of the Sealand thought this is how he can keep the orcas safe from people who would want to hurt or free them when the park is closed. Tilikum came out of the box covered with scares and blood almost every morning. 

This is how people kidnap an orca baby

Tilikum is performing in an extremely small pool in Sealand of the Pacific

Injured orca

He kept growing larger and longer until he became the biggest male orca who ever lived in captivity. Orcas are usually kind and calm even when they have to live in a tank but Tilikum couldn’t accept his fate. He kept trying to ask for help, trying to say: “Please, let me go. Let me go back where I belong or kill me. Anything but another pathetic dolphin show.” Do you know how did he try to get attention? He killed three times. The first time was in 1991. He and the two female orcas drown a 21-year-old marine biology student who accidently slipped into the pool containing the three orcas. The females were circling while Tilikum hurt then drown the girl. After this incident Sealand of the Pacific closed and the Sealand in Orlando was happy to buy Tilikum. Nothing is better than a maniac, depressed, oversized orca who is ready to kill anytime, right?

First incident in 1991

One morning in 1999, a 27-year-old man was found dead over Tilikum’s back. Isn’t it creepy? The man waited until the park closed then undressed and went into the tank where Tilikum was kept. Cause of death was drowning. He also had many bite marks and missing genitalia. To do such thing, this man must have been more depressed than Tilikum. 

 

Second incident in 1999

The third incident… it’s a big one! He killed his own trainer, a 40-year-old woman at the end of their show. She was lying on a shallow area next to the tank were Tilikum was and she was rubbing the orca. They were having a “relationship building time” when Tilikum grabbed the woman’s arm (others say her ponytail) and pulled her into the water. Experts say Tilikum thought of her as a toy and he started to play with her. I really doubt that theory! Why? Because we all know that orcas are highly intelligent and as a human wouldn’t make such a mistake to consider a chicken wing as a toy (You know it’s food. It’s on your plate and you know you have to eat it, not to play with it.) and believe me Tilikum was absolutely aware of what he was doing. He knew exactly who she was. A human, a person, a trainer and I think he wanted to show us he had enough of all this crap. People who work in Sealand should have seen the signs. Because there were signs. I’m not an expert and of course I didn’t meet Tilikum but I think it’s obvious that he was in a very bad mood that day and he had to do the show just like any other day. There wasn’t enough fish in the bucket, he didn’t perform well and because of that the trainer didn’t tell him he did a good job, then he didn’t react of the whistle. He never missed one before. The whistle meant he can stop waving and he just kept swimming around and waving to the audience. Well… he was a bad-bad orca, right? Not listening to the command. No more yummy fish after a crappy performance like this. Of course it’s not enough reason to kill that poor woman. It wasn’t her fault. But it wasn’t Tilikum’s either. It was those fault who captured him when he was just a baby. 

Tilikum with his trainer

After this shocking incident the Seaworld thought: “Oh, no! What a tragedy. This orca is crazy and very dangerous! Hmmm, you know what? Show must go on.” What? Really? After all those killings they kept him and forced him to perform again and again. And why? Money of course. Millions of people bought their tickets to see Tilikum over the years. A lot of money walked into someone’s pocket. 

These people are having fun, I guess. What about the orca?

Last year (2016) Tilikum got sick, he was very week and this year in January 6 he died. He was 35-years-old. He had to live 33 whole years in this terror. No wonder he went crazy sometimes. It surprises me it only happened three times. The saddest thing is that he was only one of them. There are many other orcas in very similar condition, in very small tanks around the world. 

Tilikum had many health problems. As you can see his teeth were in catastrophic condition. He got infected through those teeth many times!

46 orcas live in captivity in this very moment and this is only the published list! Of course I can’t be sure but I’m afraid there might be others. There are so many sick and shamelessly rich people I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about secretly kept orcas one day.

 Keiko

Keiko in wild at last!

Keiko was captured near Iceland in 1979 at the age of 3 and was sold to an Aquarium. People kept selling him so he was transferred many times in his life. He was the star of the film Free Willy in 1993. Seeing his miserable life and the place where he was kept, after the movie Warner Brothers Studio found him a better place to live, a “better home”. After the movie people started to think about setting him really free. In 1998 they put him back to the Klettsvik Bay in Iceland and gradually reintroduced to the wild. He could return to the open sea in 2002. Keiko died in 2003 at the age of 27, after beaching himself during the night. He had severe pneumonia.

Luna

Luna was born in 1999. When he was still a baby something very rare happened. He got separated from his family. No one knows why. As we know orcas live together and they are very close to each other emotionally. But for some reason Luna swam away and lived in Nootka Sound (West coast of Vancouver Island) for 5 years, alone. Or I could say, without orcas. He loved people and boats and was very friendly and never been aggressive in his life. Tourists were delighted to meet him in person and the coast was always full of paparazzi. Some expert said “Maybe Luna doesn’t know he is an orca and this is why he wants to be near humans because he thinks he is one of us.” I can’t agree with this theory because I don’t think he thought of himself as human but he definitely chose to live where people lived. He never tried to swim back to the open where he could meet other orcas, maybe his own family. 

Luna loved people. People loved Luna. <3

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans authorized an effort in June 2004 to capture Luna and place him in captivity. Fortunately the Mowachaht/ Muchalaht First Nations Indians stopped the mission and Luna could stay were he was. He was harmless, cute and playful just like our children.

Luna was very special. So friendly, so cute!

One day something terrible happened to him. He liked to swim close to boats and follow them. On that day he swam too close to the propeller of a tugboat. The propeller caused him severe injuries, he died immediately. It was a great shock for everyone. He was only 6 years old. His story is told in the 2001 documentary film “The whale”. It’s really touching. Please, watch it. 

Dear Luna! Have a great swim in Heaven! <3

Nakai

One of Tilikum’s son, Nakai had an extreme accident. Nakai swam down to the bottom of his tank and hurt himself somehow so badly that a dinner-plate sized chunk of skin and flesh missed under his mouth. On the bottom the boundary of the concrete and steel caused the demage and I am sure it was not an accident! It wasn’t a scratch. Maybe Nakai tried to commit suicide. I could imagine that. Doctors put him together with laser therapy and of course he has to perform. He has a huge scar under his mouth.

Nakai after the "accident"

Better than ever! Ready to perform...

Kasatka

She was less than 2 years old when people captured her near Iceland. She tried to bite trainers during shows a few times. She has many children. In 2006 there was a horrible accident during her show in San Diego. She had a calf a little earlier and the baby was in a bad mood, maybe she was ill. The baby was separated in a small pool near Kasatka and the show was almost over when the trainer Ken Parker jumped into the water and Kasatka bite his leg under the water and didn’t let it go. She swam down to the bottom of the tank two times with the trainer’s leg in her mouth and didn’t let him breath for minutes. It’s a miracle that the trainer survived. Finally Kasatka let him go. 

Kasatka is biting the trainer's leg under the water

Later the trainer said he heard the sound of the calf just before Kasatka bite him. The baby cried, screamed, it was obvious. I think it’s completely understandable how the mother reacted. I’m sure she wanted to be with her baby immediately and calm her, help her. Maybe the baby was in pain or just wanted to be with her mommy. Kasatka only wanted to tell people she can not do the show any longer, she has to go to her calf. Let her go! She didn’t kill the trainer because she didn’t want to. It wasn’t her goal. So if we examine every accident that happened in Sealands I’m sure there was always something going on. Something happened that changed the orcas behaviors. I hate to read about captivated orca attacks "without reason". Please… There are so many sings. And the sings are screaming, the orcas are shouting for help. How can’t people see it? 

Orcas belong to the ocean

Over the years many calf died who born in captivity. One died after 3 days, another after 14 days or two months. Sometimes doctors can’t find the cause of deaths. They all seem healthy. I read somewhere that it can happen because the babies know, they feel that born into a concrete pool with bad quality, pee-warm water is not their natural environment. Plus they know that their lives have no meaning at all so their system gives up.

Welcome to our concrete world, poor orca baby :(

The other thing my stomach can’t take is when they separate the baby from the mother because the mom doesn’t do the shows so well or the baby is not a good performer. So those bastards send the baby away to another Seaworld! The only comfort is having each other for these orcas! Like real relatives. Seaworld don’t give a shit about an already proven fact that these animals have a part in their brains that we, humans don’t even have!!! This part is responsible for emotions. Orcas are able to feel things we can’t, orcas are more connected to each other inside their families than we, human beings are.  That is a proven fact. So I’m asking how can people hurt these wonderful creatures when we all know the facts?

You could say it's touching to see them perform together. But I think it's sad. What kind of life is that?

Another interesting data is that there is no record about orca attack in the wild! Not a single one. They never even hurt people so far and we know orcas and humans meet each other from time to time in the water. When an orca attacks somebody, it happens only in captivity! Only! So it’s absolutely the humans fault that this particular phenomenon as “orca attack” even exists.

Not so clever. Sealand workers let a simple secretary ride an orca. It didn't end well... But the woman survived.

I spent many hours to read about orcas to have enough information to write this post. (Only at nights after my babies went to sleep. :) Now that I know a bit more about them and their lives in captivity, sadly I have to say they wouldn’t survive in the ocean. Of course it’s easy to say “people should let them go back where they belong” but in reality it wouldn’t work. They couldn’t protect themselves, maybe they couldn’t hunt and eat enough, they would get easily pneumonia because of the extremely cold water. It’s a fact that the water is very warm in their tanks in Seaworlds. Which is absolutely abnormal for an orca. They are always sick because the temperature and quality of the water is very bad.  And the most important thing is the family and as we all know they would have a tiny chance to find theirs in the wild ocean. Oh, and what about those who were born in captivity? They don’t even have a place to go back! So it seems those poor orcas in captivity have no chance to have a normal life. I think the solution would be to make bays for them, you know, separated areas in the ocean near seashores so they would be protected from the wild ocean but would be in real water in natural environment. Most importantly they wouldn’t have to perform and do those stupid shows every single day again and again!

The Aquaworld signed a paper last year. It says they will stop artificial insemination. If this is true, there won’t be another orca baby born in captivity. We all know how greedy and moron people can be so they will capture orcas in the future. I realy hope it will be illegal to do this soon and it sould be illegal to buy orcas as well!

The only thing we can do besides talking about it and protesting against it is never going to Sealands to see orcas because if we do, it will never end. If those idiots don’t get money from it maybe they will stop doing this evil thing.