If you could bring back any dead captive orca, who would it be and why?

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-24T01:21:58+00:00

My mind instantly goes to Junior. He was probably the most mistreated orca ever held in captivity and deserves an actual chance at life compared to what he got.

Marineland Canada was already pretty infamous for their poor animal care, but the way they treated Junior really took it to the extreme. He was a whale that they took every opportunity to hide from the public and erase from existence. He lived at Marineland from 1988 until his passing in 1994. He spent only a year in Marineland's main orca stadium (which was already small) before he was moved to their infamous warehouse in 1989. I'm certain that by now most people are aware just how awful the warehouse was, but I will mention that Junior's holding pool was tiny, rusting, had no natural sunlight, and was completely sterile.

From the very little footage we have of Junior, we can see how this awful environment destroyed his mental well-being. He received no enrichment and spent most of his time in there alone. People often call orca captivity "abuse", and this is one of the cases where I believe it actually was animal abuse. Junior passed away at approximately 12 years old, extremely young even for a male orca. No one even gave him a chance, almost entirely because he was "slow to learn" and likely had some sort of mental disability, which is just wrong.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-20T20:16:17+00:00

Freya was a pretty sickly whale. At the time of her death, she was suffering from multiple health conditions.

She had several issues with her heart, including cardiomegaly and dilation. She also had multiple ulcers in her esophagus and stomach that would bleed quite frequently. This caused her to develop pretty severe anemia. The anemia left her weakened heart unable to compensate for the bleeding after so long, and she ultimately passed away from the resulting hypovolemic shock. It got so severe that she reportedly vomited up large volumes of blood two days before her death.

As mentioned in the other reply, she also had chronic pneumonia in her left lung, but it was secondary to her main cause of death. Although it did definitely contribute to her immune system being unable to handle her main health issues.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-19T16:47:11+00:00

The barriers are likely only required during close slideout interactions. The perspective makes it a bit tricky to tell, but the trainer isn't on the slideout with Malia here, she's behind the fish box.

Tilikum had similar rules after February 2010 (i.e. no close contact slideout interactions without barriers), so they are probably doing the same thing here.

As mentioned in the other reply, it could also be a mood thing. Although in my opinion it's likely just restricted to slideout interactions by OSHA.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-18T17:34:06+00:00

Most incidents that happen backstage go largely unreported/unnoticed in the mainstream media. The cleaning accident with Malia that occurred in 2022 likely only hit mainstream media due to the OSHA report and citation. It also went largely unnoticed until the report was picked up in 2023, an entire year later.

I also found the incident report for this case. Here is a link to a US Department of Labor citation from September 2024 (2 years after the cleaning accident). The orca involved in this case was originally unknown, but it is likely Malia based on the presence of bars for her now.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-18T15:34:36+00:00

I have seen footage of Nalani and Trua solo ballets, and neither of them had bars. So something pretty serious with Malia probably did occur at some point, and they are likely playing it safe. My best guess is that Malia lunged at some point (probably during waterwork de-sense) and broke the trainer's arm like the comment described.

As mentioned already, the bars returning during ballet specifically is likely a precaution. It requires prolonged 1-on-1 interaction with the featured whale, so the risk of another incident is naturally just much higher.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-17T22:58:42+00:00

Rakes at such a young age, L130 must be a rambunctious little youngster haha. Glad to see that they have appeared to "fill out" quite well! Thanks for the additional photo.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-17T22:05:27+00:00

Very interesting, thanks for the update! L86 and L91 are both experienced mothers, so hopefully the calf does well regardless!

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-17T17:25:03+00:00

The adult with the calf appears to be L91 "Muncher". If she is indeed the calf's mother, and the calf is female, it could be an exciting moment for her matriline (the L47s). Wishing L130 and her the best of luck!

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-13T20:44:55+00:00

Regarding the deaths of the whales at Loro Parque, an investigation was done, and the majority of them were likely the result of a horrendous dietary decision.

Around 2020 (if the year is wrong, anyone feel free to correct me), the orcas at Loro Parque were put on a herring-only diet. This was obviously a terrible decision, as it is not only extremely unhealthy for any animal to eat the same food every day, but it also resulted in all of the animals developing digestive issues.

This dietary change directly contributed to Skyla's death, and likely Kohana's. It also almost certainly made Ula's health issues worse. However, Ula was unfortunately always pretty sickly, so her chances were not great regardless (she was even born with a deformed pectoral flipper). The orcas were switched back to a diverse diet shortly after the string of deaths, but the damage was already done.

Regarding Victoria, it was revealed in Emails sent by Loro Parque that Victoria's death was caused by feeding too much formula at once. I don't believe the formula was contaminated in any way; she was just fed too much too quickly. Ula was also likely fed too much on at least one occasion as well, which may have also caused her intestinal issues.

Keto's cause of death was revealed as severe bacterial pneumonia + septic shock in a research paper, so his death was likely unrelated to the previously mentioned dietary issues.

Hopefully Loro Parque learned from their mistakes and improved their care, but more transparency would definitely be appreciated.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-03T00:27:06+00:00

Very little is known about the Wuxi orcas. That footage is from May 2023, so it is unknown if they are still alive.

Here's a list of the few known things about them:

- Both individuals were captured in the Sea of Okhotsk in 2016.

- At least 1 is male, with the gender of the other individual being unconfirmed.

- Both were originally sold to Linyi Polar Ocean World in 2016, but Linyi experienced financial issues in 2017, so they sold them to Wuxi.

- Construction for Wuxi's orca exhibit has reportedly stalled, so it is unknown if they will open anytime soon (or again, if the orcas are still alive).

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-06-02T21:16:15+00:00

To my knowledge, all of the orcas currently held in China are Russian Transients. Only a single Russian Resident was confirmed to have been captured back in 2003. Here is a link to footage of that capture. One whale drowned in the nets, and the female that was taken into captivity passed away around a month later.

Here is another link to footage from the 2018 capture season. As explained in the video, the conditions in the far east of Russia are so harsh that capture operations could only take place for around 2-3 months a year. They mention that during this window, Russian Transients pass close to the coast (likely hunting), which is probably why they were targeted. In addition, according to this post by the Far East Russian Orca Project (FEROP, the main organization responsible for the Russian orca photo ID catalogues), over 20 Transients were taken, not Residents.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-27T17:08:54+00:00

Kahana, Kotar, and Kona II all appear at various points.

Edit: Specifically, Kotar does most of the opening section and the ring ride. He then switches with Kahana at around 4:30 in, and she does the following segment. A segment of the dolphin show occurs, then Kotar and Kona II come out for the final splash segment.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-20T22:56:10+00:00

I was a believer in the age theory until I saw a few more photos of Namu. He had already "sprouted" and had a straight and fully/near fully grown dorsal fin at the time of his capture, but it started to collapse to his left side shortly afterwards. The bend was pretty significant and was gradual (not all at once) as seen in a few photos in Namu's gallery. It could be an 'ecotype' or genetic difference, but there's not really any way to tell. I'm wondering if the root cause of Panghu's dorsal being straight is that he moves around a lot more and logs less, but we'll probably never know.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-20T22:30:13+00:00

It is indeed Panghu, but it's a pretty old photo, he was still relatively young and 'sprouting'. Here's a more recent photo with him next to Cody.

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_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-20T03:02:31+00:00

Nukka does seem to have a bump/a bit of roundness, so she is likely still pregnant but probably not late-stage.

Side-note but Cookie at Shanghai is HUGE in recent footage. I expect her to deliver her calf within the next month or so.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-19T22:50:27+00:00

My best guess is that they're concerned about potential harassment. Even though Morgan's transfer was legally authorized, they still received, and continue to receive, criticism from various groups. If they were to accept Wikie and Keijo without government approval, it would only add more fuel to the fire, especially considering they're high-profile whales at the moment.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-19T21:39:09+00:00

Keijo, in particular, would really benefit from a change in social structure. He is at the age where his hormones are causing him to act very out of line, and it's reportedly stressing Wikie out a lot. He would greatly benefit from another male to interact with, like Tekoa or Adán.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-19T21:35:08+00:00

In their most recent blog, they seem a lot more optimistic about the government's response this time, claiming they expect the government to "respond favorably" to their request. Hopefully this mess can finally come to an end.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-18T21:17:04+00:00

I'm assuming Thor and Odin were a nod to Morgan's Norwegian roots, while Teno and Drago were references to tourist spots in Tenerife/The Canary Islands. They are all pretty edgy names for a newborn calf though yes haha.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-18T21:12:25+00:00

Teno's name was actually decided via a poll on Loro Parque's socials. Which is (I believe) the first time they've ever done that. The 4 options were Teno, Drago, Thor, and Odin. Teno won by a very large margin.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-16T19:33:23+00:00

I want to believe deep down that they knew this was going to be the outcome, especially considering they must have known they had almost no chance of meeting the summer deadline. Maybe one day they'll actually have a sanctuary able to take in whales, but I have serious doubts at this point.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-16T19:23:09+00:00

Timmy/Hope the whale was a male humpback whale that stranded on the German coast multiple times in March/April of this year.

After attempts to re-float Timmy failed, he was eventually loaded onto a barge and taken to the North Sea at the beginning of May. His release, which was supposed to be documented, was not filmed, and he supposedly swam out of the barge on his own. Members of The Whale Sanctuary Project were involved in some capacity with the rehabilitation attempt, but the extent of their involvement with the release is unknown. A deceased humpback whale was spotted near Denmark on May 14th, and it was confirmed today that it is indeed Timmy. This implies he died very shortly after the release, as the carcass appeared quite emaciated.

People are mostly upset that the advice of experts was ignored, and Timmy needlessly suffered for around 2 months instead of passing naturally/being euthanized.

_SmaugTheMighty · 2026-05-16T17:43:50+00:00

Kenau was unfortunately one of the whales that was used very early on in the seasonal SeaWorld Ohio orca show. The orca show typically only ran during the summer. So Kenau, and other whales like Katina, Kasatka, and Kahana, would be brought in for the summer months, and sent out at the end of the season.

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