December 7, 2013:
22-year-old female Takara gave birth to a female calf yesterday morning. This is Takara’s fourth calf after Kohana, Trua and Sakari. Kohana and Trua have been taken away from their mother at young age and moved to other parks. The calf’s father is apparently Argentina’s Kshamenk via artificial insemination.
Source: San Antonio Express-News
December 7, 2013:
Miami Seaquarium might be sold to a company called Palace Entertainment, a subsidiary of Spanish parks operator Parques Reunidos. It has to be seen what this will mean for Lolita, who is still holding out at this miserable facility. There’s is growing support to let Lolita, aka Tokitae, retire in her native waters in the Pacific Northwest.
Source: Miami Herald
December 4, 2013:
Narnia and a young male orca have been moved from Vladivostok to the new Moscow Dolphinarium and Aquarium.
Source: Russian Orcas
December 4, 2013:
SeaWorld Florida is going to close Shamu Stadium from early January to about early April next year to do some major repair work.
Source: Orlando Sentinel
November 27, 2013:
12-year-old female Wikie gave birth to a calf last Wednesday at Marineland Antibes in France. This is Wikie’s second calf after Moana. There are strong rumours that Wikie had been impregnated by her half-brother Valentin.
Source: Digital Journal
November 13, 2013:
According to researcher Erich Hoyt from the Russian Orca Project, two of the killer whales being held near Vladivostok are soon to be flown across Russia to the Sochi Dolphinarium. Sochi is a busy place these days preparing for the winter Olympics, 7-23 Feb. 2014. The whale captors are intending to make money during the Olympics by putting the orcas on display. These will be the first orcas ever displayed in public in Russia. A sad day for Russia, a sad thing for the Olympics, a very sad situation for 2 orcas who now will be flying across 7 time zones, some 7,427 kilometres (4,614 miles) to spend the rest of what remains of their lives in captivity.
November 27, 2013:
Photographs taken by Dr Ingrid Visser on the 17th of November 2013, clearly show that 6-year-old female Morgan has continued to suffer whilst being ‘cared’ for at Loro Parque, Spain. Her front teeth are worn down to the gums, others have had more than a third worn off and yet at least one other is broken. Not shown in the photo is a tooth on her right jaw which is nearly worn to the pulp and which may very well have to be drilled out. If not, she may get a tooth infection, which could cause sepsis and death. The photo also clearly shows the extreme damage she has inflicted on herself from continually banging against the tank walls. This is termed ‘hypertrophic tissue damage’ and is often itchy as well as sore. Furthermore, Morgan has banged her head against the tank so often that she has worn away the skin and exposed raw flesh. Yet, Loro Parque and the owner claim that Morgan is ‘doing fine and is in good health’. They also claim that Dr Visser manipulates data. You decide what you want to believe.
Source: Free Morgan Foundation
November 27, 2013:
An application has been filed with the government of Iceland to allow Tilikum, currently at SeaWorld, Orlando, to retire to a seapen in the island nation, where he was captured 30 years ago. Currently it is not known who filed the application.
Source: Death at Sea World
November 13, 2013:
According to an Australian news report, Marineland Ontario is negotiating with Russian orca captors to secure one or more of the recently captured killer whales. Unfortunately Canada hasn’t much legal protection against such an import, laws regarding this matter are even behind the ones in the US.
Source: SBS Dateline
November 13, 2013:
SeaWorld appeals OSHA citation to provide more safety. Personally I find their argument that trainers in the water are necessary for their business quite ridiculous…
Source: WKMG Orlando
October 30, 2013:
Four more orcas have been captured near the Sakhalin Island area, southern Sea of Okhotsk. No further details are known yet but apparently those animals are now kept together with the other Russian captives at Seaside Dolphinarium near Vladivostok. Utterly depressing how the Russians keep on destroying those populations!
There is a possibility that the capture quota of 10 orcas will not be renewed for 2014, thanks to the efforts of the Russian Orca Project. Fingers crossed…
Source: Russian Orca Project, Orlando Sentinel
October 23, 2013:
The award winning documentary Blackfish will be shown on CNN starting October 24th.
Source: Beyond Blackfish
October 2, 2013:
Last month three more orcas have been captured in the Russian Sea of Okhotsk. No further details are known yet but apparently those animals are now kept together with Narnia at Seaside Dolphinarium near Vladivostok.
Update October, 16: The three orcas are an adult female, a 4-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy. The animals were captured about 50 km south of the place where Narnia was caught a year ago. They were transported in trucks for more than 1000 km to the net enclosure near Nakhodka (Vladivostok area) and placed in the same net pen where Narnia was kept for the past year. The three captives were reportedly in a very bad condition after the transport. They refused to eat. The trainers could do nothing. Finally Narnia herself tried something. She brought fish to the three captives and gave it to them. In this way she was responsible for persuading them to eat. Regarding the four orcas now in Nakhodka, Narnia and the adult female are rumoured to be headed for Moscow later this year to be placed in the Oceanarium which is being built within the All-Russia Exhibition Centre. Two young ones are rumoured to have been sold to an aquarium in China. One more family ripped apart by captivity…
Source: Russian Orca Project
July 17, 2013:
The new documentary about orcas in captivity called Blackfish, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2013, will be in US cinemas starting July 19th. There is already a healthy debate about the issue, as you can read on Digital Journal or The New York Times.
July 17, 2013:
15-year-old female Lovey is fighting an undisclosed illness. For the time being all killer whale shows have been cancelled at Kamogawa Sea World. Lovey is mother to four-year-old boy Earth and 1-year-old girl Luna. She has been separated from her mother Stella since December 2011, when Stella was moved to Port of Nagoya Aquarium.
Source: Kamogawa Sea World
Update August 14: latest news are that Lovey has recovered from her illness and is currently in the back pool with Luna.
July 17, 2013:
13-year-old female Springer / A73 has shown up with her first calf on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Springer had become separated from her mother in 2001 and was successfully reunited with her extended family in July 2002.
Source: CBC News
June 18, 2013:
10-month-old female calf Vicky passed away on Sunday at Loro Parque, Tenerife, Spain.
Vicky was the second calf of Kohana and, like Kohana’s first calf Adán, had to be raised by hand because she was rejected by her mother. Another sad incident within this dysfunctional group of young killer whales…
Source: Digital Journal
June 18, 2013:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined SeaWorld Orlando $38,500 and labelled the park a repeat offender, saying the entertainment giant continues to operate a workplace that can “cause death or serious physical harm to employees.” When it comes to choose between employee’s health and employer’s profit, SeaWorld continues to go “Green for Greed!” Obviously the company has learned nothing from Dawn Brancheau’s death.
Source: WKMG Orlando.
June 18, 2013:
The new documentary about orcas in captivity called Blackfish, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2013, will be in UK cinemas starting July 26th.
March 20, 2013:
Argentinian killer whale researcher Roberto Bubas has published a proposal to rehabilitate and possibly release 24-year-old male Kshamenk. Kshamenk had been forced to strand in September 1992 and has been on his own at Mundo Marino in Buenos Aires since female Belen passed away in February 2000. Now it’s up to the Argentinian government whether this proposal will be accepted.
Source: Diario Jornada (in Spanish)
February 15, 2013:
37-year-old female Kasatka gave birth to a calf yesterday morning. This is Kasatka’s fourth calf after Takara, Nakai and Kalia. Kasatka had been artificially inseminated with semen from Mundo Marino’s lone male Kshamenk.
Source (incl. video): The San Diego Union-Tribune
January 23, 2013:
A new documentary about orcas in captivity called “Blackfish” will soon be coming to your screens: Hollywood Reporter.
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| 2021 | 2022 |