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| Beautiful little Katy |
These were the orcas taken from the Southern Resident population
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| http://www.orcahome.de/impact.htm |
Moby doll went to Burrard Drydocks
Katy went to Seattle (broker)
Shamu went to Seaworld
Skana went to Vancouver Aquarium
Lupa went to New York/Coney Island
Ahab went to US Navy
Ishmael went to US Navy (escaped)
Haida went to Sealand of the Pacific
Nootka 2
Kandy
Miracle
Hugo went to Miami Seaquarium
Lolita THE ONLY LIVING SOUTHERN RESIDENT CAPTURE
Mamuk went to Sea Arama Texas
Lil Nootka
Cuddles went to Flamingo land UK
Ramu 2 went to Marineland Australia
Ramu 4
Jumbo and Chappy went to Kamogawa Japan
Clovis went to Marineland Antibes
Kandu 2 - Germany then to Marineland Canada
Kanuck
45 killer whales were captured and removed from the Southern Resident killer whale community until 1973, when the marine park industry was forced to put an end to the captures.
From the 45 killer whales a total of 19 females, 21 males and 2 whales of unknown gender were caught and measured. In addition to that, 1 adult female and 2 whales of unknown gender and age, died during capture activities without any measurement taken place.
34 whales were removed to aquaria and marine parks of which Seaworld took the most taking 10, 11 whales died during the capture activities.
Of the removed animals only the female killer whale Lolita, captured in August 1970 at Penn Cove, is alive as of today.
When the Southern Residents were surveyed in 2004 Not a single animal was encountered that was estimated to be born between the years 1967 and 1970.
43% of reproductive females were taken from the population during those captures, which does not include the possible calves from those females too.
The lower level of reproductive females led to a lower level of births in the population, bringing the average from a possible 4,84 down to an actual 3,39 births per year. Because of the captures an estimated total of 45 animals were not born to the community. Per year about 25% of the reproductive females have a calf.
Added to the 45 captured killer whales, this brings the total loss to the community to about 90 animals. This is more than the Southern Resident killer whale community numbers as of today.
Because of the animals taken into captivity and the effect this had on the population the Southern Residents are the only Killer Whale population listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. It is currently protected under the Endangered Species Act as of 2005.
Once the orca's were given protection Seaworld and the remaining Aquariums that still thought keeping orca's was a good idea moved straight on to Iceland and resumed their captures there.
There is now only one surviving orca from the captures above - Lolita at Miami Seaquarium and despite numerous campaigns she still remains there, despite her mother Ocean Sun still being with L pod.
Miami Seaquarium has just been sold, so hopefully they will allow Lolita to go back home and live out her days with the family she was stolen from all those years ago. L pod are waiting for her.
figures taken from /www.orcahome.de
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