Global Captive Orca Population

Here's an interesting bit of news out of France regarding the orca transfer (translated from One Voice's recent Instagram post): "One Voice has just obtained a temporary ban on Marineland moving orcas. A hearing will be held on Tuesday January 16 at 9:00 a.m. at the Grasse judicial court to decide whether a more lasting ban is placed on the park from moving the three orcas in order to allow the two legal experts appointed by the Aix-en Court of Appeal -Provence on September 21, 2023 to carry out their mission in the presence of the orcas. Indeed, the judicial expertise ordered by the court of appeal concerns both the examination of the installations of the Riviera dolphinarium and the state of health of the orcas, even though one of them, Moana, died in mid-October , barely 12 years old. This is an important milestone victory for us as animal defenders, even if it in no way predicts the final outcome. #SaveOurOrcas #ASanctuaryNotJapan #StopDolphinarium"
Marineland : One Voice obtient l’interdiction temporaire de déplacer les orques : audience le 16/01/24
I feel so bad for Wikie, Inouk, and Keijo; they're truly stuck in limbo between a rock and a hard place. The tanks at Kamogawa Sea World and Kobe Suma Sea World are ridiculously small, which would be terrible for them after spending their whole lives in a relatively large tank, and the move could result in them being split up, which would make it even worse. But from what I've gathered MLA doesn't have the resources to keep on caring for them. It's frustrating that activists don't understand that a sea sanctuary would cost millions of dollars to build and maintain, and neither MLA nor any animal charity has that kind of money long-term. By campaigning to 'empty the tanks' and shut down captive cetacean facilities in their home countries no matter what, activists are unwittingly supporting sending these animals to facilities abroad that are likely worse for them welfare-wise (and more dangerous for humans, considering that Kamogawa still does waterwork). What a bizarre situation this has become; I will definitely be watching intently for any updates.
 
PantheraLeoMelanochaita said:
Here's an interesting bit of news out of France regarding the orca transfer (translated from One Voice's recent Instagram post): "One Voice has just obtained a temporary ban on Marineland moving orcas. A hearing will be held on Tuesday January 16 at 9:00 a.m. at the Grasse judicial court to decide whether a more lasting ban is placed on the park from moving the three orcas in order to allow the two legal experts appointed by the Aix-en Court of Appeal -Provence on September 21, 2023 to carry out their mission in the presence of the orcas. Indeed, the judicial expertise ordered by the court of appeal concerns both the examination of the installations of the Riviera dolphinarium and the state of health of the orcas, even though one of them, Moana, died in mid-October , barely 12 years old. This is an important milestone victory for us as animal defenders, even if it in no way predicts the final outcome. #SaveOurOrcas #ASanctuaryNotJapan #StopDolphinarium"
Marineland : One Voice obtient l’interdiction temporaire de déplacer les orques : audience le 16/01/24
I feel so bad for Wikie, Inouk, and Keijo; they're truly stuck in limbo between a rock and a hard place. The tanks at Kamogawa Sea World and Kobe Suma Sea World are ridiculously small, which would be terrible for them after spending their whole lives in a relatively large tank, and the move could result in them being split up, which would make it even worse. But from what I've gathered MLA doesn't have the resources to keep on caring for them. It's frustrating that activists don't understand that a sea sanctuary would cost millions of dollars to build and maintain, and neither MLA nor any animal charity has that kind of money long-term. By campaigning to 'empty the tanks' and shut down captive cetacean facilities in their home countries no matter what, activists are unwittingly supporting sending these animals to facilities abroad that are likely worse for them welfare-wise (and more dangerous for humans, considering that Kamogawa still does waterwork). What a bizarre situation this has become; I will definitely be watching intently for any updates.
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Hmm, that is a very interesting set of events. I wonder if management will sell the park if they are forced to keep the Killer Whales or what the outcome will be of that. To clarify though, waterworks are not dangerous in a manner where they shouldn't occur but rather better for both the humans and the whales. It creates actual relationships based on trust instead of food and other primary reinforcers as we see today with most facilities. Waterworks also require more exercise from the whales along with critical thinking skills that are not always present in out of water behaviors. It is also a safety tool for if a trainer or visitor were to fall into an enclosure. Parks like Marineland Antibes, Loro Parque, and even SeaWorld, although they haven't recently do to OSHA restrictions getting tighter, have senior trainers enter the water with the whales for such reasons. Accidents can happen with waterworks as seen in a past but most are either caused by the whales large size (a whale bumping a trainer on accident) or due to human error (SeaWorld San Diego separating Kataska from Kalia which caused Kataska to lash out when Kalia cried for her from another tank). Killer whale and other cetacean waterworks are very different from other forms of free contact with animals such as elephants and big cats but still seems to get the same reputation. As someone who has been to both Kamogawa and the SeaWorlds here in the US (Even worked there many years ago :p) I can definitely say that the trainers and whales at Kamogawa have a much deeper relationship then those at the SeaWorld parks (No discredit to the SeaWorld trainers though as they are all great people working a very hard job, it is simply a state and management issue).
 
Naya's calf has passed away at Moskvarium:

Via the Moskvarium: On December 29, 2023, the first births of killer whales in an artificial habitat took place in Russia. Despite the successful completion of difficult births and rapid development in the first month of life, the little killer whale died on January 26. The cause of death was decompensation against the background of congenital heart disease, which could not be diagnosed.Moskvarium veterinarians did not conduct medical examinations of the small killer whale, limiting themselves to visual monitoring of its activity and feeding. This is due to the fact that in the first months of life there is a formation of child-parent relations, and any intervention from the outside could negatively affect the interaction of the mother and the baby. Medical procedures with killer whales are possible only after contact with trainers who help animals build trusting relationships with veterinarians and calmly respond to various examinations.The "Moskvarium" team mourns the loss of the baby and continues to monitor Nai's condition around the clock."Despite the fact that Naya, of course, is experiencing the loss of the baby, thanks to the trusting connection with the trainers of the centre, she allowed to take herself to a separate enclosure and pick up the baby for all the necessary research. At the moment, all the efforts of the Moskvarium team are aimed at maintaining a stable emotional and physical condition of Nai," said Irina Suvorova, head of the Moskvarium veterinary service.
 
katinakalinakaterina said:
Naya's calf has passed away at Moskvarium:

Via the Moskvarium: On December 29, 2023, the first births of killer whales in an artificial habitat took place in Russia. Despite the successful completion of difficult births and rapid development in the first month of life, the little killer whale died on January 26. The cause of death was decompensation against the background of congenital heart disease, which could not be diagnosed.Moskvarium veterinarians did not conduct medical examinations of the small killer whale, limiting themselves to visual monitoring of its activity and feeding. This is due to the fact that in the first months of life there is a formation of child-parent relations, and any intervention from the outside could negatively affect the interaction of the mother and the baby. Medical procedures with killer whales are possible only after contact with trainers who help animals build trusting relationships with veterinarians and calmly respond to various examinations.The "Moskvarium" team mourns the loss of the baby and continues to monitor Nai's condition around the clock."Despite the fact that Naya, of course, is experiencing the loss of the baby, thanks to the trusting connection with the trainers of the centre, she allowed to take herself to a separate enclosure and pick up the baby for all the necessary research. At the moment, all the efforts of the Moskvarium team are aimed at maintaining a stable emotional and physical condition of Nai," said Irina Suvorova, head of the Moskvarium veterinary service.
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Wow, very sad news. A shame that Naja is now back on her own again. I wonder what this means for her now as cetacean export is now banned. Hopefully consideration can be given (although it would be very very hard), to send her to another facility, potentially in China.
 
Video on Instagram from China Cetacean Alliance of the two orcas at Wuxi from May 2023.

Finally, after years of effort, there is visual evidence of the existence of two orcas in Wuxi.

Since the release of the 2017 report ”Jiangsu Inspection and Quarantine Bureau expert group conducted an assessment and acceptance of the orcas in Changqiao Ocean Kingdom, Wuxi“ , the survival and whereabouts of these two orcas have been elusive, and their status has been unclear for at least six years.

Changqiao Group has been preparing the Wuxi project since 2016 and even opened a Zhoushan facility after the pandemic. This adds financial pressure to the chain. Although the visual evidence of these two orcas is from May 2023, it provides a glimpse into the challenges of cost control in the captive cetacean industry - the upfront costs of purchasing and maintaining animals are substantial. Once they are display-ready, facilities will do their utmost to capitalize on them.

In January this year, even the recently opened Zhuhai Chimelong Spaceship had only a very small number of visitors. Hangzhou Changqiao, much older and somewhat run-down, had an equally small number of visitors on a Sunday (with tickets priced at 360 rmb, more expensive than either Haichang or Chimelong).
 
katinakalinakaterina said:
Video on Instagram from China Cetacean Alliance of the two orcas at Wuxi from May 2023.

Finally, after years of effort, there is visual evidence of the existence of two orcas in Wuxi.

Since the release of the 2017 report ”Jiangsu Inspection and Quarantine Bureau expert group conducted an assessment and acceptance of the orcas in Changqiao Ocean Kingdom, Wuxi“ , the survival and whereabouts of these two orcas have been elusive, and their status has been unclear for at least six years.

Changqiao Group has been preparing the Wuxi project since 2016 and even opened a Zhoushan facility after the pandemic. This adds financial pressure to the chain. Although the visual evidence of these two orcas is from May 2023, it provides a glimpse into the challenges of cost control in the captive cetacean industry - the upfront costs of purchasing and maintaining animals are substantial. Once they are display-ready, facilities will do their utmost to capitalize on them.

In January this year, even the recently opened Zhuhai Chimelong Spaceship had only a very small number of visitors. Hangzhou Changqiao, much older and somewhat run-down, had an equally small number of visitors on a Sunday (with tickets priced at 360 rmb, more expensive than either Haichang or Chimelong).
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I know that China is larger than America, but there’s been such an explosion in ocean-themed parks there over the last few decades that I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them closed due to oversaturation and competition. And there’s several more in development… it’d be one thing if some of them had less specific theming, but they’re all ocean-themed, and straddle this weird boundary between amusement park and aquarium. Perhaps these two orcas will end up at Chimelong or Shanghai. I wonder where the two female orcas that were supposed to go to SunAsia Beluga Whale World Coastal City will end up; the company building that park seems to be in a similar situation (a park that was intended to be completed in ~2019 stuck in limbo for years due to financial problems and Covid). That poor little calf… now Naya is all alone again :(
 
One Voice and the Whale Sanctuary Project have officially joined forces to propose a plan to send Wikie, Inouk, and Keijo to the WSP's as-yet-unbuilt sanctuary in Nova Scotia to the French government. I don't know how I feel about this—I've been extremely critical of the WSP and their anti-zoo agenda for years, but the orca habitats at Kamogawa, Kobe Suma, and to a lesser extent Port of Nagoya are so pathetically small (the former two are barely bigger than Tokitae's infamous 'whale bowl') that I just can't endorse any more orcas being placed into them when there's another option on the table, especially considering that those facilities no doubt intend to use Wikie, Inouk, and Keijo for breeding, which would make the tanks even more cramped. Also, although Marineland refuses to confirm which facilities would be receiving their orcas, there is an extremely high chance that they would be split up between facilities and never see each other again for the rest of their lives, which would significantly compound the stress and trauma they'd already be experiencing from the move. On the other hand, the sea sanctuary model is unproven and has its own unique risks, such as pathogens (spreading from captive to wild orcas or vice versa) and pollution. The biggest factor that makes these orcas being handed over to the WSP unlikely, in my opinion, is the matter of timing. Marineland wants these orcas gone ASAP, but even if the WSP adheres to the 'accelerated plan' that they mentioned in the above blog post to get a smaller pen built to welcome these orcas before the full sanctuary is completed, construction could still take months or even a year or more. They also have to hire and train enough staff to care for the orcas. What I wish more than anything is for this orca family to be allowed to stay in their relatively large tank at Marineland, the only home they've ever known. It's honestly a tragedy that it's come to this. I wish some philanthropic millionaire would step up and offer Marineland enough funding to keep the orcas for the rest of their lives, but that wouldn't satisfy either side—Marineland wants to sell these orcas to those three Japanese parks and move away from that sort of business model to avoid going belly-up, and activists won't accept anything less than a full 'sanctuary', even if it isn't actually better for the whales, just better for their egos. At this point, I have no idea what will happen, but my gut feeling is that the transfer to Japan will end up going through, even if it is significantly delayed.
 
I agree. I also think the best option for those animals would be to stay at Marineland until their deaths. I don´t trust too much on sanctuaries, but in this ocasion, I think it would worth the try. There is no way they can stay in France since either the park or the government want to take care of them, and their future in Japan is so sad that I prefer the risk of a sanctuary that is not even already buildt. Anyway, the move to Japan is also riskly. The trip itself, the adaptation to the much smaller pools, to be separated... Can´t imagine the stress those animals will endure.
 
One thing I consistently find interesting is these sanctuaries are so expensive to set up and maintain there's never one ready when they need it. It's always, "Oh, we'll accelerate it" and then something else happens because it takes too long and it falls into oblivion again. Sure there's the one for the two Belugas, but they've had problem after problem, the whales continue to actively seek human attention, and have to be kept indoors during the winter. Hardly what the portrayed image was. It seems to be an extremely difficult concept to actually pull off.
Per this projected project, it seems like fencing off a 100 acre bay would disrupt a lot of local wildlife... apparently it's got an old mill on the shoreline and they had several samples of seabed and aquatic invertebrates come up with arsenic... sending them to Japan isn't really ideal either, really between a rock and a hard place.
 
BlobfishBoy said:
Interesting development: Marineland Antibes confirmed via Facebook reply that killer whale shows will be back starting on March 30th. I wonder what this means for length of the delay of the Japan transfer.
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Hopefully it hasn't been cancelled. Seems they're in a stalemate at the moment with the government restrictions being imposed.
 
Kamogawa Sea World has cancelled their Orca shows. It’s likely Lovely is giving birth to her calf.

Sacchi said:
On Suma's website updates, it says there will be pre-opening killer whale performances on May 30th, so they must be importing whales from somewhere soon.
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I’ve read a rumor that they’ll be getting two whales from Kamogawa for their opening but nothing is confirmed.
 
All four whales at Kamogawa Sea World have resumed shows with no signs of the calf with Lovey or in the med pool. Apparently Lovey is back to doing high energy activities. People in Japan who are more familiar with the facility are saying on social media that her calf died, which seems likely. Heartbreaking, especially since her gestation was so long. If it really did pass, RIP unnamed calf.
 
BlobfishBoy said:
All four whales at Kamogawa Sea World have resumed shows with no signs of the calf with Lovey or in the med pool. Apparently Lovey is back to doing high energy activities. People in Japan who are more familiar with the facility are saying on social media that her calf died, which seems likely. Heartbreaking, especially since her gestation was so long. If it really did pass, RIP unnamed calf.
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Is there any idea to what whale was the father? I didn't know Kamogawa was doing AI until recently.
 
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