Sealand of the Pacific was a public aquarium in Oak Bay, a suburb near the city of Victoria, in British Columbia, Canada. It was famous for its orcas, which were the main attraction.
The aquarium first became notable as the home of the famous and much-loved orca, Haida (captured in 1968 [1]). When the aquarium decided to capture a mate for him, Sealand became famous. This was because the young female whale that was captured, named Chimo, was a partial albino. Her striking white colouring had never been seen in captivity, and she quickly became one of the most famous captive whales anywhere. She died in 1972, a little over 2 years after her capture; the disease which caused her albinism, Chediak-Higashi syndrome, made her very susceptible to illness. Haida mourned her death, and remained alone for years. Eventually, Sealand captured a female whale named Nootka II for his mate. Nootka II, however, died after 9 months. His third mate, Nootka III, was also short-lived. By the time of the death of his third mate, Haida displayed no interest in them.
Sealand became famous again in 1977, when they became home to Miracle. Miracle was a baby orca found alone, shot, starved and sick. She was captured and moved to Sealand, where she was nursed back to health. Miracle became a star attraction, but was kept in a separate pen from Haida. Several years later her companion in the pen, a seal named Shadow, drowned in the nets forming the pen. While concerns were raised over the safety of the nets, no action was taken. The concerns were well founded; eventually Miracle became entangled and drowned.
As anti-captivity protests began to put pressure on aquaria, Sealand agreed to release Haida. Unexpectedly, Haida died a few days before the scheduled release in October 1982. His release had been part of a bargain for the aquarium to acquire new whales, and with the death of Haida, Sealand became free from the deal. Many people were outraged by the plan of capturing more whales, and staked a protest at the supposed capture site. Sealand, however, quietly managed to obtain three whales captured from Iceland.
The three new orcas, Tilikum, Nootka IV, and Haida II, never had good dynamics together, and indeed, the male Tilikum was often chased into the medical pen by the two females. The whales never had trainers in the water with them, after trainers noted aggressive tendencies and several near-accidents occurred.
On 20 February 1991, Keltie Byrne, a 20-year-old student and part-time orca trainer, slipped and fell into the whale pool after a show. The three orcas dragged and repeatedly submerged her until she drowned, despite other trainers' efforts to rescue her. The poor relations between the whales, unfamiliarity with trainers in the water, and the pregnancy of at least one of the females (Haida II) were cited as possible causes.[2]
Sealand of the Pacific closed down operations shortly after the incident, and the three whales were sold to SeaWorld. Tilikum and Nootka IV went to SeaWorld Orlando, while Haida II and her baby Kyuquot went to SeaWorld San Antonio. As of February 2010, only Tilikum and Kyuquot were alive.
Tillikum has been involved in two further deaths at SeaWorld Orlando, including one as recently as February 24, 2010.[3]
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||