Sometimes known as “the world’s loneliest orca”, Kiska the killer whale spent more than four decades in captivity at MarineLand, a theme park in Niagara Falls, Canada.For the last 12 of those years, despite wild orcas being social and intelligent animals that live in tight-knit family pods that hunt together and communicate through underwater clicks and calls, Kiska swam alone, in a featureless tank, with no calves, mate or mother by her side. She was the last captive orca in Canada...Kiska’s death comes four years after Canada passed bill S-203, banning the captivity and breeding of whales, dolphins and porpoises. Although the new law was too late for Kiska – individuals already in captivity were excluded from protection – activists say her story was instrumental in drawing public attention to the plight of captive marine mammals.
More information at The Guardian.
This is the sort of thing that ought to shake us to the core on a moral level. Instead it's seen as mostly peripheral. In that lies information about our failure to remain a viable species.
ReplyDeleteRest in peace, Kiska. I'm sorry for what they did to you.
ReplyDeleteJohn Lilly, the guy who says he can talk to dolphins, said he was in an aquarium, and he was talking to a big whale who was swimming around and around in his tank. And the whale kept asking him questions telepathically. And one of the questions the whale kept asking was: "do all oceans have walls?" (Laurie Anderson ~ The Ugly One with the Jewels and Other Stories)
ReplyDeleteNotice the tastefully cropped dorsal fin in this and all the other pictures of her I could find. It flops to one side or the other after a few years in a cage.
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