This drone video footage, courtesy of @Curtis.Pixels, shows the orca Kiska at Marineland Canada, shortly before she died on March 10th, 2023. A statement from Marineland said that she had suffered a bacterial infection.
The news or Kiska's passing is devastating to all of us who have been working toward the time when she could be retired to the coastal sanctuary that the Whale Sanctuary Project is creating in Nova Scotia.
Dr. Lori Marino, Founder and President of the Whale Sanctuary Project, writes:
I first met Kiska in 2016 as part of my research for a report on Marineland for the non-profit organization Zoocheck, Inc. As I watched her swim in endless circles in her barren concrete environment, I imagined what it would be like for her and the other whales at Marineland if they could be retired to a coastal sanctuary.
At that time, we were just beginning the search along both coasts of North America for the best possible location for such a sanctuary. So, in my mind’s eye, I could see Kiska in the open water of a bay, swimming and diving, chasing the birds, and exploring the plants and creatures in the kind of rich environment she had known as an infant.
That kind of life had come to an end for Kiska when she was captured from the North Atlantic Ocean in 1979 at around age three and taken to an aquarium in Iceland. From there, she was sold to Marineland, where she was housed briefly with Keiko, the future star of the “Free Willy” movies, before he was resold to an entertainment park in Mexico. Keiko would later be rescued, rehabilitated and returned to the ocean by Charles Vinick (now our executive director) and Jeff Foster (now our Animal Transfer & Rehab Coordinator) off the coast of Iceland.
Over the years at Marineland, Kiska would give birth to five children and see all of them perish. What would this have meant to her as a mother? As a neuroscientist who has examined the brains and the psychology of orcas and other cetaceans for 35 years, I can say that orcas are very similar to humans in terms of the deep bonds they have with their families. They are intelligent, emotional beings who suffer grief and loss just as we do.
Despite being a member of a highly social species, however, Kiska was forced to spend the last twelve years of her life in complete isolation without the company of a single member of her own kind.
Provincial regulations require that a necropsy be performed on Kiska, and we strongly urge that the report be made public. But no words can explain away a lifetime of pain and misery as experienced by a deeply intelligent, social, family-centered being who had the terrible misfortune to become known as the loneliest whale in the world.
What we already know is that her health had been in decline for at least several weeks and that an animal’s immune system is damaged by chronic stress – the kind of stress that comes from living in isolation for an extended time in an artificial, impoverished environment. We also know that orcas who live in the open ocean can live to be 80 or 90 years old, while, in captivity, they often don’t survive beyond their twenties. So, we can say that while a pathogen was likely the agent of her death, the cause was captivity itself.
Parliament has already legislated the end of keeping whales and dolphins in captivity. But there are still approximately 35 beluga whales still being held at Marineland. (The company has not disclosed the exact number.) Last year, five were transferred to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. Two of them did not survive more than a few months.
In a recent radio interview, the mayor of Niagara Falls, Canada disclosed that Marineland is up for sale and that he is committed to the welfare of the animals – marine mammals and a large number of land animals – as his chief priority related to any transfer of ownership. That means relocating the remaining whales and dolphins as quickly as possible to facilities that can provide them with a better life.
The loss of Kiska will only intensify the urgency of our team to help Marineland relocate the approximately 34 belugas and five dolphins who remain there. And we look to every available means to transfer as many as possible to sanctuaries as we press ahead to complete the work that’s required to obtain the necessary permits to begin construction of the sanctuary in Port Hilford Bay, Nova Scotia.
To complete this work and to ensure the transfer of whales to sanctuary will involve the combined efforts of government and nonprofit organizations, along with benefactors and regular donors, and a cooperative relationship with Marineland itself.
Kiska will no longer be part of that future. But her tragic death can still have meaning if we rally together to create a better future for all of the whales who continue to endure life in concrete tanks.
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