Great story about the grief mother orcas experience when their calves die or are taken from them both in the wild and at SeaWorld.

What’s astounding to me is that one of SeaWorld’s talking points to this day remains that they do not experience any type of grief when you take a calf away from their mother and move (transport) them to another park.

The steps that we had had to go through to actually trick the mother before a separation could happen is sickening for me to remember but it’s quite complex because they are so smart.

The crane used to lift the whale out of the pool is parked 1 mile from Shamu stadium in the back area at another area of the park. If the crane was turned on BEFORE we asked either the mother or the calf to go the med pool (depended on who was being moved), the mother would refuse to “sep” (separate) and she would also refuse to let her calf or any of the other whales sep either.

So only after the sep was successful then it was radioed in and they would turn it on and drive it to Shamu stadium. The mother and calf immediately exhibited extreme distress and this was after we doped them with tons of Valium- which I never saw have any affect on them.

At the end of my career when I artificially inseminated Takara despite my best efforts to stop it, I knew the plan was once that calf was born they would ship Sakari who was her most recent calf at that time. I told them that when that day came they could not make me be in control of Takara for it. She would be trusting me and because of our relationship and that trust let her calf go the medical pool, only to lose her. I said when that day comes you will have to fire me because I won’t do that to her. After everything we have been through together and our trust was so strong, it would devastate both of us and I know I would have never overcome that.

So bottom line, it’s sickening how they still maintain to the public that it’s not upsetting or distressing to either animal when they are moved from park to park- which they have to maintain to justify flying them all around the country and world.

Takara’s last transport was from Florida to Texas. She was seven months pregnant with Sakari and they took her from her 3 year old calf Trua in Florida. That’s about as bad as it gets and defines true exploitation. I challenge anyone in the captivity industry to justify how that was beneficial to the mother or calf or to anyone other than corporation.

John Hargrove

Sent from my iPhone X

That being said – it’s very much like how businesses treat people in 3rd world countries – they only care about business needs rather than the needs of the people who work for them for little money. We live in a world where people think they can do this to animals and not care because they just see them as animals and a means to make money. It’s heart breaking to see these poor animals separated or losing their babies especially ones living in captivity. There’s just no amount of words we can say to these companies to be heard because they don’t care. It’s still amazes me that people pay money to go to these places.

Please sign this petition that asks the Government of Canada to immediately adopt recommendations made in order to save the severely threatened Orca population. The 2017 Southern Resident Killer Whale Symposium saw more than 200 delegates take part in technical sessions and networking panels, which covered all recent science, discussed potential solutions, and outlined each group’s responsibilities for protecting the southern resident killer whales. The symposium recommended that we immediately close sport and commercial fishing in critical Southern Resident foraging areas.
PLEASE ASK THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA TO PLACE AN IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM ON ALL CHINOOK FISHING, COMMERCIAL AND RECREATIONAL, AND TO ADOPT ECO-BASED MEASURES TO SAVE SOUTHERN RESIDENT ORCAS FROM PERMANENT EXTINCTION.

Please sign and share

https://www.change.org/p/elizabeth-may-approve-life-saving-measures-for-southern-resident-orcas-who-now-face-imminent-extinction?recruiter=612881540&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=fb_send_dialog&utm_term=share_for_starters_page

The 2017 Southern Resident Killer Whale Symposium saw more than 200 delegates take part in technical sessions and networking panels, which covered all recent science, discussed potential solutions, and outlined each group’s responsibilities for protecting the southern resident killer whales. The symposium recommended that we immediately close sport and commercial fishing in critical Southern Resident foraging areas. We have started a petition that asks the Canadian government to immediately adopt these recommendations. https://www.change.org/p/elizabeth-may-approve-life-saving-measures-for-southern-resident-orcas-who-now-face-imminent-extinction

*Tahlequah
*Dams

Apologies for the typos. Too quick posting, too slow proofreading.

Also, I have a couple questions:
a) is there a plan to retrieve the calf’s body from Canadian waters? and, b) is there a plan to help J50 there as well?

What infuriates me is the fact that it had to be the death of her baby girl that is now forcing Gov Inslee and the NOAA to finally start doing something. Why did it have to take so long? Why did we listen long ago?

I responded to some comments on the national geographic coverage of her. All i can say is some people can be so heartless. Laughing about it, blatant ignorance, name calling, praising captivity…..it was sick!

No mother deserves to loss a child…human or animal. I hope that J35 finds peace and the strength to let go. I hope that in my lifetime I can see captive facilities retire and phase out their whales and dolphin shows.

And I do realize I’m ‘preaching to the choir’ here, but we cannot allow these creatures to vanish before our eyes. We just can’t. Extinction is irreversible. Extinction is forever. The alternative? Actually do something, as in, let’s do what we can to *save* them.

#Blackfish #FreeTheSnake #TearDownThoseDamns

We don’t know specifically. But the Southern Resident orcas have been under severe stress for several years and are now listed as an endangered species. The big challenges they face are a serious lack of food (they only eat Chinook salmon and the supply is rapidly dwindling); environmental pollution, in particular mercury poisoning; noise pollution from the ever-increasing traffic all around them. A full answer to your question would take a lot more space than in this comment, but you can get more info at the Center for Whale Research at https://www.whaleresearch.com/

In all reality, that’s not something the marine display parks and aquariums are interested in doing. The whales are transferred between facilities based on business needs, and not on the needs of the animals. But you are certainly at liberty to let these companies know what you think of those decisions.