Once again, we must note the premature passing of an orca at a marine entertainment park: today it is Inouk at Marineland Antibes.
We heard, this morning, that Inouk, one of the three surviving orcas at Marineland Antibes, has passed away. Our hearts and our thoughts go out to his sister Wikie and to his nephew Keijo. They are a family that has already suffered greatly in captivity, and today they can only be in ever-deeper distress.
Inouk was born at Marineland Antibes in February 1999. His mother, Sharkane, and his father, Kim 2, had been captured in Icelandic waters. Both of his parents died when he was four years old. His older sister, Shouka, was transferred to SeaWorld in the United States. In 2015, his cousin Valentin died after polluted water from a storm flowed into his tank. And last year, his nephew Moana (Wikie’s first son) also died.
Shockingly, it is less than a day since we posted a brief update here on the website about the possibility of bringing Inouk, Wikie and Keijo to the sanctuary in Nova Scotia.
Photo of Inouk courtesy of @noemieg_photo.
We have known all along that Inouk suffered from some possibly serious health concerns. Most noticeably, he had ground his teeth to the pulp biting the edges of the tanks. Experts explained that this made his mouth painful and caused gum ulcers, frequent throat infections, yeast infections on his tongue, and acid reflux. His dorsal fin showed traces of bites and was weak on the right side.
While it is hard to know exactly what Wikie and Keijo will be experiencing in the wake of their loss, we do know that the bonds among a family of orcas are especially strong. In 2018, the world watched, transfixed, as 20-year-old Tahlequah, a member of the “J” family pod of the Southern Residents, carried her dead calf for 17 days across a thousand miles of the Pacific Northwest coast. It was an unprecedented display of mourning on the part of a grief-stricken mother accompanied by her extended family.
Such a ritual of mourning will not be possible for Wikie and Keijo. Inouk will likely have already been removed from the small tank in which he spent the entire 25 years of his life.
An unprecedented display of mourning on the part of a grief-stricken mother accompanied by her extended family.The three orcas were the three surviving members of their family at Marineland Antibes, and together they would have been the last orcas to be on display there. That’s because in 2020, the French Minister of Ecology, Barbara Pompili, announced her decision to bring an end, over the next 10 years, to keeping whales in concrete tanks at entertainment parks.
In response to the ruling, Marineland Antibes had been planning to send the three orcas to an aquarium in Japan. And in response to the company’s plan, there has been an outcry amongst the French public and other NGOs.
As a result, the French government has stepped in to consider alternatives to sending the whales to Japan. And over the last two months, the Whale Sanctuary Project has been in continuing discussions with the French Ministry of Ecology and Biodiversity as they assess the Nova Scotia sanctuary as a preferred option for the welfare of these orcas.
The death of Inouk comes just two days before the three orcas were due to be put on display for the spring season of performances. Marineland Antibes has announced that “the resumption of orca shows has been postponed.”
Most urgently now, looking forward, will Wikie and her son Keijo be given the chance for a new life in a natural ocean environment? It is surely the least that we can do for them.
We greatly appreciate the heads-up from One Voice and their sources this morning, later confirmed by the AFP and in a brief press statement from Marineland Antibes.