We’re sad to report two deaths this week: This morning, SeaWorld Orlando announced that Tilikum had passed away from a serious lung infection.
And earlier this week, the Center for Whale Research confirmed that J2, who was affectionately known as Granny and has not been seen since October, is now officially considered to have died. Granny led generations of her extended family of Southern Resident orcas, the J Pod, through the waters off the coast of Seattle.
Tilikum was seized from his family in waters off the coast of Iceland when he was two years old, and was placed in captivity at Sealand of the Pacific, a marine park in Victoria, B.C.
Male orcas have an especially close bond with their mothers, and Tilikum did not fare well at Sealand living with two dominant females who regularly harassed him. To “protect” him, he was locked in a small dark tank at night.
In 1991, Tilikum and the two female orcas attacked one of their trainers, Keltie Byrne, and drowned her. Soon after, Tilikum was sold to SeaWorld. Eight years later, a man who had apparently sneaked into SeaWorld during the night was found dead on Tilikum’s back.
As the years passed, Tilikum was considered by many expert observers to have become increasingly depressed and unstable. And then, in 2010, came the most notorious attack of all. As guests dined on seafood, watching him being given treats by one of the trainers, Dawn Brancheau, he took her arm, dragged her into his concrete tank, mutilated her and killed her .
After that, Tilikum grew increasingly listless, spending most of his time floating in a small enclosure, ravaged by infections. In a statement, SeaWorld says he had been treated for “a persistent and complicated bacterial lung infection,” adding that:
“Tilikum’s veterinarians and caretakers delivered various treatment regimens over the course of this illness, which consisted of, among other things, combinations of anti-inflammatories, anti-bacterials, anti-nausea medications, hydration therapy and aerosolized antimicrobial therapy.”
From the day when he was abducted as an infant, Tilikum’s life was, by any standard, a misery. But it was not without meaning. He inspired the movie Blackfish, which has led more and more people to question the ethics of keeping these apex predators in concrete tanks.
Granny J2: Although we don’t know exactly when she was born, Granny is generally thought to have been well over 100 years old. As the senior female of the J Pod, she led her extended family of Southern Resident orcas through the waters off the coast of Seattle.
During the 20th Century, she would have seen a massive increase in ocean traffic: from fishing boats to whale watchers to ferries to cruise liners to vast container ships and tankers. And in recent decades, the J Pod (along with other Southern Resident families) has been struggling with the steep decline in salmon, which is the only food they eat, along with the ever-increasing pollution of the ocean.
The Southern Resident orcas are now listed as an endangered population, and without Granny J2 and her matriarchal experience and wisdom, their future is uncertain.
Together, Tilikum and Granny J2 poignantly represent two very different kinds of orca lives: Tilikum, sick, depressed and with violent outbursts, and now dead at age 36; and Granny, who lived to be over 100 and led her family through hundreds of miles of ocean as they navigated the authentic challenges that all wild marine animals face.
The mission of The Whale Sanctuary Project is to create the first North American seaside sanctuary for cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) who may be retired from concrete tanks in the coming years. Cetaceans born in captivity have never learned the skills needed to thrive in the open ocean. And even those who were captured from the wild may not be able to rejoin their families.
But seaside sanctuaries can provide them with the kind of life that’s as close as possible to what they would experience in the wild.
With your help and support, we are committed to giving them that opportunity.
