A Family in Distress

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.

There are four orcas still on display in France: Wikie, Inouk, Moana and Keijo. Wikie and Inouk are sister and brother; Moana and Keijo are Wikie’s children. They have all spent their lives in concrete tanks at Marineland Antibes (not related to Marineland Ontario).

Inouk

Inouk was born in February 1999. His mother, Sharkane, and father, Kim 2, had been captured in Icelandic waters. Shortly after his fourth birthday, Inouk lost his older sister, Shouka. His parents died soon afterwards.

Inouk has ground his teeth to the pulp biting the edges of the tanks. Experts explain that this makes his mouth painful and causes gum ulcers, frequent throat infections, yeast infections on his tongue, and acid reflux. His dorsal fin shows traces of bites and is weak on the right side.

Wikie

Wikie is Inouk’s younger sister. Born June 2001, she was held for the first 18 months of her life in a tank separate from her mother, Sharkane, who was very disturbed and unable to give her the care she needed. In the ocean, young orcas always have their mother, aunts and other close family members close by to support them and are never left on their own. But without that support and upbringing, Wikie was left emotionally scarred.

Wikie gave birth to a son, Moana, but being too young and lacking the parenting skills she would have learned in the wild, she had difficulty relating to her calf.At the age of eight, Wikie was artificially inseminated from Ulises, an orca who had been captured and placed in isolation at the Barcelona Zoo before being sent to SeaWorld San Diego in the United States. Wikie gave birth to a son, Moana, but being too young and lacking the parenting skills she would have learned in the wild, she had difficulty relating to her calf.

She then gave birth to a second child, whose father was Inouk’s half-brother Valentin. Such inbreeding is unheard of in the wild and the calf did not survive.

In the wild, orcas space out their pregnancies over many years to give themselves a chance to properly raise their children. But Wikie soon gave birth once more, this time to Keijo, and yet again was unable to bond with her newborn. (The father is reported to be Kim 2, who is also Inouk’s father.)

Two years later, following the deaths of Freya, the matriarch of the pod, and of the male orca Valentin, who died when polluted water from a storm flowed into his tank, she became even more disturbed.

Moana

Moana was the third orca in the world, and the first in Europe, to have been born as a result of artificial insemination. His father, Ulises, had been captured in Iceland, placed in isolation at the Barcelona Zoo, and then sent to SeaWorld San Diego in the United States.

Moana is highly intelligent and keen to “do well.” He learned at a very young age to do tricks that usually require years of training. Keen to get the attention of his mother, Wikie, he watched her closely and tried to imitate the tricks she had been trained to perform. But Wikie was too young to be a mother and she had no role models to follow in taking care of her child. In the end, she left her son’s “education” to the trainers. Moana still does what humans expect him to do, as commanded. But his initial enthusiasm has given way to boredom.

Keijo

Keijo was born in November 2013. He is Wikie’s second son (whose father is reported to be Inouk’s father, Kim 2). Another unwanted child, born too soon after his half-brother, Moana, he was similarly rejected by his mother.

In the wake of the death of his tankmate Freya and the flooding and pollution of their tank, which led to the death of Valentin, Keijo took solace in training, showing real passion for learning tricks. However, as the years went by, his need for stimulation was no longer being met. His snout is damaged.

Video courtesy of OneVoice. The images have not been edited.

Looking to the future

The story of this unfortunate family is typical of what happens at amusement parks around the world as mothers and calves are separated and parks sell their whales to other facilities to fill vacancies or loan them out for breeding.

The four orcas at Marineland Antibes were all born in captivity, and cannot be released into the open ocean where they would not have the skills needed to survive. They have spent so much time together that they are essentially a family unit/pod, who should not be separated.

In response to the new French ruling, Marineland Antibes may be tempted to ship Wikie and her family to any of the growing number of subpar parks in China that would be happy to pay top dollar for them. To avoid that outcome, the animal protection organization One Voice is working together with other animal protection organizations in France to give these four whales a peaceful new life free from abuse and exploitation.

At the Whale Sanctuary Project, we are sharing with them our own experience to help make that possible.

Biographical information in this post courtesy of OneVoice. And photo of Marineland Antibes copyright Nikola Krtolica.