More than a dozen people gathered at Oak Bay Marina on Sunday for a memorial honouring Tilikum, the orca whale that died in captivity.
SeaWorld Orlando announced the 36-year-old whale’s death on Friday. He had been sick for months with a lung infection.
Tilikum spent several years at ‘Sealand of the Pacific’ in Victoria, before being transferred to Orlando where he spent the remainder of his life.
The male orca whale was linked to three deaths throughout his life, one of which was featured in the documentary “Blackfish.”
Anna Hall is a marine mammal zoologist based in Victoria. In an interview with CTV News on Friday, Hall talked about the important lessons the public needs to take away from Tilikum’s passing and the powerful legacy he leaves behind.
CTV: What are your thoughts on Tilikum’s passing?
AH: Learning the news this morning of Tilikum’s passing was indeed a very sad moment because he was of course a very loved whale by many. But also I think for me a moment of reflection because he taught us so much about the needs of whales and perhaps even their mental health. Those types of lessons are invaluable and we really must remember them in his name and as we move forward with our understanding of killer whales.
CTV: What do you know at this point about his death?
AH: All I know at the moment is that he passed away because of some type of infection. Of course I’m sure a necropsy is going to be done to elucidate that to not only further our knowledge of the diseases of killer whales, but also help those animals that are still in captivity.
CTV: He was 36-years-old, is that normal for a whale in captivity? We just had Granny who passed away at around 100-years-old.
AH: The lifespans of killer whales in captivity and in the wild can be quite different. Males don’t live as long as the females in general and in captivity in general the lifespan is much shorter than it is in the wild.
CTV: What would that be due to?
AH: I’m not sure that there is a defined answer, but it probably comes down to quality of life. In the wild killer whales will swim up to 100-kilometres within a 24-hour period. Obviously that’s impossible in a tank and so maybe it’s just an overall physical mental health condition.
CTV: Tilikum has been so high profile through all the years. Can you speak to his legacy?
AH: The world has changed so very much since Tilikum first went into captivity and our understanding and our social views of captivity and what animals in captivity require. He was a full-grown male killer whale and in the wild those animals will reach up to about 10-tonnes in weight and can be as long as about 30-feet. These are very large animals being housed in what appeared to us as a large pool, but compared to the stretches of the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean where they may range naturally, they are literally a drop in the ocean.
CTV: As a society what have we learned?
AH: As a society we’ve learned about killer whales and the fact that so many of them, like our southern residents, live their entire lives with their families. Even the males stay with their matriarchal or their mother’s group.
We’ve learned that they have cultural transmission from one generation to the next with information that is probably critical to their survival. We’ve learned that we have unique groups of killer whales all around the world. In British Columbia, we’re very fortunate in that we have three of those groups.
We have learned that they are animals with needs that far exceed just giving them enough to eat on a day-to-day basis.
CTV: Could Tilikum have been returned to the wild successfully?
AH: It really does depend on so many factors including how much contact they had with people, any diseases that they may have been exposed to, and of course their ability to hunt. Are they animals that naturally exist in the wild, were they captured in the wild or were they bred in captivity? In which case where would they fit in the natural world? It’s a wonderful idea, it’s certainly something that shouldn’t be discounted, but it’s a very complicated question that will probably have an answer that is different for each and every animal.
CTV: Are we seeing the beginning of the end with whales in captivity?
AH: I think SeaWorld probably has taken some enormous steps forward in recognizing that social attitudes have changed. For instance the killer whales are no longer performing animals from what I’ve read. That’s a massive step forward than where we were just a few decades ago and so where we’re going to be a few decades from now with regard to our understanding of wild killer whales and whether or not we have them in captivity remains to be seen. My hope is we learn from everything that Tilikum taught us with regard to his life, the events both good and bad, and we take that forward into the future for the benefit of all killer whales.
CTV: It seems we’ve heard a lot of whales passing recently, both in J POD, beluga whales in aquariums. Is there something going on or is it just random?
AH: It does appear to be a string of bad news when it comes to whales both in the wild and in captivity. Let’s hope that 2017 brings us some good news of some calves, particularly for southern residents and good news for whales around the world.
