Kiska, Ontario’s Latest MarineLand Orca
Kiska has been isolated for seven years at MarineLand in Canada. One Voice calls for immediate ownership and transfer to the closed bay of the Whale Sanctuary Project
Emaciated, toothless, isolated for 7 years at MarineLand in Canada, Kiska lost her five children, her companion and her friend. The brain gnawed by memories, she gradually immerses herself into madness. One Voice calls for its immediate handling and transfer to the closed bay of the Whale Sanctuary Project, which will be operational next year.
The whole world was able to watch the live drama unfold of the orca Tahlequah for weeks during the death of her new-born baby.
And the whole world has been able to understand that for orcas too, losing a child is an atrocious event. But around this desperate mother, a whole tribe gathered to feed her and share her pain by carrying her baby. Kiska had to face alone each of the bereavements that hit her.
It all started well though.
Kiska was born free in Iceland, in a small community of killer whales’ expert in sardine hunting. Like so many others, she was kidnapped in 1979 off Ingolfshofdi and found herself in the filthy pools of the Saedyrasafnid Aquarium along with King, Caren, and an unnamed female. All were waiting to be delivered body and soul to their various buyers. Kiska was sent to MarineLand of Canada, while her misfortunate companions left for Japan, where they died quickly. In the early 1980s, three unfortunate orcas were captured in the same Icelandic waters. Nootka V, Kandu VII, and Junior shared with Kiska the King Waldorf Theater Pool, one of the three sordid buildings where MarineLand shuts up its orcas, along with Friendship Cove and the sinister Warehouse.
Kandu did what was expected of her.
On August 24th, 1992, Kiska gave birth to her first child, a small male registered as MLC-OO-B9202. He drowned 62 days later. Her second boy was Kanuk. Born in August 1994, he was passionately pampered by Kiska, who was very worried that she would see him die. MarineLand, however, decided to transfer it to the Warehouse. The Canadian park then decided to store in these dark and poorly ventilated pools dolphins in a bad condition too poorly to be exhibited, old walruses at the end of their career and juvenile orcas separated from their mother.
It was there that Junior, considered too slow during his training apprenticeship, waited in vain for a buyer, until he died after several years, exhausted with despair and loneliness. Kanuk did not support being the Warehouse better than Junior. There he died of suffocation under that same roof, his airhole blocked by candidiasis. He was only four years old. Nova, the third child of Kiska, was born in good health on November 6th1996. He was also placed in the Warehouse, and finally returned to his mother. Not for long, alas, because of a case of rampant pneumonia which prevailed as early as August 2001.
Hudson, the last son of Kiska, was born in September 1998.
As he lived longer than the others, his mother, still weeping, became very much attached to him. Despite his early age, Hudson had been trained to give his sperm for future inseminations. He did not leave behind any samples that MarineLand could sell. He was often seen playing with Algonquin, Nootka’s son, but he died in 2002. In August 2004, Kiska gave him a little sister named Athena. Hudson had little opportunity to share his games with her, since a meningitis got the better of him in October that same year … And Kiska’s mourning only got worse.
Kandu died of malignant cancer during Christmas Eve in 2005.
Nootka then joined Kiska and her daughter Athena, whom she tried desperately to steal from her mother. One can understand her: she had just lost the last of her eight children and her sanity was beginning to waver. In 2006, Marineland obtained from SeaWorld a “reproductive loan” in the form of a 4-year-old male killer whale named Ikaika. Ike spent some time in good relations with Kiska, Athena and the sad Nootka, until she died without a known reason two years later. The very young Athena then followed her into the great mass grave under the lawns of MarineLand in the spring of 2009, killed according to the park by a generalized infection. Ikaika was Kiska’s last companion, but as he grew older, he harassed her more and more. In 2011, after a long legal battle, the impetuous breeder was returned to the San Diego SeaWorld, who were fearful for his health, given these series of deaths.
Kiska was left alone in the Friendship Cove pool, where only ghosts were swimming.
Kanuk, Nova, Hudson, Athena … It’s not just the single corpse of an infant that she pushes in front of her in the black waters of her madness, but five bodies at a time! How was such a massacre possible? Why did no one react? The answer may be delivered to us one day from Canadian justice. In the immediate future, the urgency is still there: we must save Kiska right away! Sixteen orcas have died in the hell of MarineLand of Ontario. Do not let Kiska become the seventeenth!