Orcas Belong in the Ocean

With your help the era of orcas being confined in small concrete tanks for human entertainment can be brought to an end in North America and around the world. Orca capture and breeding programs have been abandoned in the US and many countries around the world. Yet 18 orcas remain stranded in SeaWorld tanks, half under 21 years old, suffering as we watch.

At a pivotal moment when wild Pacific Northwest orcas face extinction, it’s time for SeaWorld to end its central role in orca exploitation and let the orcas retire to seaside sanctuaries. Ending the exploitation of orcas for corporate profit in North America is finally a real possibility.

Premiering 30 years ago, the film Free Willy showed how orcas suffer in captivity and energized a worldwide audience to help save whales. This led to the Free Keiko campaign that returned the film’s star to a seaside sanctuary in his native Iceland after a stop in Oregon brought him back to health and taught him the skills he would need for survival in the open ocean.

Keiko's rescue showed that captive orcas can be freed from shortened and unhealthy lives in concrete tanks and instead thrive in protected seaside sanctuaries.

Miami Seaquarium's work with the whale conservation community to relocate the orca Tokitae to a sanctuary being built in her home waters of the Salish Sea in the Pacific Northwest ended tragically with her death in August, 2023. Meanwhile more seaside sanctuary facilities are opening and in development for the relocation of captive and stranded orcas, belugas, and smaller dolphins. For news on the development of seaside sanctuaries, check HERE.

The seas around Washington State, where brutal orca captures got their start in the 1960s, can be part of the recovery. The time to act is now. The science has become definitive that these animals are wholly unsuited for lives in captivity in small concrete tanks. It is unhealthy, cruel and dangerous.

As the documentary film Blackfish detailed 10 years ago, orca captivity has led to the injuries and deaths of many trainers, and shortened lives for the orcas. A total of 53 captive orcas have died at SeaWorld parks since they opened, in a time period less than the life span of a wild female orca.

Public attitudes about holding orcas in captivity have changed dramatically. Pressure on individual parks, companies, and countries to end this tragedy is intensifying. Laws in Canada and California now prohibit new facilities from capturing or displaying orcas. More captive facilities are closing or are getting behind efforts to relocate orcas and dolphins to seaside sanctuaries.

SeaWorld holds more orcas than any other company in the world. The company has been the world’s biggest promoter of the cruel captures, purchase, sale, forced-breeding, and degrading theatric display of these iconic whales. SeaWorld’s current policy is to keep all its orcas in concrete tanks for the rest of their lives, but this must change.

Thousands of orcas, belugas, and dolphins have been captured from the wild over the past 50 years for sale into lives in concrete tanks. These captures have caused damage to marine mammal populations that are still being felt today.

In 1970, Tokitae (also known as Lolita) was captured and taken from her family of Southern Resident orcas along with dozens of other baby orcas, several of which died during the captures. Today, that population is down to just 73 orcas and spiraling toward extinction, having lost a generation of orcas to captivity. Tokitae and all of the young orcas captured with her in 1970 have now died in captivity.

Keiko was the first captive orca whale to be released back into wild waters. What will history say of us, if he remains the only one?

Getting orcas out of concrete tanks in North America would end the horrific era of wild orcas being exploited for human entertainment and profit. The tide is turning, and orca whales deserve the chance to live in their natural waters.

SWIMS Act Introduced in Congress to Phase Out Whale Captivity

By Mark J. Palmer, February 2024

On Tuesday, January 30^th, Rep. Adam Schiff, Senator Ron Wyden, and a number of co-sponsors introduced legislation to phase out the captivity of several small whale species that should never have been subjected to life imprisonment in tiny concrete tanks.

ORCA TOKITAE (ALSO KNOWN AS LOLITA) PASSES ON

By David Phillips, August 2023

“We are deeply saddened at the death of orca whale Tokitae. Calls for her release were denied for decades and it’s shameful that she never got a chance to go home. Today there are still eighteen orcas stranded in US amusement parks. They will all die in concrete tanks unless the whale captivity industry reverses course and commits to relocating captive orcas to certified seaside sanctuaries. Tokitae’s tragic death will have meaning only if it results in change. Orca whales belong in the ocean; not in concrete tanks.”

SEAWORLD CAN END CRUEL ERA OF ORCAS DISPLAYED FOR ENTERTAINMENT

By Mark J. Palmer, July 2023

"SeaWorld has become the last North American company that refuses to release orcas from lives in concrete tanks. That dubious distinction was earned this year when the orca Kiska died at Marineland Canada and Miami Seaquarium formally committed to relocate Tokitae, aka Lolita, to a sea sanctuary to be built in her home waters off the Washington coast..."

A TRIBUTE TO PACIFIC NORTHWEST ORCAS

By Mark J. Palmer, May 2022

"A variety of authors and artists have contributed to this celebration of the orcas of the Salish Sea in the Pacific Northwest, encompassing Puget Sound, the San Juan Islands, and waters off of Vancouver, BC. As Nikki Sanchez explains in her introduction, a group of indigenous artists conceived of the book as a call to action by inviting readers to fall in love with the orca whales..."

BBC INTERVIEWS DAVID PHILLIPS ABOUT KEIKO REHAB RESCUE

By Mark J. Palmer, April 2023

"Recently, BBC interviewed David Phillips, Director of the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute and founder of the Free Willy/Keiko Foundation.

Dave spearheaded the successful effort to rehabilitate and release Keiko, the orca star of the hit movie Free Willy, to his home waters in Iceland. It was the first and only such release of a captive orca to freedom..."

FREE WILLY PAVED THE WAY TO ENDING WHALE CAPTIVITY

By Hannah Hindley, July 2023

"THE LEAP

On the movie poster, water takes up the lower two thirds of the frame, dark and sparkling. Above it, standing atop a stony breakwater, a boy stands with one arm raised high, and above him – with a muscular body that fills the sky – an enormous orca breaches toward the open sea..."

WHAT SEAWORLD SHOULD DO

By Mark J. Palmer, July 2023

"SeaWorld can end the tragic legacy of orca captivity, deaths, and exploitation in North America. It’s time for SeaWorld to do the right thing and let the remaining captive orcas and other dolphins follow the pathway to freedom led by Keiko, Tokitae and their allies in the whale conservation community."

A Work of Art: Jen MaHarry and Freeing Captive Orcas

By Mark J. Palmer, August 2023

""You likely do not recognize the name Jennifer MaHarry.

But you do know her art.

Jen designed the iconic Free Willy film poster, featuring the fictional orca Willy’s unforgettable leap to freedom in the movie’s exhilarating climax."

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