Skip to content
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent bycatch
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Science
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding
20230202_132407

Whale and Dolphin Conservation partners with local artist for art auction

PLYMOUTH, MA - Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) has partnered with local artist Erik Simmons...
dolphin FB Fundraiser

e.l.f. Cosmetics announces new “porpoise-ful” initiative to benefit Whale and Dolphin Conservation

For Immediate Release, March 16, 2023 OAKLAND, CA - On the fins of its first...

Kiska the ‘world’s loneliest whale’ dies at Canadian theme park

Kiska, dubbed the loneliest whale in the world, has died at Marineland, a zoo and...
Grey seal is released from the kennel on the ocean side of Duxbury Beach

Why did the seal cross the road? WDC responds to a grey seal near Gurnet Point in Plymouth, MA

Grey seal is released from the kennel on the ocean side of Duxbury Beach For...

Shocking footage of captive orca butting head against wall

Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals
Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals

Distressing scenes have recently emerged from Marineland in Ontario where Kiska, the loneliest whale in the world, has been filmed violently thrashing her head against the side of her tank.

Kiska is a wild caught Icelandic orca who has spent the last four decades in captivity. She was just three years old when she was taken from her family and condemned to a life in a barren, concrete tank. The disturbing images that have gone viral on social media show how a life in captivity for over forty years has severely impacted her social and psychological development. Kiska has been without an orca companion since 2011 and is deprived of every aspect of the social culture she would have experienced in the wild.

Orcas, and indeed all whales and dolphins, are extremely poor candidates for life in captivity as no tank environment can ever provide the conditions that these free-ranging, powerful, highly intelligent and socially complex creatures need to thrive.

Never has there been a greater urgency for Kiska to be retired to a coastal, open water sanctuary where she can enjoy the rest of her days in a more natural environment….and hopefully in the company of other ex-captive orcas.

Find out more about orcas in captivity

[shariff]

Leave a Comment