Orcas (Killer whales). Anywhere else besides SW and SFMW?

Besides the Sea World parks and SFMW, where else are these great whales at in captivity? You don't see them in zoos or even huge aquariums like Shedd's Aquarium in Chicago.

Are they really expensive,hard to care for, or just to big to have for the average zoo or aquarium to house them?

Aren't there (or weren't there) killer whales at Marineland?

I'd think that the controversy that surrounds the animals is also a factor.

Michael. You could make that case for plenty of other animals in captivity besides the Orca.

It seems to me that folks are more vocal about Orcas, though. You don't see movies being made about freeing dolphins and zebras from the zoo, do you?

No, you don't, but that shouldn't be a deterrant from zoos and aquariums that would care for these animals.

Just because media outcry focuses on these animals the most, it's not a good enough reason.

But it's a likely reason

Free Willy!
Free Willy 2!
(wasn't there a 3rd one, or was I just imagining it?)

It brings things to the forefront of everyone's mind: "oh no, they're terrorizing the poor Orcas!" while various other endangered species, and "regular" animals are sitting in the cages watching as the Orca streams past on the flatbed.

Although "Free Curious George" would no doubt be a funny movie! ;)

There is an Orca at Miami's SeaQuarium but I don't remember her name.

Marineland in Canada has a few Orcas. I know a couple have died recently so I'm not sure how many that leaves them with.

Marineland still has scores of Beluga whales, but they don't perform... they just swim and smile.

They have I think 1 performing orca left, and around 3 or 4 orcas in the Friendship Cove area of the park.

The are actually 47 of these animals in captivity!

Sea World of Florida
Sea World of California
Sea World of Texas
Miami Seaquarium
Six Flags Marine World
Marineland of Canada
Marineland Cote D' Azur
Acuario Mundo Marino
Kamogawa Sea World
Taiji Whaling Museum
Nanki Shirahama Adventure World
Izu-Mito Sea Paradise
Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium

http://www.orcahome.de/orcastat.htm

I think one reason they get a lot of attention in captivity is their size. They are too big for the environments they live in.

Another issue is the way they are captured.

They have to heard up a pod, and chase them in boats until they become too week to run anymore.

To catch one, it's not uncommon to kill many others in the process from exhaution.

Statisitcs like I provide below are pretty sad to me!

"From the 45 killer whales a total of 19 females, 21 males and 2 whales of unknown gender were caught and measured. In addition to that, 1 adult female and 2 whales of unknown gender and age, died during capture activities without any measurement taken place. 34 whales were removed to aquaria and marine parks, 11 whales died during the capture activities.Of the removed animals only the female killer whale Lolita, captured in August 1970 at Penn Cove, is alive as of today."

*** Edited 12/22/2004 3:02:40 PM UTC by Markieb***

Orcas run? ;)

In all seriousness, I don't believe it is legal to capture orcas anymore, though this obviously depends on the country. Thus, the only parks that are going to have them are those that acquired them before capture was outlawed. Many of them in captivity today were born in captivity.

-Nate

Marineland of FL (near Daytona) I believe has become more of a teaching/training facility, IIRC they weren't doing any real business and closed quite awhile ago...

The Oregon Coast Aquarium used to house "Free Willy", otherwise known as Keiko. I was living in Oregon when they moved him/her? to Iceland. They had live coverage of the truck that they used to transport the whale to a military plane. They have since refurbished the tank and it now has a tunnel through shark tanks and other so-called "scary" creatures such as eels and rays. *** Edited 12/24/2004 12:30:20 AM UTC by Incidentalist***

What about the Star Trek Movie with the whale? Saving then human race from an alien being who just wants to talk to whales is a good reason to keep them. ;)