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Families Torn Apart
Killer whales, or orcas, are members of the dolphin family. They are also the largest animals held in captivity. In the
wild, orcas stay with their mothers for life. Family groups, or "pods," consist of a mother, her adult sons and daughters,
and the offspring of her daughters. Each member of the pod communicates in a "dialect" specific to that pod.(1) Dolphins swim
together in family pods of three to 10 individuals or tribes of hundreds. Imagine, then, the trauma inflicted on these social
animals when they are ripped from their families and put in the strange, artificial world of a marine park.
Capturing even one wild orca or dolphin disrupts the entire pod. To obtain a female dolphin of breeding age, for example,
boats are used to chase the pod to shallow waters. The dolphins are surrounded with nets that are gradually closed and lifted
into the boats. Unwanted dolphins are thrown back. Some die from the shock of their experience. Others slowly succumb to pneumonia
caused by water entering their lungs through their blowholes. Pregnant females may spontaneously abort babies.(2)
Orcas and dolphins who survive this ordeal become frantic upon seeing their captured companions and may even try to save
them. When Namu, a wild orca captured off the coast of Canada, was towed to the Seattle Public Aquarium in a steel cage, a
group of wild orcas followed for miles.(3)
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