A Family in Distress

In 2020, the French Minister of Ecology, Barbara Pompili, announced her decision to bring an end, over the next 10 years, to keeping whales in concrete tanks at entertainment parks.

At that time, there were four orcas still on display in France. One of them, Moana, died in 2023, leaving Wikie, Inouk and Keijo. Wikie and Inouk are sister and brother; Keijo is Wikie’s son, as was Moana. All of them have spent their lives in concrete tanks at Marineland Antibes (not related to Marineland Ontario).

Inouk

Inouk was born in February 1999. His mother, Sharkane, and father, Kim 2, had been captured in Icelandic waters. Shortly after his fourth birthday, Inouk lost his older sister, Shouka. His parents died soon afterwards.

Inouk has ground his teeth to the pulp biting the edges of the tanks. Experts explain that this makes his mouth painful and causes gum ulcers, frequent throat infections, yeast infections on his tongue, and acid reflux. His dorsal fin shows traces of bites and is weak on the right side.

Wikie

Wikie is Inouk’s younger sister. Born June 2001, she was held for the first 18 months of her life in a tank separate from her mother, Sharkane, who was very disturbed and unable to give her the care she needed. In the ocean, young orcas always have their mother, aunts and other close family members close by to support them and are never left on their own. But without that support and upbringing, Wikie was left emotionally scarred.

Wikie gave birth to a son, Moana, but being too young and lacking the parenting skills she would have learned in the wild, she had difficulty relating to her calf.At the age of eight, Wikie was artificially inseminated from Ulises, an orca who had been captured and placed in isolation at the Barcelona Zoo before being sent to SeaWorld San Diego in the United States. Wikie gave birth to a son, Moana, but being too young and lacking the parenting skills she would have learned in the wild, she had difficulty relating to her calf.

She then gave birth to a second child, whose father was Inouk’s half-brother Valentin. Such inbreeding is unheard of in the wild and the calf did not survive.

In the wild, orcas space out their pregnancies over many years to give themselves a chance to properly raise their children. But Wikie soon gave birth once more, this time to Keijo, and yet again was unable to bond with her newborn. (The father is reported to be Kim 2, who is also Inouk’s father.)

Two years later, following the deaths of Freya, the matriarch of the pod, and of the male orca Valentin, who died when polluted water from a storm flowed into his tank, she became even more disturbed.

Moana

Moana was the third orca in the world, and the first in Europe, to have been born as a result of artificial insemination. He was born in 2011, when his mother, Wikie, was only ten years old. He died in 2023 at age 12.

Moana’s father, Ulises, had been captured in Iceland, placed in isolation at the Barcelona Zoo, and then sent to SeaWorld San Diego in the United States. 

In the wild, orca mothers learn from older family members how to care for their calves. Rearing their young involves the whole family. But because of her young age and the absence of experienced family members, Wikie had no role models to follow and was unable to fully bond with Moana. For his part, Moana was highly intelligent and learned at a very young age to do the kinds of tricks that usually require years of training. Unable to learn from his mother, he learned to do tricks and the like from his trainers and was good at doing what humans expected him to do, as commanded. But his initial enthusiasm soon gave way to boredom in the confines of a concrete tank.

Keijo

Keijo was born in November 2013. He is Wikie’s second son (whose father is reported to be Inouk’s father, Kim 2). Another unwanted child, born too soon after his half-brother, Moana, he was similarly rejected by his mother.

In the wake of the death of his tankmate Freya and the flooding and pollution of their tank, which led to the death of Valentin, Keijo took solace in training, showing real passion for learning tricks. However, as the years went by, his need for stimulation was no longer being met. His snout is damaged.

Video courtesy of OneVoice. The images have not been edited.

Looking to the future

The story of this unfortunate family is typical of what happens at amusement parks around the world as mothers and calves are separated and parks sell their whales to other facilities to fill vacancies or loan them out for breeding.

The three living orcas at Marineland Antibes –Wikie, Inouk and Keijo – were all born in captivity and cannot be released into the open ocean where they would not have the skills needed to survive. They have spent so much time together that they are essentially a family unit/pod, who should not be separated.

In response to the new French ruling, there have been reports that Marineland Antibes has been planning to send Wikie and her family to an entertainment park in Japan. The animal protection organization One Voice is working together with other animal protection organizations in France to give these three whales a peaceful new life free from abuse and exploitation. And the Whale Sanctuary Project has informed One Voice and the French government that we would welcome the opportunity to work with Marineland Antibes to bring all three whales to the sanctuary we are creating in Nova Scotia.

Biographical information in this post courtesy of OneVoice. And photo of Marineland Antibes copyright Nikola Krtolica.