A Family in Distress – Wikie and Keijo and Their Family
Update, May 2025: We are working toward a solution for Wikie and Keijo with the French Government, other NGOs, and Marineland Antibes. See latest updates on Wikie and Keijo at the bottom of this post. We will provide further updates as soon as we have them.
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: Wikie, Inouk, Keijo, and Moana. One of them, Moana, died in 2023. Shortly thereafter, in March 2024, Inouk died. Wikie and Inouk were sister and brother; Keijo is Wikie’s son, as was Moana. All of them were born and raised in the tanks at Marineland Antibes (not related to Marineland Ontario).
The family’s life and unnatural relationships in captivity highlight all-too-common themes among captive whales.
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’s older sister, Shouka, was transferred to SeaWorld. His parents died soon afterwards.
Prior to his death, Inouk had ground his teeth to the pulp biting the edges of the tanks. Experts explain this behavior generates significant mouth pain and causes gum ulcers, frequent throat infections, yeast infections the tongue, and acid reflux. Inouk’s dorsal fin showed traces of bites and was weak on the right side.
Wikie is Inouk’s younger sister. Born in 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 Wikie 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.
When she was only 10 years old, 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. In early 2011, Wikie gave birth to a son, Moana, who was the first orca in Europe, to have been born as a result of artificial insemination.
Wikie was too young to be rearing a calf. And 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 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.
Meanwhile, and all too soon after the birth of Moana, Wikie had found herself pregnant once again. In the wild, orcas space out their pregnancies over many years to give themselves a chance to properly raise their children. Worse yet, Wikie had been made pregnant this time by her half-brother Valentin. Such inbreeding is unheard of in the wild. In November 2013, she gave birth to Keijo, and once again Wikie was unable to bond with her newborn.
Two years later, Valentin died when polluted water from a storm flowed into his tank. And Wikie became even more disturbed. But 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.
Updates, May 2025
In early 2024, the Whale Sanctuary Project learned that to comply with the new French legislation against keeping cetaceans in captivity, Marineland was planning to send Wikie and Keijo to the Kobe Suma Sea World park in Japan. However, at Kobe Suma, they would be in an even smaller concrete tank than they have at Marineland. And even though all that this mother and son have now is each other, they could well be separated and used for breeding.
When this plan became known, animal protection groups in France were outraged. They protested to the government, saying that such a move would violate the entire purpose and spirit of the law.
Soon after, the French Secretary of State for the Sea and Biodiversity issued a public “Call for Expressions of Interest for a sanctuary project that could accommodate the two orca specimens currently housed at the Marineland of Antibes.”
In April 2024, the Whale Sanctuary Project submitted an expression of interest, a 93-page proposal delineating our plan to welcome Wikie and Keijo to the sanctuary we are creating in Nova Scotia. In September 2024, the French government’s General Inspectorate of the Environment & Sustainable Development formally recommended the Nova Scotia sanctuary as “the most credible innovative solution among the sanctuary projects.”
In October 2024, Jane Goodall, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and Sylvia Earle wrote to the French Minister endorsing the Whale Sanctuary Project’s sanctuary in Nova Scotia.
In November 2024, the French Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, officially opposed the transfer of Wikie and Keijo to Japan, citing concern for the whales’ welfare.
In January 2025, the French government rejected our proposal on the grounds that the sanctuary would not be ready fast enough to adhere to Marineland’s timeline for transferring the whales, and that the sanctuary waters in Nova Scotia would be too cold for Wikie and Keijo. The timeline we described in April 2024 would have allowed for us to welcome Wikie and Keijo during summer 2025. Further, Wikie and Keijo are of Icelandic descent and the sanctuary waters of Port Hilford Bay are well within the range of temperatures suitable for orcas of their lineage.
Shortly after the rejection, the Whale Sanctuary Project wrote to the Minister indicating that our team is ready and willing to help in whatever way we can to find the best possible solution for Wikie and Keijo – including caring for them at Marineland Antibes until such time as the sanctuary can be ready.
Marineland Antibes closed its entertainment park in January. By April 2025, with our sanctuary plan having been rejected and no other viable alternatives, Marineland planned to transfer Wikie and Keijo to Loro Parque zoo, a marine park in the Spanish Canary Islands with a poor track record of care for orcas.
But on April 10th, with trucks, cranes, slings and personnel all in place at Marineland, the Spanish government suddenly stepped in and rejected Wikie and Keijo’s transfer, saying that Loro Parque was not a suitable facility for the two orcas.
In May, the French government re-engaged with us, and we replied that we remain committed to working with the government, with Marineland Antibes, and with other animal protection organizations to help provide the best possible future for the two whales.
Further reading:
For Wikie & Keijo, Whale Sanctuary Project Is “Most Credible Innovative Solution”
Jane Goodall, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Sylvia Earle Endorse Sanctuary for French Orcas
French Minister Opposes Transfer of Orcas Wikie & Keijo to Aquarium in Japan
Whale Sanctuary Project Offers Help in Providing Sanctuary Solution for Marineland Antibes Orcas
Spain Rejects Marineland Antibes Plan to Transfer Orcas to Zoo in Canary Islands
Biographical information in this post courtesy of OneVoice. And photo of Marineland Antibes copyright Nikola Krtolica.
