Wild-Caught Orcas: Captivity’s Lasting Toll

Orca captures in the United States, Canada, and Iceland stopped decades ago. But even after captures ended, the consequences continue to shape the lives of captive whales today. Some orcas taken from the wild remain alive, and generations born in captivity have inherited lives far removed from the ocean. Their story shows that ending capture programs was a crucial step. However, it cannot undo the damage already done, and as long as captive breeding continues, the cycle of cruelty carries on.

Between the mid-1970s and late 1980s, Iceland became a focal point for commercial orca captures, driven by the growing dolphinarium industry’s demand for young orcas that could be trained to perform in front of audiences. Dozens were taken and sold to aquariums and amusement parks worldwide, including in Canada, the United States, France, Brazil, and Japan.

Currently, 53 orcas are held in captivity across 13 facilities, according to Cetabase.org. Of these, 21 were captured from the wild, 31 were born in captivity, and one (Morgan) entered captivity after being found alone and malnourished, and was deemed non-releasable.

China holds the largest population, with 24 orcas in four facilities, followed by the United States with 16 at three SeaWorld parks, and Japan with six orcas in two facilities. In Europe, Loro Parque in Spain keeps four orcas, Marineland Antibes in France has two, and Russia displays a single wild-caught orca in Moscow.

Stella’s days of freedom came to a halt in October 1987 when a capture crew encircled her and her pod with a purse seine net and hauled her and three other young calves onto the deck of the boat. The capture team transported them to the Hafnarfjörður Aquarium in southern Iceland. This is where orca traders warehoused newly caught Icelandic orcas until buyers were found. On March 29, 1988, Stella and the other calves were loaded into transport boxes and flown to Japan. Today, Stella and her daughter Ran perform at Kobe Suma SeaWorld. Credit: @o_r_t_a (IG); Inherently Wild: https://inherentlywild.co.uk

Among surviving wild-caught individuals are Corky II, captured off Canada in 1969, and Ulises, captured off Iceland in 1980, both at SeaWorld San Diego. Stella, captured in Iceland in 1987, performs at Kobe Suma Sea World in Japan. Naya, captured in Russia in 2014, is the only remaining wild-caught orca in Russia and is held at Moskvarium in Moscow. Several other captured Russian orcas are confined at facilities in China.

A similar pattern is evident in Russia. Although no new orcas have been captured there for several years, the effects of past captures remain. Naya was snatched from her pod in the Sea of Okhotsk as a young calf and placed with two other once-wild Russian orcas, Narnia and Nord. Both later died — Narnia in January 2023 and Nord later that same year — leaving Naya alone. In late 2023, she gave birth to a daughter who survived just 28 days. She now lives in complete isolation, cut off from other orcas, her family, and the ocean she once called home.

Descendants of orcas originally captured in Iceland — both pure Icelandic orcas and hybrids — remain in aquariums worldwide. Some hybrids are 50 percent Icelandic, others 75 percent or even 87.5 percent. Regardless of genetics, they were born into confinement and denied the opportunity to experience the complex social lives and hunting behaviors that define orca culture.

Orca captures of the past reveal how wild animals were stripped of freedom and reduced to commodities for human entertainment. What has long been treated as a resource for the amusement industry has left a lasting mark not only on those forcibly separated from their pods, but on several individuals born into captivity. Despite their strength and intelligence, these whales remain trapped in barren environments that cannot meet their physical, social, or cognitive needs.

Corky performing at SeaWorld San Diego. Captured in British Columbia in 1969, she has remained in captivity for more than half a century. Credit: @hunter.d.photography (IG); Inherently Wild: https://inherentlywild.co.uk

In the United States, SeaWorld ended its controversial captive orca breeding program in 2016, meaning its current population will be its last. In contrast, Loro Parque in Tenerife, which received four orcas from SeaWorld on a so-called breeding loan in 2006, continues to breed its orcas. Three of the orcas currently at Loro Parque have Icelandic ancestry.

Understanding this history matters. It is not only about remembering the captures themselves, but about acknowledging the ethical consequences that persist long after they end. Captivity of orcas is not care; it is lifelong confinement that deprives these animals of everything that defines their existence.

The story of wild-caught orcas — in Russia, Iceland, and elsewhere — shows that even when capture operations stop, the harm does not. The suffering continues in the remaining survivors and in generations born into captivity, underscoring why highly intelligent, socially complex marine mammals do not belong in tanks, and why captive orca breeding has no ethical justification.

Featured image: Naya, who is the last survivor of three wild-caught orcas at Moskvarium in Russia, gave birth on December 29th 2023. The calf, a female, died just 28 days later, on January 26th. With the death of her daughter, Naya is once again all alone. Moskvarium opened to the public in August 2015 with a young male named Nord and two young female orcas named Narnia and Juliette. (”Juliette” was Naya’s previous stage name.) They were captured during the period 2012-2014, and both Narnia and Nord have since died. CREDIT: Moskvarium; Inherently Wild