Sealand of the Pacific facts for kids

Sealand of the Pacific was a public aquarium in South Oak Bay at The Oak Bay Marina, near the city of Victoria, in British Columbia, Canada. It housed a number of orcas: Haida, Nootka, and Tilikum. In 1991, all three were involved in an incident in which a trainer, Keltie Byrne, was killed. The aquarium subsequently closed and sold its orcas to SeaWorld.

History

The aquarium opened in 1969, housing an orca named Haida which had been captured in 1968. Shortly afterward, the aquarium decided to capture a mate for him, taking a partial albino named Chimo. She died in 1972, a little over 2 years after her capture; the disease which caused her albinism, Chédiak–Higashi syndrome, made her very susceptible to illness. Haida, her mate, mourned her death, and remained alone for years. Eventually, Sealand captured a female whale named Nootka II for his mate. Nootka II, however, died after 9 months. His third mate, Nootka III, was also short-lived. By the time of the death of his third mate, Haida displayed no interest in them.

In 1977, Dr. Murray Newman, founding director of the aquarium, got a call from Campbell River, B.C., resident William Davis, who claimed he was feeding a sick baby killer whale by hand in the wild. Newman then called Dr Michael Bigg, head of Marine Mammal Research at the Pacific Biological Station in Naniamo, B.C. Bigg, in turn, called Sealand and Bob Wright, who took Angus Mathews, Dr. Alan Hoey, and Bigg by float plane to Menzies Bay to investigate the claim. They discovered the story was true and that the baby killer whale was suffering from a bullet wound. Sealand, with permission from Bigg and Davis, decided to rescue the baby whale and take her back to Victoria for emergency care.

Miracle became a popular attraction but was kept in a separate pen from Haida. Several years later, her companion in the pen, a seal named Shadow, drowned in the nets forming the pen. Sealand diver Larry McInerney stated in the documentary Who Killed Miracle? that she had drowned by becoming trapped between the double-net system at the aquarium. McInerney also noted, which was corroborated by Alexandra Morton in the film, that Miracle had learned that by damaging the nets, divers would come into pen and she could play with the divers. Miracle's play had become aggressive and was a safety problem for the divers, preventing proper maintenance of the pens. Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard, a killer whale expert, determined that Miracle was a southern resident killer whale, which were known to play rough with other sea mammals in the wild. These factors combined to cause the whale's death.

As anti-captivity protests began to put pressure on aquariums, Sealand agreed to release Haida, but the animal died a few days before its scheduled release in October 1982, with no evidence of foul play. His release had been part for the aquarium to acquire new whales. Many people were outraged by the plan of capturing more whales and staged a protest at the supposed capture site. Sealand soon obtained three whales captured from Iceland.

The three new orcas, Tilikum, Nootka IV, and Haida II, never had good dynamics together; the male, Tilikum, was often bullied and chased into the medical pen by the two females.

Orcas kept at Sealand

• Haida
• Chimo: An albino orca. Captured in March 1970 and died in 1972.
• Knootka/Nootka: An orca captured alongside Chimo in March 1970. Lived at Sealand until the twenty-fifth of that month, when she was moved to the Japanese Deer Park in California. From 1971 to 1972 Knootka was residing at a Texan park named "Seven Seas Texas." She would go on to live at Marineland of Canada until 1986, and SeaWorld San Diego, where she spent the final four years of her life. She died on March 13, 1990.
• Nootka II
• Nootka III
• Miracle: Died January 1982.
• Haida II: Died on August 1, 2001. She was pregnant at the time of the 1991 drowning of Keltie Byrne; she gave birth to a son name Kyuquot on December 14, 1991.
• Nootka IV: Died on September 13, 1994, at SeaWorld Orlando.*Tilikum: Died on January 6, 2017, at SeaWorld Orlando.
• Kyuquot: The first offspring of Tilikum, mothered by Haida II. Currently lives at SeaWorld San Antonio.
• Nootka IV's calf: The calf was born on February 4, 1992, and died March 10, 1992.