Captured in 1964, Moby Doll (c. 1959–9 October 1964) was the first orca to survive in captivity for more than two days, and the second to be displayed in a public aquarium exhibit. The availability, for the first time, of an orca that could be studied at close quarters alive initiated pioneering research. From a recording of Moby Doll's calls, he was years later identified as a member of J Pod of the southern resident orcas.
At the time of his capture, orcas were widely feared and hated. In 1972, Washington State Game Department supervisor Garry Garrison declared that orcas "had until recently been the subject of fear and violence. 'They were harassed, shot at, and killed at every opportunity.'"[1] Don White, once an orca researcher at the Vancouver Aquarium, later a critic of orca captivity, wrote in 1975, "Before the capture of Moby Doll, of Namu and of Skana killer whales as a species were regarded by fishermen as vermin. Happily, this is no longer the case."[2] About 25% of captured, immature orcas carried evidence of already having been wounded by shootings.[3]
Moby Doll was kept alive in captivity by the Vancouver Aquarium after being harpooned and not dying as had been planned. "His unplanned capture proved the viability of holding a killer whale in captivity, and it hinted at the potential of live orcas as tourist attractions. It also revealed the emotional attachment the species could generate."[4] Moby Doll's captivity sparked the orca capture era in British Columbia and Washington State.[5]
A major difficulty in Moby Doll's captivity was that, for a long time, aquarium staff could not successfully feed him. His captors wrote, "For many weeks a pessimistic outlook prevailed regarding the possibility that the animal would commence to eat. The animal became very noticeably thinner during its fast."[6]
^Colby, p. 206
^Cite error: The named reference vs750412 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Ford, John K.B.; Ellis, Graeme M.; Balcomb, Kenneth C. (2000). Killer Whales: the natural history and genealogy of Orcinus orca in British Columbia and Washington (2nd ed.). Vancouver, BC: UBC Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780774808002.
^Cite error: The named reference c66 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Olesiuk et al., 1990 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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