Kiska, last captive orca in Canada, has died at Marineland

TORONTO — The killer whale named Kiska at Canada’s Marineland theme park, the rustic’s last captive orca who swam on my own in her tank for greater than a decade, has died.

Brent Ross, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Solicitor General in Ontario that oversees animal welfare in the province, mentioned Monday that the theme park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, knowledgeable the province of the demise last week.

Kiska used to be believed to be 47 years outdated and had lived at Marineland since being captured in Icelandic waters in 1979. She used to be captured along Keiko, who was well-known in the film “Free Willy,” and the pair lived in combination for a couple of years at Marineland in the Eighties. Keiko used to be offered to an aquarium in Mexico in 1985 and sooner or later ended up at SeaWorld in the U.S.

Kiska seemed in presentations at Marineland for years however had no longer carried out for greater than a decade. She spent that point in a big pool at the park’s Friendship Cove separated from a pod of belugas.

SeaWorld additionally has stopped its theatrical presentations with orcas and ended its breeding program in 2017, that means that its present orcas would be the emblem’s last technology in captivity.

The Marineland park advised the Niagara Falls Review newspaper that the killer whale’s well being declined just lately “despite intensive interventions” through theme park workers and a world staff of veterinarians.

Professionals employed through Marineland have carried out a necropsy on Friday in the presence of province officers, Ross mentioned.

Marineland’s proprietor, Marie Holer, declined to remark.

In 2021, the province discovered that there have been issues of the theme park’s water machine and ordered maintenance for swimming pools that area belugas, dolphins, walruses, sea lions and Kiska, courtroom paperwork display. Marineland first of all appealed the order, denying the findings, however later dropped the enchantment.

The province has inspected the theme park 160 instances since January 2020, however has declined to free up findings of the inspections.

Christine Santos, who skilled Kiska for 12 years till Marineland fired her in 2012, mentioned she used to be in surprise about news of the demise.

“But at the same time I’m just really relieved she’s not alone anymore,” Santos mentioned.

Kiska used to be calm and simple to paintings with but in addition on occasion mischievous. She on occasion tricked new running shoes into giving “her more fish and more rubs,” Santos mentioned.