The Orca Chronicles: By Adventuregirl5

Nootka 4 and Haida 2's Story

Nootka 4 & Haida 2's P.O.V.

"Hey, I'm Nootka 4. Or just Nootka"

"And I'm Haida 2. But just Haida is fine"

"I bet you can't tell which one of us is which in the picture above" ~Nootka

"I second that" ~Haida

"And this is our story!" ~Nootka and Haida

Captures

Like all wild orcas, we were living freely with our families swimming for miles in the open ocean ~Haida

That was until one day everything changed, when we were brutally ripped away from our pods ~Nootka

We were both captured in October of 1982 in Iceland ~Haida

Life at Sealand of the Pacific and Meeting Tilikum

Several months after our captures we were both sent to a small aquarium park called Sealand of the Pacific in Canada ~Nootka

The strange bald-skinned creatures known as humans who were our trainers soon started training us to do all sorts of tricks. Like touching balls with our noses, back flips, and squirting people ~Haida

"Seriously?!" We both thought, they expect us to do this right after we had been snatched and taken away from our families? ~Nootka

We really had nothing better to do though living in that tiny pool though and we were at least getting free fish out of it, so we went along with it ~Haida

Soon in 1984 we were joined by a young Icelandic male named Tilikum ~Nootka

We didn't like him that much and would often behave aggressively towards him. Sometimes even forcing him back into the smaller medical pool where trainers kept him locked in for protection. And that was on a daily basic ~Haida

Yeah, we know what you're all thinking. Call us bullies or jerks, or whatever it is you humans call a bad animal for us being mean to Tilikum all those years. But in our defense, orcas live in very social groups ~Nootka

And according to research, female orcas are at the top of the social structure while males are usually at the bottom. Which is why we behaved so poorly towards Tilly ~Haida

This is natural both in the wild and at marine parks ~Nootka

Eventually over the years, all three of us had matured and then one day, Nootka and I both became pregnant with our first calves sired by Tilikum ~Haida

An Unexpected Tragedy that Ended a Company

February 20th, 1991~

We were all out preforming in the main pool as it was just another ordinary day. We were soon given our fish for the final segment and the show had ended. Only a few minutes after, we were all just relaxing when we heard a small splash in the water and turned towards the source ~Nootka

The next thing we knew, we saw one of our trainers, Keltie Byrne, was in the water with us ~Haida

Apparently she had slipped and fell into the tank ~Nootka

Now none of us had ever previously trained for having a trainer in the water with us, so naturally we had no idea how to react to this ~Haida

All three of us ended up taking turns tossing Keltie around to each other like she was a rag doll ~Nootka

Ultimately, she drowned... ~Haida

This unfortunate incident closed down the park for good shortly after ~Nootka

Almost to the end of that year on Christmas Eve, I gave birth to my first calf. My son, who was later called Kyuquot by the trainers ~Haida

Nootka and I both soon had forced Tilikum back into the med pool to keep him in there and away from Kyuquot. I was very close to my son and obviously overprotective of him... Sometimes... Okay, fine, all of the time ~Haida

I soon gave birth just a few months later to my first calf, a male, on March 10, 1992. Sadly, the calf died only a month after ~Nootka

After the park had officially closed its doors and everybody left, the only question that remained now was... What was going to happen to us? ~Haida

Moving to Seaworld

One day we overheard the news from our trainers that it had been decided we would all be sent to the Seaworld parks in the US ~Nootka 

Seaworld? We've heard of that place. It was the top marine park that specialized in the care of orcas at the time. It was like our Disneyland ~Haida

Tilikum and I were both sent to Seaworld Orlando in Florida ~Nootka

While Kyuquot and I were sent to the Seaworld San Antonio in Texas ~Haida 

I soon had mated with Tilikum again and eventually became pregnant with my 2nd calf. Unfortunately the calf was a stillborn and had died ~Nootka

I had quickly become the new dominant female once we arrived at the park. Ky and I met many new orcas during our stay in San Antonio. Including a young male named Kotar who I allowed to mate with me and I was soon pregnant again. Unfortunately, the calf passed away a month after it had been born due to pneumonia. A very similar case that happened to my only grandcalf Kyara ~Haida 

Deaths

I passed away on August 1st, 2001 from a brain abscess while pregnant with my 3rd calf. I was 20 years old ~Haida

I passed away on September 13th, 1994 due to complications from my stillbirth a month before. I was only 15 years old ~Nootka 

"And that is our story!" ~Nootka and Haida