#moby doll

Moby Doll was a 5 to 7 year old male Southern Resident Killer Whale from J pod who was captured in the United States on July 16, 1964. He was soon transferred to the Vancouver Aquarium where he passed away on October 9, 1964. Moby Doll was originally wanted as a model of a killer whale by the Vancouver Aquarium. Fishermen went out and found a group of orcas and harpooned Moby Doll. He survived the harpoon wound and was instead taken to the Jericho Military Base were a sea pen had been built for him. Upon his arrival, Moby refused to eat. Eventually, he did start eating and gained weight. He became more active but the water quality where the sea pen was located was not very clean. Moby's health started to deteriorate. The lesions that covered Moby Doll’s skin courtesy of the polluted water in the harbour. Marineland of the Pacific was interested in buying him but he passed away from drowning before that could happen. Originally, it was thought Moby Doll was a female until his necropsy was performed which revealed he was a male.

Moby Doll (Predators of the Wild: Killer Whale)

It is also the day when, 53 years ago, Moby Doll was moved from his first Vancouver pen, to a pen at Jericho military base, to be used in scientific experiments (we’re talking vocalization recordings and such here, not vivisection).

Moby Doll (Predators of the Wild: Killer Whale)

Anyone read this one yet? I'm anticipating many tears...

[TW: Animal cruelty, whale capture] Moby Doll Moby Doll was the second orca ever brought into captivity. Vancouver Aquarium had commissioned sculptor Samuel Burich to make a realistic model of an orca. To do this, a crew was put together to find and kill an orca. On July 16, 1964, Burich and his crew went to East Point, Saturna Island and shot Moby Doll with a harpoon gun. However, he did not die. He appeared to be stunned, and for several hours two pod members pushed his head up out of the water so he could breathe. Burich shot at him with a rifle several times, but he did not die and the decision was made to tow him back to Vancouver and put him on display. He was dragged to Burrard Drydocks in Vancouver by the harpoon for 16 hours. He was approximately five years old at the time of capture. For the first 55 days in captivity, Moby Doll would not eat. He was offered parts of octopus, seals, sea lions, and even horse hearts. At this point, it wasn't known that resident killer whales only ate fish. Finally, he was offered cod, and he took it and ended up eating more than 50kg of fish that day. He would eat over 100kg of cod a day from then on. Before Moby Doll's capture, very little was known about orcas. He was mistaken for a female, and it wasn't until his autopsy that they realised he was in fact male. At the time, orcas had a reputation for being aggressive and were often shot on sight in the wild. Observers at the were shocked at how docile he really was, even taking food out of trainers' hands. Sadly, this led to orcas becoming popular among marine parks, and further captures soon followed. Moby Doll died in 1964 of a skin condition due to poor water salinity after just 88 days in captivity, and since then over 160 orcas have died in captivity. [Footage from Killer Whales: Beneath The Surface, sources: X X]