In 2018, capture was not ruled out! While NOAA Fisheries recognized the important family orca bonds they did not rule out the risks of capturing the ailing orca J50. They said she would be held for experimental treatments before rejoining her family.  But would she have survived the trauma?  J Pod had just gone through enough tragedies with their mourning of a newborn for 17 days.  Capture would bring more unbearable suffering for all if they separated this 3 year old from her mom and family.

NOAA examples of capture intervention included being stranded alive on a beach or separated from her family. However, if she did strand then she could be refloated as families do stand by! J50 did at times lagged behind but would catch up. Lifeforce Ocean Friends was with them on September 5th and J50 was active and kept up with the pod.

There are 3 main threats to the endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKWs) – lack of food, pollution and boat traffic. The 4th was and still is aquarium captures.  The orca captures were started by the Vancouver Aquarium in 1964 and continues to have a major impact because it takes over 50 years to try to correct the resulting abnormal age and sex ratio. The 68 young orcas and the unreported others who died during captures were mostly from the SRKWs. A generation was lost.

The Vancouver Aquarium and Sea World continue from 2018 as part of the present planning group.

Lifeforce has been fighting to save these orcas from extinction since 1993. You can contribute to protecting these orcas by signing and sharing the petition and through making a donation to Lifeforce Foundation through Paypal. http://www.lifeforcefoundation.org/support.php

Thank you! For Voicing Your Support!