Jason Colby (author of Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator) talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young about the capture of Toki/Tokitae/Lolita/Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut and how Penn Cove almost ended the southern resident orcas and was the beginning of the end of the capture era. “It’s worth remembering that the argument at the time, if there could have been a debate at the time, it was really between whale catching and whale shooting, not whale catching and whale watching.”

Shownotes:

0:00 The voice of Toki.

4:08 Jason Colby on writing the book – or at least a very long chapter of his book – on Penn Cove.

6:05 “They eventually capture virtually all of these orcas behind nets. They estimate at the time around 90 individuals… The estimates vary but almost certainly the entire population of the Southern residents.”

7:43 “It’s worth remembering that the argument at the time, if there could have been a debate at the time, it was really between whale catching and whale shooting, not whale catching and whale watching.”

8:50 “Once they rounded them up, 90 to 100 animals, if Ted Griffin and his company would have wanted to and would have had the market to sell all 90 of them they could have done that. If they had wanted to shoot them all in the nets, they could have done that. There may have been a firearms violation, but there would be no sort of conservation law violation.”

10:30 “This must have been horrifically traumatic for these pods to be torn apart.”

11:20 How activists trying to free the orcas accidentally kill four baby orcas.

12:20 Hiding the bodies… “Whether it was illegal or not, it looks like a murder scene.”

14:20 Is Toki really L Pod or did she learn how to speak L Pod from Hugo in Miami?

20:04 “It was a generational loss.”

21:20 “If Griffin had done what the fisherman who was helping him demanded – which is to sell all of them all – you could have seen the entire population of Southern residents extinguished before we had even identified them scientifically as a population.”

23:00 How to help orcas today and the problems humans are creating for orcas today.

26:04 Toki talks.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
Jason Colby from Mark Leiren-Young’s award-winning documentary The Hundred Year-Old Whale
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Howard Garrett (Orca Network) remembering the southern resident orca Toki/Tokitae/Lolita/Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut and his nearly thirty year fight to bring Toki home to the Salish Sea. “Toki’s legacy is building, building, building by the day… She wasn’t just a circus animal. She was a member of the southern residents.”

Shownotes:

0:00 The voice of Toki.
4:57 How Howard started fighting to bring Toki home

7:50 “I really feel like she would have thrived and been thrilled and so relieved to be in her familiar waters.”

14:16 A superpod wake for Toki?

15:55 The Lummi Nation’s fight for Toki.

20:05  The origins of Toki’s names and becoming Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut.

21:44 “Her tank violated the very dismal standard of the animal welfare act…”

30:15 Getting the news that she was gone.

34:00 Toki’s legacy.

43:00 Toki speaks.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
Howard Garrett at a marine conference in Vancouver in 2017
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1966 est Born

December 11, 1969
Captured in Pender Harbor, BC

1969
Sent to Marineland of Pacific

1987
Sent to SeaWorld San Diego

Species: Orcinus orca Breed: Northern Resident
Meaning of name: Irish for “hill hollow”
Captivity History: Captured at around age 4 from A5 pod in Pender Harbor, BC
Mother: Stripe (died in the wild in 2000)
Full Siblings: A21, A29, Okisollo, Ripple, FifeOffspring: Calf (1977) first Orca ever born in captivity but died after 16 days, Spooky (1978), Stillbirth (1980), Kive (1982), Calf (1985), Miscarriage (1986), Miscarriage (1987)
Sex: Female
Weight: 8,335 lbs.
Length: 20 ft.

Corky II has been in captivity longer than any other Orca. She is about the same age as Lolita, both with estimated birth years of 1966. She has had seven offspring with Orky II, none of which lived past 46 days.
Corky II is the largest female Orca in captivity. On August 21, 1989 Kandu V collided with Corky II, which caused Kandu V to fracture her upper jaw and bleed to death.

Corky II became a surrogate mother to Kandu V’s orphaned calf, Orkid after this incident. In 1990, Corky II pushed the mid-section of her trainer and again pushed a trainer in 1994, however, she is known to be a very sweet and gentle Orca.

Camille Labchuk (@CamilleLabchuk) executive director of Animal Justice (@AnimalJustice) talks with Mark Leiren-Young (@Leirenyoung) about Canada’s new laws to cancel cetacean captivity and finish finning sharks and the fight for legal rights for animals and vegans. 

Skaana connects you with eco-heroes sharing ideas about oceans, eco-ethics, the environment and how you can change the world.

“Canada hadn’t passed any serious new animal protection legislation since the eighteen hundreds. That’s pretty shocking to most people.” – Camille Labchuk

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Links

Vegan firefighter suing the government says he didn’t deserve hunger and humiliation: ‘I’m tired of nice’ | The Star

Canada’s new shark fin ban sets an example for the world

In passage of ‘Free Willy’ bill, Canada bans captivity and breeding of whales and dolphins

Environmentalism’s next frontier: giving nature legal rights

BREAKING NEWS: House votes to end shark fin sales in the U.S.

Support Camille Labchuck

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Music:

Dr. Jason Colby
Author
“The region that loves them is poisoning them and starving them.”

“In some ways it’s the book I was meant to write and need to write.”

“I wanted this to be an academic book masquerading as a great beach read… I thought about titling this book .“Crazy Shit That Really Happened.”

“I refer to this sometimes as the unthinkable history of the Pacific North West.”

“We have very generational memories about our local ecologies.”

“Ted Griffin is one of the most controversial, fascinating characters in the history of the Northwest.”

“I had to reckon with my family’s responsibility in what is now a northwest tragedy.”

“I don’t think I’ll do anything as meaningful or as personal again in my writing.”

“I want people to understand that everyone lives in their own context and they live their lives forward . . . we don’t know how people are going to view our actions . . . I can imagine fifty years from now when we have an ocean without any fish . . . people will look back on us and say, “How could you have eaten salmon? . . . How could you have killed so many tuna for your sushi? What were you thinking? How could you do that?”

“The region that loves them is poisoning them and starving them.”

Jason Colby (@jasoncolby2) author of Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator on the history of humanity’s relationship with orcas – and his personal connection to the capture era.

“I refer to this sometimes as the unthinkable history of the Pacific North West.”

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about oceans, orcas and the environment.

You can use the affiliate links below to support the pod.

Join the Pod……https://www.patreon.com/skaana

Skaana Tip Jar… https://paypal.me/skaana  

Skaana home…..skaana.org

Skaana on iTunes… Skaana.ca

Facebook………..https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter……………https://twitter.com/leirenyoung

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World…. http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q

Links:

  1. Why Tilikum, SeaWorld’s Killer Orca, Was Infamous: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/tilikum-seaworld-orca-killer-whale-dies/
  2. BC’s Pioneer Of Killer Whale Research: https://www.bcmag.ca/bcs-pioneer-of-killer-whale-research/
  3. Era of the Orca Cowboys: https://thetyee.ca/Life/2008/05/16/OrcaCowboys/
  4. From Machine Guns to Save-the-Whales: https://georgiastrait.org/2018/06/from-machine-guns-to-save-the-whales/
  5. They Shoot Orcas, Don’t They? File this under weird BC history. The harpooning of Moby Doll: https://thetyee.ca/Life/2008/05/13/ShootingOrcas/
  6. Sighting of rare giant basking shark in B.C. thrills scientists: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sighting-of-rare-giant-basking-shark-in-b-c-thrills-scientists-1.3618708
  7. PBS: Interview with Ted Griffin: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/interviews/griffin.html
  8. YouTube: Breaching Basking Sharks | World’s Weirdest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsC61g36EqM
  9. YouTube: Ted Griffin taking a break while orca hunting in 1965: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7jcFR6xE_o

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Music:

 

David Neiwert (@DavidNeiwert) – an expert on orcas and America’s Alt-Right – talks orcas, empathy and why fighting for whales still matters in the Age of Trump.  Neiwert is the author of Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us & Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump.

“The fight against Trump and against hate groups and against the far radical right is very much the same fight that I’m engaged with when it comes to saving whales, which is the fight to decide what kind of humans we are going to be.”

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about  orcas, oceans and the environment.

You can use the affiliate links below to support the pod.

Join the Pod……https://www.patreon.com/skaana

Skaana home…..skaana.org

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Links:

  1. Four Lower Snake River Dams
  2. Aryan Nations
  3. Milo Protest at the University of Washington
  4. Ingrid Visser
  5. Alexandra Morton

Support David Neiwert

Official Website: http://dneiwert.blogspot.com

Twitter: @DavidNeiwert

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidNeiwertAuthor/

Southern Poverty Law Center: https://www.splcenter.org

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Support the Arrogant Worms:

Link to the Bob Bossin original song: Here!

 

Dr. Lori Marino
Neuroscientist, animal behaviour expert, founder and executive director of The Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy and founder and President of the Whale Sanctuary Project
“People do not want to see orcas in concrete tanks.”

“We would keep them safe and healthy for the rest of their lives.”

“I made a concerted decision that I was not going to do any more research on captive dolphins.”

“An orca that was born in captivity doesn’t know that live fish are food.”

“These orcas have been deprived of everything that makes life worth living.”

“People do not want to see orcas in concrete tanks.”

“This is all about the whales.”

Dr. Lori Marino (Blackfish; The Sanctuary Project; The Kimmela Centre for Animal Advocacy) on seeking sanctuary, captive orcas (Corky, Lolita & Kiska), animal rights and wrongs & more.

“Being a dolphin in a captive environment, in a concrete tank, doing tricks, is not being a dolphin… A dolphin is someone who has a life to lead and is not necessarily interested in looking to you to enrich their lives, they’re going about their business.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about  orcas, oceans and the environment.

You can use the affiliate links below to support the pod.

Join the Pod……https://www.patreon.com/skaana

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Links:

  1. Dr. Marino talks possible sanctuary locations 
  2. Mirrors and dolphins 
  3. Are dolphins smarter than your kid?
  4. The Canadian Senate talks cetacean rights

Support Dr. Lori Marino

Official Website: Whale Sanctuary Project

Official Website: Center for Animal Advocacy 

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Song of the Episode:

The Dorsals With The Gatormen “Namu”