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Description

Story time!
"After 30 years of exhibiting captive marine mammals, Northwest Seashows closed its doors to the public, and partitioned out its collection of animals to various parks and scientific institutes. Among those a six-year-old female orca named Kaija was donated to a newly-formed endeavor called Seacross. The aim of the project was to attempt the unprecedented integration of a captive-bred orca into an established population of wild killer whales. A second-generation captive, she was housed at an off-shore seapen some miles from the Midway Atoll, exposed to sounds and sights of the Pacific Ocean (the same ocean her Transient predecessors had been collected from), she came to adapt to her environment. Public donations and private grants allowed her caretakers to keep Kaija safe, raised on a diet of live fish and only-necessary handling, until she came of age before being permitted full roam of the seas around.
The results of her walks have been significantly mixed. Fitted with a tracking beacon at the base of her dorsal fin, Kaija's travels have been logged via remote and firsthand observation. She had been seen socializing with various pods during her venture north. At age fifteen she had reached the Gulf of Alaska, but without any company to be seen. At sixteen she was sighted outside Cook Inlet with a male calf at her side. For the next four years, Kaija doted on K'nai, occasionally seeking the company of other orcas, while still maintaining her distance from people and boats, and appearing - in all aspects - comfortable with doing so.
Seacross personnel, encouraged by this behavior, began to shift focus away from their pending success story to find the next likely candidate. But as word surfaced of Kaija and K'nai being sighted among a small pod known for its rumored 'winged' orca, their attention quickly turned back to see what would come of these interactions."

Description

Story time!
"After 30 years of exhibiting captive marine mammals, Northwest Seashows closed its doors to the public, and partitioned out its collection of animals to various parks and scientific institutes. Among those a six-year-old female orca named Kaija was donated to a newly-formed endeavor called Seacross. The aim of the project was to attempt the unprecedented integration of a captive-bred orca into an established population of wild killer whales. A second-generation captive, she was housed at an off-shore seapen some miles from the Midway Atoll, exposed to sounds and sights of the Pacific Ocean (the same ocean her Transient predecessors had been collected from), she came to adapt to her environment. Public donations and private grants allowed her caretakers to keep Kaija safe, raised on a diet of live fish and only-necessary handling, until she came of age before being permitted full roam of the seas around.
The results of her walks have been significantly mixed. Fitted with a tracking beacon at the base of her dorsal fin, Kaija's travels have been logged via remote and firsthand observation. She had been seen socializing with various pods during her venture north. At age fifteen she had reached the Gulf of Alaska, but without any company to be seen. At sixteen she was sighted outside Cook Inlet with a male calf at her side. For the next four years, Kaija doted on K'nai, occasionally seeking the company of other orcas, while still maintaining her distance from people and boats, and appearing - in all aspects - comfortable with doing so.
Seacross personnel, encouraged by this behavior, began to shift focus away from their pending success story to find the next likely candidate. But as word surfaced of Kaija and K'nai being sighted among a small pod known for its rumored 'winged' orca, their attention quickly turned back to see what would come of these interactions."