Last week, the social media network TideBreakers released video of the killer whale Keijo being sexually pleasured at the closed theme park Marineland in Antibes, France. TideBreakers (and disclaimer – I am an advisor to the group) speculated that the action could have been part of a procedure to collect reproductive material for artificial insemination of whales at other facilities. The park’s trainers, on the other hand, have stated that the session was conducted to relieve sexual tension.

The actual reason for the act is very much irrelevant, and I will be addressing why on this blog tomorrow.

Regardless, the video has entered a strange realm that exists within the online Orcaverse™️. A number of people have made online comments likening this longstanding procedure of zoological husbandry – which I will also address tomorrow – to beastiality, and marine park staff and supporters have latched onto these comments to discredit the video, rather than concentrating on the video itself.

This procedure is in no way beastiality, which would require the trainers to have enjoyed whacking off the young lad. If you want beastiality, there’s video on the net of the head trainer at Dolphinarium Harderwijk performing felatio on a dolphin. I don’t want to know that. But I do. And now you do as well.

So people make assumptions. They assume that an established husbandry procedure is a perverse act of interspecies sex. But the fact the procedure is conducted on aquatic and terrestrial animals at zoos and aquariums worldwide does not necessarily make it appropriate considering the current state of affairs with the park, its occupants, and its staff. And yes, this will also be addressed tomorrow.

But today, I want to address something else.

I recently came across a thread on X which blamed Dr. Ingrid Visser for the death of the stranded killer whale calf Toa in New Zealand. According to the thread, the calf died because Dr. Visser would not allow SeaWorld veterinarians to participate in the rescue.

That is a subjective accusation at its finest.

Now, I’m not writing this to defend Dr. Visser. I’m writing this to defend the truth.

The truth is that the New Zealand government was in touch with former SeaWorld veterinarians, including one in a key position with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and another who had just taken on a role as veterinarian at SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, all of whom have extensive experience with killer whales, their calves, and wildlife rescues.

And the New Zealand government was also directly in touch with SeaWorld’s veterinarians.

The problem wasn’t Dr. Visser keeping SeaWorld at arm’s length, as the thread claimed. The problem was that Toa stranded in July 2021 and New Zealand had sealed its borders to foreign travel from March 2021 through July 2022. While there were a few exceptions to the travel ban, SeaWorld’s veterinarians did not meet the criteria.

It’s all right here, in the close to 1,000 pages of email correspondence released by the New Zealand Department of Conservation in 2021.

Part 1:

Part 2:

📷 Greenstone/Border Patrol NZ