captive orca profiles 97 chimo

On March 1st a small pod of orca were captured. The small pod all had deformities so were given some unusual names - scarred jaw cow, pointed nose cow, charlie chin and chimo. It is believed scarred jaw cow was Chimo's mother as they were very close. Many parks were interested in Chimo as a white orca was very rare. Sealand of the Pacific paid a large sum of money to get her and another young female called Nootka, so Scarred jaw cow and chimo were separated. Soon Seven seas bought the remaining 3 but the went on hunger strike, bearing in mind they were tranasient orca, so would have been mammal eaters not fish eaters, but the differences were not known back then. After 75 days of starvation, Scarredjaw Cow died of apparent malnutrition. On this day, observers watched the cow start slowly swimming around the enclosure, crashing into the logs. She seemed to be gulping seawater and was probably suffering dehydration from the salt water and the lack of food. Then, at full steam, she made a run at the net and went through the heavy polyprop up to her dorsal fin. Stuck halfway, she didn't have the power to push through any further. Several people tried to cut the net around her, but without success. So they tried to back her into the pool. And she just went backwards, opening her mouth and allowing air bubbles to escape as she sank to the bottom. That was the end of her. All this time, Pointed nose Cow had been floating in the centre of the enclosure, motionless. Charlie Chin kept circling round and round, but before Scarredjaw Cow died, he stopped on the surface and looked over at the observers. There was some vocalizing between the animals. When the cow died, Charlie Chin started grabbing the net in his teeth and yanking on it. The keepers were smacking him on the head, but he hung on. After a while, he let go and returned to his circling pattern. A couple of days later, a Pedder Bay salmon guide brought in some fresh salmon for the whales. Charlie Chin was doing his slow circling, and Pointednose Cow was just sitting at the centre of the enclosure. She had become very sunburned, and the keepers had been applying zinc ointment on her skin, which was cracked around the blowhole. The salmon guide was holding the fish out. It was maybe 20 inches long. And Charlie Chin just came up and grabbed it. Then he swam out to Pointednose Cow and started vocalizing. There were exchanges going back and forth as they lay there on the surface. It really seemed like a fairy tale, especially after all this time of not eating. Charlie dropped the salmon right in front of Pointednose Cow's nose. She grabbed it by the tail, and with the fish hanging out the side of her mouth, she started swimming around the pool, vocalizing. Then Charlie came up beside her and grabbed hold of the head, and with the fish stretched between them, they made a circuit around the pool. All this time, they were talking back and forth. Finally, they ripped the fish apart, and each ate half. A few minutes later, Charlie returned for more. He took another salmon out to Pointednose Cow. This time, she ate the whole thing. Then he came back and got one for himself. After Charlie Chin helped Pointednose Cow start eating, each of them consumed up to 450 pounds of fish a day. The two whales slowly regained their health. Then Charlie Chin was sold at a cut rate to a marine park in Texas to replace earlier sold Scarredjaw Cow. But before this move could take place, Charlie Chin and Pointednose Cow were "released". There were seen many time out in the ocean, but luckily not by their captors. Chimo (also known as T4), was a young female orca exhibited in Sealand of the Pacific in South Oak Bay at The Oak Bay Marina, near the city of Victoria, in British Columbia, Canada from 1970 to 1972. Years before her capture, another pure white orca was spotted in what is suspected to be the same pod, this orca was named "Alice", Alice was never captured and vanished in the 1960s. Chimo was captured when trying to find a mate for the park's star attraction, Haida. After her capture, Sealand became famous She lived with Nootka and Haida but after many rakings and fights it was decided one of the orca had to leave and it was to be Nootka. It was hoped Chimo would breed but in 1972 she died from complications due to her Chediak-Higashi Syndrome. She never bore any calves.

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