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Nakai, a 21 year old captive bred killer whale at SeaWorld San Diego, died after a sudden, unspecified infection. Nakai was born to Kasatka, her first calf at SWSD. She went on to have Kalia and Makani, and the four functioned with Kasatka as their matriarch until she died in 2017. 

Nakai had a distinctive, three pronged scar on his chin from a teen-hood injury. He never had any recorded instances of aggression towards trainers or other whales, and seemed attached to his mother and later his brother. He also seemed to socialize well with the other males in the park, Ulises and Keet. 

SeaWorld announced his cause of death as 'infection' but didn't specify further. I personally suspect pneumonia, as that infection is an extremely common cause of death for captive cetaceans, but this is of course, speculative. I hope that Nakai wasn't in pain. 21 is tragically young for a bull orca. I hope that he is with his mother again, somehow. 

Photo: EchoBeluga

Winter the dolphin died at 8:00pm on Thursday, November 11th, 2021. She was sixteen years old. 

Winter, a female Floridian bottlenose dolphin, was discovered in Mosquito Lagoon, Florida, on December 10th, 2005. She was about two months old, and her fluke was caught in a crab trap and badly damaged. She was taken to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater, Florida. Her fluke and caudal penduncle were so badly wounded and infected that they needed to be amputated. 

Winter survived the loss of her tail, but as a result, began to swim in a side to side motion, rather than up and down the way that whales are biologically evolved to. This posed some pretty serious risks to Winter's health, and so veterinarians developed several silicone and plastic prosthetic flukes for Winter to wear that would allow her to swim normally. 

For the next sixteen years of her life, Winter lived at the CMA. She wore her tail only part time, as any prosthetic can be uncomfortable when worn constantly, and vets at the Clearwater did regular physical therapy with her in attempts to counteract the scoliosis she developed over time from swimming side to side. 

Some cetologists, like Naomi Rose, said that Winter was suffering as a kind of anthropomorphized inspirational story, and that the humane thing to do was euthanasia. 

On November 7th, 2021, CMA announced that Winter was suffering from gastric disease symptoms. Her condition worsened over the following days, and on November 11th, she was being prepared for an endoscopy to examine her intestine when she suffered a series of strokes and passed away. 

The CMA announced the results of her necropsy the following Saturday, November 13th, noting that the preliminary cause of her death was intestinal torsion, and that further tests were being run on Winter's tissues. This matches with a worrying pattern in recent years; captive cetaceans dying of acute, fast-onset gastric diseases. 

I don't know what would have been right for Winter. It certainly seemed as though she wanted to survive; many dolphins with her injuries have died of them, and she did not. Sixteen is a young age for a dolphin to die, but not surprising given Winter's pre-existing health conditions. I honestly don't know what to think of it all. Was the CMA unfairly profiting off of Winter? Maybe? Was Winter happy all the time? Probably not. Was Winter suffering all the time? Also probably not. It's hard for me to make cut and dried statements about such a unique case as hers. 

Something that has remained clear to me is CMA's more advanced level of emotional care for their animals. They kept the public updated when Winter became ill and announced her death the day that she died, as well as her initial necropsy results literal days after her death, when other aquariums have taken months to announce such results, if they bothered to at all. CMA also set up a memorial for Winter, and acknowledged that she lived. That she existed. That she mattered. I have seen little of the same care from any other aquarium. It is clear that Winter mattered to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. 

The world lost something on November 11th. There was certainly something special about Winter, and there's always going to be an empty space where she once was. 

February 3rd, 2022 edit

After Winter was necropsied, she was cremated, and in a private ceremony performed by her caretakers, her ashes were spread in the Gulf of Mexico along with some of Winter's favorite flowers. She was from the Gulf, and to it she returned. 

This act resonated with me so deeply. In a world where dead aquarium cetacea are frequently cut apart with chainsaws, buried in shallow graves, trashed in black garbage bags, rendered, destroyed in waste treatment plants, and tossed in mass graves, Winter received personal respect and love. She received dignity and care.