T007B Spiller

T007B "Spiller". Photo provided by Jackie Hildering.

### Calves

***T007B1***, ***T007B2***, **T007B3 "Knox"**, **T007B4 "Moonraker"**, ***T007B5***, **T007B6 "Domino"**, **T007B7**

### Half-Siblings

***Kanduke***, ***T007A "Arrow"***, ***T007C "Blunden"***

### Nieces & Nephews

*Kona II's Unborn Calf (1987)*, *Katerina*, *Taima*, *Sumar*, Tekoa, *Taima's Miscarriage (2005)*, Malia, *Taima's Stillborn (2010)*

T007B (known as Q10 before the naming system for Bigg’s orcas in the Pacific Northwest was changed) "Spiller" *(pronounced SPILL-er)* is an approximately 40 year old female Bigg's killer whale. Spiller is the only surviving calf of T007 "Innis", and is her only known daughter. She is the matriarch of the T007 matriline, also known as the "Secret Agents", and is the mother of T007B3 "Knox", T007B4 "Moonraker", T007B6 "Domino" and T007B7.

## Birth and Early Life

Several years before her birth, in August of 1975, Spiller’s mother, Innis, and her older brother, Kanduke, along with 4 other orcas, were captured in Pedder Bay, British Columbia. Kanduke and a young female named Nootka III were taken into captivity, and the rest were released a few days after the capture. One whale may have possibly died. Nootka was moved to Sealand of the Pacific and died less than a year later during the following May. Kanduke was sold to Marineland of Canada, where he lived for over a decade. Because she was captured at the same time as Kanduke, Nootka is possibly related to Spiller and her family. In 1976, just about a year after she endured a likely traumatic capture, Innis gave birth to T007A "Arrow", Spiller's older brother.

Spiller was born in 1983. She was Innis' third known calf. At the time of her birth, the only other whale traveling with her mother seems to be Arrow. At some point prior to 2002, Innis had another calf, Spiller's younger sibling T007C "Blunden".

## Life in the Pacific Northwest

In 1995, Spiller gave birth to her first known calf, T007B1. In 1998, Spiller gave birth to her second calf, T007B2. By 2002, however, T007B2 seems to have passed away.

In 2005, Spiller gave birth to her third known calf, a son named T007B3 "Knox". In 2010, she gave birth to another son, T007B4 "Moonraker". By 2012, T007B1 and Blunden had passed away.  At some point between 2012 and 2016, Spiller gave birth to another calf, T007B5, although they had passed away by 2019. During those years, her mother Innis and her brother Arrow also passed away. Innis may have passed away as early as 2010.  In 2018, Spiller gave birth to her second-youngest calf and third known son, T007B6 "Domino".

### Becoming an Internet Sensation

In late September of 2021, Spiller, Knox, Moonraker, and Domino were hunting a sea lion when it jumped onto a boat. The boater filmed a video of the T007s circling her boat for several minutes until the sea lion finally jumped back into the water and she boated away. Spiller and her family likely killed it soon after the sea lion jumped into the water. The boater posted the video to Tik Tok, where it went viral and began to be shared across other social media platforms such as Twitter. Although the original video was deleted, the re-uploaded copy of the video on Twitter received 2.8 million views, 70.6 thousand likes, and 23.6 thousand retweets.  As a result, the term "orcas" began to trend on Twitter in the United States on September 26th, and it eventually reached 16th place on the trending list with over 17.3 thousand tweets. At it's peak, it was higher than other popular trending terms such as "Amtrak", "Game Day", "Jesus is Lord", and "Merry Christmas".

Many people responded to Spiller and her family negatively. Some people painted her family, and killer whales as general, as "bullies", and even wished that killer whales would go extinct. One user said "Orca whales are bullies of the ocean",  while another claimed that "The sea would be safer with out (killer whales)".  Some other users were upset that the poster of the video did not save the sea lion. "If the sea lion was smart enough to jump on the boat to save himself from a pod of killer whales, then he deserves to live",  "Start your engines and go! Or call for help! "You have to go"?!! I'm surprised she didn't push it off the boat?! Weak and gutless!",  and "The sea lion wasn't destroying or hurting anyone. Instead of pushing him/her to their immediate death, WHY could you not drive your boat away from the orca's to a safe area"  were some of the tweets made in response to the video. Other users had a more comedic response to the video, and tweets such as "come outside it’s cool we ain’t gone jump you",  "Wym i gotta go? b\*tch start the boat",  and "that mf sea lion lookin at her explain the circle of life"  were also made about the situation.

### A Growing Family

In early 2022, Spiller gave birth to her seventh known calf and fourth known son, T007B7.

## Relatives in Captivity

   Nootka died at Sealand less than a year after her capture. Because she was so young, she never had any calves. Kanduke lived at Marineland of Canada for several years but seemingly never fathered a calf there. In 1987, Kanduke was moved to SeaWorld Orlando, and over the next few years he sired at least three calves: an unborn calf who died in-utero when their mother died in 1987, Katerina in 1988, and Taima in 1989. Kanduke passed away in September of 1990. Katerina died without having any calves in May of 1999. Taima eventually went on to have 3 calves of her own: Sumar in 1998, Tekoa in 2000, and Malia in 2007. Taima also had a miscarriage in 2005, and a stillbirth in 2010. Taima passed away from stillbirth complications after her last pregnancy in June of 2010, and Sumar died just a few months after her in September. Tekoa, who lives at Loro Parque, and Malia, who lives at SeaWorld Orlando, are currently Spiller's only living relatives in captivity.

## Galleries

* **Photos** of T007B "Spiller"
* **Videos** of T007B "Spiller"

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Orca Network Sightings April 2002"
2. ↑ "Photo-identification catalogue of Bigg's (transient) killer whales from coastal waters of British Columbia, northern Washington, and southeastern Alaska"
3. ↑ "Scuttle Butt – October 2012"
4. ↑ "Photo-identification catalog, population status, and distribution of Bigg's killer whales known from coastal waters of British Columbia, Canada"
5. ↑ "I would've sh\*t my pants(...)" Eye- (castrowas95) on Twitter
6. ↑ Get Day Trends - *Orcas* in United States
7. ↑ "Orca whales are bullies of(...)" by Desto (@ayoodestoo) on Twitter
8. ↑ "I get that orcas are(...)" by Jasper Hollywood (@AlwaysExxtraaaa) on Twitter
9. ↑ "If the sea lion was(...)" by Roberta H (@robhej28) on Twitter
10. ↑ "Start your engines and go(...)" by J B Smith 💉 x's 3 😷💙🇺🇦 (@JBSmith1966) on Twitter
11. ↑ "The sea lion wasn't destroying(...)" by karen bixler (@karenbixler) on Twitter
12. ↑ "come outside it’s cool we(...)" by Dragon of the MidWest (@\_shonnybravo) on Twitter
13. ↑ "Wym i gotta go? bitch(...)" by Sad 🅱️ulls 🅱️ears and 🅿️sg fan. Free 🇵🇸 (@ImNotEdisAggin) on Twitter)
14. ↑ "that mf sea lion lookin(...)" by glizzy mcguire (@thehokagerob) on Twitter
15. ↑ "I had too much fun(...)" by Jared Towers (@jtcoastal) on Instagram
16. ↑ "Population Updates"