Nakai

***This article may contain upsetting or graphic media. Viewer discretion is advised.***

## Nakai

Nakai. Photo provided by Hunter D. Photography.

### Official lD

SWC-OO-0127,
NOA0005995

## Physical Traits

### Weights

* 350 lbs (Sep. 2001)
* 3,350 lbs (Jun. 2010)
* 5,250 lbs (May 2015)
* 6,000 lbs (Nov. 2015)
* 7,000 lbs (Aug. 2017)
* 8,000 lbs (Dec. 2021)

### Lengths

* 7 ft (Sep. 2001)
* 12.5 ft (Jun. 2010)
* 18 ft (May 2015)

## Family

### Half-Siblings

Kyuquot, Takara, *Nootka IV's Calf (1992)*, *Taku*, *Nyar*, *Nootka IV's Stillborn (1994)*, *Gudrun's Stillborn (1996)*, *Unna*, *Kalina's Stillborn (1997)*, *Sumar*, Tuar, Tekoa, *Haida II's Unborn Calf (2001)*, *Kohana*, Ikaika, *Skyla*, Kalia, *Taima's Miscarriage (2005)*, Malia, Sakari, *Taima's Stillborn (2010)*, Makaio, Makani

### Nieces & Nephews

*Kohana*, Trua, *Unna's Stillborn (2006)*, Nalani, *Unna's Miscarriage (2009)*, Sakari, Adán, *Victoria*, *Takara's Miscarriage (2012)*, Kamea, *Amaya*, *Kyara*

Nakai *(pronounced nuh-KY)* was a 20-year-old male Icelandic killer whale who lived at SeaWorld San Diego. He was born there head-first at 8:50 PM PDT on September 1st, 2001. He was the first killer whale to be conceived through artificial insemination. His mother was Kasatka and his father was Tilikum. During the summer of 2022, Nakai developed health complications due to an unspecified lung illness.  Although he received aggressive treatment, he unfortunately passed away late in the evening of August 4th, 2022.

## Birth & Early Life

Nakai's mother, Kasatka, was captured from the waters near Tvisker, Iceland,  between October 10th  and October 16th, 1978.  She was captured alongside another female named Kahana, meaning that she was likely related to her. Kasatka was purchased by SeaWorld shortly after, and a few weeks after capture, on October 26th, she arrived at SeaWorld San Diego. For the next few years she bounced between different SeaWorld parks until she finally settled at SeaWorld San Diego on February 13th, 1990. At the time she was pregnant. On July 9th, 1991, she gave birth to her first calf, a female named Takara.

Sometime during late 1999 or early 2000, Kasatka was artificially inseminated with sperm from Tilikum, a male killer whale who lived at SeaWorld Orlando.  It wasn't long before Kasatka successfully conceived a calf, and became the first female killer whale to be successfully artificially inseminated.  In November of 2000, Takara was also artificially inseminated.  Shortly after that, a female killer whale at SeaWorld San Antonio, Haida II, was artificially inseminated as well. Just like Kasatka, both whales were inseminated with sperm from Tilikum.

On September 1st, 2001, at about 7:30 PM PDT, Kasatka went into labor.  After about an hour and a half of labor,  at 8:50 PM PDT, Nakai was finally born.  Takara was present for his birth, and helped Kasatka during labor. Although most killer whales emerge from their mothers tail-first, Nakai was born head-first.  During a typical birth, a calf's flukes have time to harden during labor, which means that the calf will be able to easily swim to the surface for its first breath of air after it is finally born. During a head-first birth, however, the flukes do not have time to harden, and the calf is at a much higher risk of drowning. Despite this, however, Nakai was escorted to the surface by his mother,  and took his first breathe of air only a few moments after birth.  At the time of Nakai's birth, there were nine other whales living at SeaWorld San Diego: his mother and sister, Keet, Sumar and Splash, juvenile males, Ulises, an adult male, Orkid, a subadult female, and Corky II and Bjossa, adult females.  All of the whales except for Bjossa were living at Shamu Stadium when Nakai was born. Bjossa was living in SeaWorld's animal care area at this time, and as she died only a month later, she never had a chance to meet Nakai.

Although some trainers initially believed that Nakai was female,  on September 6th SeaWorld announced that he was indeed a male.

Nakai quickly showed that he was a curious and energetic calf, and that he was an incredibly quick learner. Within just five hours of birth, Nakai began to attempt to nurse from his mother. At only two days old, Nakai was introduced to Orkid. At just a few days old, Nakai began to attempt to swim on his own, and would dart away from Kasatka from time to time.  At 18 days old, Nakai began to show interest in trainers, and at less than 3 months old he even tried to eat fish. Nakai was also able to leave Kasatka for short periods of time at just a few months old.

As he grew older, Nakai became incredibly close to Takara and Orkid. Nakai eventually met Corky and Sumar, and grew close to them as well.

On May 3rd, 2002, Takara went into labor. Nakai and Kasatka were her during the process. At 8:30 PM PDT, Kohana, Nakai's niece and half-sister, was born. Nakai swam next to his mother and older sister as they accompanied the calf to the surface.  It wasn't long before Nakai and Kohanna became extremely close.

## Life at SeaWorld San Diego

By a very young age Nakai was performing in shows without his mother,   and sometimes even performing completely on his own.  He would also frequently interact with guests by a young age as well.

At some point in 2003 or 2004, Nakai became stuck on the slide out while doing a show with Kohana, Takara and Kasatka. Although Kasatka attempted to get him unstuck, she was not able to. Nakai had to be pushed off the slide out by trainers. During the entire incident, his family refused to leave him.

On April 24th, 2004, Keet, Takara and Kohana were moved out of the park. Keet was moved to SeaWorld San Antonio, and Koahana and Takara were moved to SeaWorld Orlando. Before the move, Nakai was incredibly close with Takara and Kohana. He could often be seen playing with them.   He was likely affected by their move in some way, although how exactly he handled it is unknown. Kasatka, however, is believed to have reacted to their move very badly.

On December 21st, 2004, Nakai's younger sister Kalia was born. While Nakai was not present for her birth,   he met her soon after.

On April 5th, 2005, Splash passed away.

By five years old, Nakai had learned how to hunt birds.  He became very good at doing so, and was even known to attempt to catch birds while doing waterwork.  Nakai soon taught Kalia how to hunt and catch birds as well.

On September 7th, 2010, Sumar passed away.

On November 13th, 2011, a juvenile male named Ikaika was moved to the park. Nakai met him soon after his arrival.

On February 27th, 2012, Keet was moved back to SeaWorld San Diego, and Nakai was reunited with him. Just a few months later, on August 20th, an adult female named Shouka was moved to the park as well.

### A Growing Family

On February 14th, 2013, Kasatka gave birth to Nakai's younger brother, Makani.

On December 4th, 2014, Kalia gave birth to a daughter, Amaya. Nakai, Kasatka and Makani were all present for her birth.

### The Fall of the Queen

In 2008, Kasatka developed bacterial pneumonia. Although she survived, the pneumonia became chronic, and she would live with it for the rest of her life.  In 2016, Kasatka's health started to significantly decline. She began to develop skin discoloration on her lower jaw.  In August of 2016, SeaWorld announced that they were treating Kasatka for a respiratory infection, and that she was receiving new treatment for it. Vets even made a custom nebulizer for Kasatka.  Despite the medication and intensive treatments her health continued to get worse, and in 2017 she developed severe skin lesions across her body.    By August 15th, 2017, Kasatka's quality of life was deteriorating, and SeaWorld vets made the decision to euthanize her. Kasatka passed away in the medical pool at 8:15 pm PST surrounded by her caretakers and pod.   After Kasatka's death the social structure of the San Diego pod changed drastically. Kasatka had been the matriarch, and all of the whales were deeply affected by her loss. Her family was hit especially hard. Although the social hierarchy fluctuated at first, Kalia and Shouka eventually became the dominant females at the park.

### COVID-19

In late 2019, a novel coronavirus disease known as "COVID-19" was discovered, and it began to spread rapidly across the world. In March of 2020 the World Health Organization declared that it had become a pandemic.  As the disease began to spread in the United States many people, including staff at SeaWorld San Diego, started to wear masks.  Masks were a new experience for the all of the whales and, like many other animals, they likely had to get used to trainers wearing them at first.  In March of 2020, SeaWorld San Diego was closed down to prevent the spread of COVID. Although they hoped to be open again soon,  the park remained closed for several months. During this time shows did not occur and the killer whales did not have access to guests. Although SeaWorld San Diego opened back up again in August of 2020,  they were forced to close again because of COVID in December.  SeaWorld opened up once again about 2 months later in February of 2021 and remained open after that.

### Amaya's Death

On August 18th, Amaya began to show signs of illness. She was treated for this illness, but unfortunately she died unexpectedly the following afternoon.  A necropsy revealed that her cause of death was gastrointestinal disease.

Although the loss of Amaya reportedly affected all of the whales deeply, it seemed to hit Kalia and Makani especially hard. Immediately after Amaya's death Kalia isolated herself and would only let Makani approach her.  According to a staff member, Kalia was vocalizing "mournfully" following her daughter's death. On August 21st, Kalia let Shouka be with her.  The day after that Ulises, Nakai, and Orkid joined her as well.  By August 27th, Nakai and the other whales were starting to return to normal.

### Death

Sometime during the summer of 2022, Nakai developed a lung infection. Although his infection was identified and aggressively treated by veterinarians,  on the evening of August 4th, 2022, Nakai passed away.

His death was announced by SeaWorld on their Facebook page the following day, after rumors that Nakai had passed away began to circulate on social media.  Their intial post featured a photo of Kalia, not Nakai,  although a new post with an actual photo of Nakai was posted shortly after. Although SeaWorld announced that he had been treated for an infection for some time, they did not elaborate on what type of infection he was being treated for, or how long he had been sick.

A cause of death was not publicly available until September 19th  when a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request published documents showing that Nakai had passed away from an unspecified lung infection.  The request was made on August 20th, 2022, a few weeks after Nakai's death.

## Trivia

* Nakai's nickname was "Kai" *(pronounced KY)*.

## Galleries

* **Photos** of Nakai
* **Videos** of Nakai

## Transfer History

*Nakai was never transferred out of SeaWorld San Diego.*

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 MARINE MAMMAL DATA SHEET (09/02/2022)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "The zoological team at SeaWorld(...)" by SeaWorld San Diego on Facebook
3. ↑ *The Icelandic live-capture fishery for killer whales, 1976-1988*
4. ↑ "Háhyrningur Í Grindavíkurhöfn"
5. ↑ "Háhyrningarnir eru orðnir sex"
6. ↑ Cetacean Cousins: Captive Orca - "Kasatka"
7. ↑ "Kasatka AI Procedure" by Oldschool Orcas on YouTube
8. ↑ "Killer whale artificially inseminated"
9. ↑ "Killer whale gives birth to baby at SeaWorld"
10. ↑ "SeaWorld officials report success in artificially breeding killer whale"
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 "Kasatka's Baby"
12. ↑ "Whale gives birth to baby at SeaWorld"
13. ↑ "Baby Orcas"
14. ↑ "Artificially inseminated killer whale gives birth"
15. ↑ Cetacean Cousins: Captive Orca - "Nakai"
16. ↑ "Bjossa the Orca is Dead"
17. ↑ "Big baby's a male"
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "NAKAI" - SeaWorld Animal Profile
19. ↑ "Takara-That's My Baby Part 3" by XxIStillBelievexX on YouTube
20. ↑ "Corky & Nakai - Dine with Shamu (2004)" by TessOrca on YouTube
21. ↑ "Orkid, Nakai, Kasatka - Shamu Adventure (2004)" by TessOrca on YouTube
22. ↑ "Nakai & Takara - Shamu Adventure (2004)" by TessOrca on YouTube
23. ↑ "Nakai Interaction at SeaWorld San Deigo" by RukatheBlackfish on YouTube
24. ↑ "Baby Shamu , Minor Incident , San Diego Sea World" by Gabebro1 on YouTube
25. ↑ "Takara, Kohana, Nakai, and Kasatka" by TessOrca on YouTube
26. ↑ "Takara, Kohana, and Nakai" by TessOrca on YouTube
27. ↑ "Kasatka Giving Birth to Kalia" by XxIStillBelievexX on YouTube
28. ↑ "Kasatka & 1-day-old Kalia - Clips & Baby Presentation (December 2004)" by TessOrca on YouTube
29. ↑ "Nakai hunting birds" by TheDark\*\*\*\*\* on YouTube
30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 "KALIA" - SeaWorld Animal Profile
31. ↑ "Join us for Kasatka's daily(...)" SeaWorld on Facebook.
32. ↑ "Nakai and Kasatka Rolling (6/23/16)" by EchoBeluga on YouTube
33. ↑ "SeaWorld’s experts have been treating(...)" SeaWorld (SeaWorld) on Twitter
34. ↑ "💕 #kasatka #longway #home #seaworldsandiego(...)" Hayley (tillitime) on Instagram
35. ↑ "What We Need to Learn From the Death of Kasatka, the Orca Captive at SeaWorld"
36. ↑ "SeaWorld Stock Sinks Amid Federal Probes; Care of Key Orca Kasatka Debated"
37. ↑ "Kasatka"
38. ↑ "SeaWorld Euthanizes Killer Whale Kasatka; Matriarch Had Lung Disease"
39. ↑ "LIVE, UP CLOSE, POOLSIDE AND VIRTUALLY, SEAWORLD’S ORCAS AWE AND INSPIRE GUESTS EVERY DAY"
40. ↑ "Timeline: WHO's COVID-19 response"
41. ↑ "10/03/2020: SeaWorld San Diego's Orca Encouter during COVID19 at Spooktacular (4k) - Full Show @ 1pm" by Mr. & Mrs. Theme Park on YouTube
42. ↑ "Virtual Visit: Marine Mammal Mask(…)" New England Aquarium on Facebook
43. ↑ "San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld Closing Amid COVID-19 Pandemic"
44. ↑ "SeaWorld San Diego set to reopen Friday on limited basis with Zoo Days"
45. ↑ "SeaWorld San Diego closes again due to stay-at-home order"
46. ↑ "SeaWorld San Diego Set to Re-Open Feb. 6 After Temporary Pandemic Closure"
47. ↑ "6-Year-Old Orca Dies at SeaWorld San Diego"
48. ↑ "Amaya’s cause of death was(...)" on Twitter (screenshot)
49. ↑ "6 year old Amaya's cause(...)" (end\_\_speciesism) on Instagram (screenshot)
50. ↑ Conversation with an anonymous staff member from August 20th (transcript)
51. ↑ Conversation with an anonymous staff member from August 21st (transcript)
52. ↑ Conversation with an anonymous staff member from August 22nd (transcript)
53. ↑ Conversation with an anonymous staff member from August 27th (transcript)
54. ↑ "really trying not to be(...)" by shoebills aren’t scary you’re just a coward (@cursedwhaleacc) on Twitter
55. ↑ 55.0 55.1 DOC-NOAA-2022-002427 Request Details