Shouka

Shouka. Photo provided by Hunter D. Photography.

### Half-Siblings

*Freya's Stillborn (1991)*, *Freya's Stillborn (1993)*, *Valentin*, *Freya's Stillborn (2001)*, *Freya's Stillborn (2003)*

### Nieces & Nephews

*Moana*, Keijo

Shouka *(pronounced SHOO-kah)* is a 30-year-old female Icelandic killer whale who lives at SeaWorld San Diego. She was born tail-first at Marineland Antibes on February 25th, 1993. She is the daughter of Sharkane and Kim II. She was the first killer whale to successfully be born in France. Shouka is known for her unique vocalizations. Because she spent so long with bottlenose dolphins, Shouka learned how to imitate them.  Following Kasatka's death in 2017, she and Kalia became the dominant females at the park.

## Birth and Early Life

   Shouka was born at Marineland Antibes on February 25th, 1993. During labor, Shouka's mother Sharkane lobtailed and spun at the surface of the pool repeatedly. Another adult female at the park, Freya, was present for her birth.  Her father and another male named Tanouk both lived at the park at the time of her birth.

In 1996, Shouka's half-brother Valentin was born to Freya. Shouka and Sharkane were both present for his birth.  Only a few years later, in 1999, Sharkane gave birth to Shouka's brother, Inouk. Shouka stayed by her mother and little brother's side after he was born.  In 2001, Shouka's first sister, Wikie, was born.

## Move to America

   Growing up, Shouka spent a lot of time with her father. The two whales were very close.  As she began to mature, trainers were worried that the two would mate.   In order to prevent this, Shouka was given to Six Flags on a breeding loan. On May 20th, 2002, Shouka was loaded onto a plane and flown to America.  This would be the last time that she ever saw her family.

   Shouka was sent to Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in Cleveland, Ohio. Six Flags had purchased SeaWorld Ohio only a year prior, and kept many of the same facilities and exhibits. Shouka was moved into the killer whale stadium. Not long after her arrival, Six Flags announced that they were looking for a male companion for her. Six Flags hoped that Kshamenk, a male orca from Argentina, would soon be able to join her.  They claimed that Kshamenk would be there to join her within a year.  The transfer permit was denied, however.  Although the US Fish and Wildlife Service approved the permit, the Argentinian government denied it, citing a law that prevents them from exporting native wildlife.  Shouka would go without the companionship of another orca for over a decade.

### Vallejo

Less than 2 years after her move to Ohio, in April of 2001, Six Flags sold its Ohio park and decided to move all of the animals to Six Flags Marine World.  Shouka, along with 4 dolphins, 3 sea lions, 3 otters, and several hundred other small animals, were loaded onto a plane and flown to California. According to reports, Shouka "did well" during the trip. In the morning of April 19th, Shouka and the rest of the flying menagerie arrived in San Francisco, and were moved to Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo.

While living in Vallejo, Shouka spent her time with two bottlenose dolphins: Merlin and Cupid. Although other bottlenose dolphins lived in the stadium, Shouka didn't interact with them.

In November 2011, Shouka had a fight with her only companion, Merlin. This caused the two to be permanently separated. Although Shouka had been kept alone at least once in 2008 according to a report by Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service,  it wasn't until 2011 that people finally took notice. Wendy Brunot, a resident of Valleho, California, filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture after noticing that Shouka was alone. She claimed that housing Shouka alone violated the Animal welfare act.  In 2012, Brunot also started a petition on Change.org demanding that Shouka be given a companion. The petition eventually received over 7,000 signatures.

Although Six Flags originally wanted to send Shouka to Marineland of Canada to be a companion for their lone orca Kiska, Marineland France, who still owned Shouka, pushed back against this. Marineland Canada has a history of rampant animal abuse and suspicious animal deaths, and many people were concerned about what Shouka's fate would be if she was moved to Canada.   Eventually the decision was made to move Shouka to SeaWorld San Diego.

## Life at SeaWorld

Shouka's final performance at Six Flags was on August 18th, 2012.  Two days later Shouka was flown to San Diego. After landing, she was loaded onto a flatbed truck and taken to her new home. Shouka rode in a 38,000 pound foam-padded container for the entire trip.   At the time of her move, 8 other killer whales lived at the park: Kasatka and her calves Nakai and Kalia, Corky II, Orkid, Keet, Ikaika, and Ulises. When she arrived at SeaWorld Shouka was moved to the medical pool and introduced to the parks oldest female, Corky.  Despite spending a decade alone, Shouka didn't seem to have any issue interacting with other killer whales and the two got along very well. The following day she was introduced to Orkid.  After her arrival, Shouka seemed hesitant to swim through gates.

A few days after meeting Corky and Orkid, Shouka was introduced to Keet. Corky was there when Keet first met Shouka. Keet and Shouka's introduction went well, and all 3 of them began to swim together almost immediately. Just minutes after meeting Shouka, Keet attempted to mate with her.

While living at SeaWorld, Shouka became close to many of the whales, including the matriarch Kasatka and her calves Nakai and Kalia. In 2013, Kasatka gave birth to a calf, Makani, and in 2014 Kalia gave birth to her first calf, Amaya.

### 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.

### Stepping Up

Following 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.

### A New Normal

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.

## Behavioral Incidents

* In the late 1990s, Shouka struck trainer Lindsay Rubincam, who had to be hospitalized for internal bleeding.
* In the 2000s, Shouka was involved in multiple incidents with trainer John Hargrove. One involved ramming him in the back, pushing him underwater and against the tank wall. She swam to the bottom of the tank mouth open but returned to protocol at Hargrove's signal. Another involved her pulling away from the poolside and dumping trainer John Hargrove in the pool center circling him before swimming mouth-open at him. Her last reported incident at Marineland was an attempt to pull trainer John Hargrove into the pool by his wetsuit.
* At Six Flags, Shouka repeatedly lunged at her trainer.

## Personality

Shouka is a very dominant, energetic whale and is known for jumping incredibly high. She is also considered to a very vocal, talkative animal.

## Appearance

Shouka herself is a bit small for a female killer whale. Her eyes are blue and her teeth are substantially worn. She has a prominent underbite, a triangular dorsal fin that tilts to her right, and a slight upturn to the tips of her flukes (it is theorized that this upturn is what gives her so much height on her bows). Her eyepatches are flat and a little narrow, with many freckles near the bottom trailing edges of both. Shouka's right side patch (extending from the lower belly, behind the dorsal) features a small grouping of 3-4 freckles. Although harmless, she possess some light discoloration along her jaw, the underside of her chin, and on her belly. Her saddlepatch is an opaque grey and is completely closed.

## Galleries

* **Photos** of Shouka
* **Videos** of Shouka

## Transfer History

Shouka's Transfer History
 Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, Ohio
 Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, California

## References

1. ↑ "Differences in acoustic features of vocalizations produced by killer whales cross-socialized with bottlenose dolphins"
2. ↑ "Birth of Shouka 23 02 93 by Frank Sanchez & Jacques Foudraz" on YouTube
3. ↑ Shouka's Profile
4. ↑ "Birth of Valentin The Killer Whale February 13th 1996 Marineland Antibes France" on YouTube
5. ↑ "Baby killer whale | Orca Watch By Night" on YouTube
6. ↑ 160 Captives - Kim II
7. ↑ "Captive Orcas - Inherently Wild"
8. ↑ "Birth of Shouka 23 02 93 by Frank Sanchez & Jacques Foudraz" on YouTube
9. ↑ Shouka's transfer to America
10. ↑ "SeaWorld San Diego - Ceta Base"
11. ↑ "Six Flags Brings Killer Whale To Ohio"
12. ↑ "Orca Captivity and Six Flags"
13. ↑ "Theme Park Still Unable To Bring Whale From Argentina"
14. ↑ "VALLEJO / Six Flags' orca pursuit not black and white / U.S.-backed whale importation would violate Argentine export law"
15. ↑ "Killer whale flown from Ohio to Frisco in custom designed plane container"
16. ↑ 2004 - InherentlyWild
17. ↑ "10 Years alone: Shouka the killer whale"
18. ↑ "Orca moved from Discovery Kingdom to San Diego"
19. ↑ "Shouka, the killer whale, needs a companion"
20. ↑ "Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Breaking the Law by Keeping Killer Whale Shouka in Isolation" on Youtube
21. ↑ "Shouka Six Flags Killer Whale Update May 18, 2012 – France intervenes"
22. ↑ "A Lawyer Brings Order to an Unruly Shop: Palace Entertainment"
23. ↑ "Shouka's Final Performance - Six Flags Discovery Kingdom - August 18, 2012" on YouTube
24. ↑ "Moving Shouka, a Killer Whale (Orca) to San Diego - Raw Video - August 20, 2012" on YouTube
25. ↑ "Killer Whale Moves to San Diego"
26. ↑ "Killer Whale (Shouka) Transferred To SeaWorld San Diego - News Report - August 20, 2012" on YouTube
27. ↑ "Shouka's First Full Day at Seaworld!" on YouTube
28. ↑ "Shouka, Corky, and Keet 8-23-12" by RukatheBlackfish on YouTube
29. ↑ "Join us for Kasatka's daily(...)" SeaWorld on Facebook.
30. ↑ "Nakai and Kasatka Rolling (6/23/16)" by EchoBeluga on YouTube
31. ↑ "SeaWorld’s experts have been treating(...)" SeaWorld (SeaWorld) on Twitter
32. ↑ "💕 #kasatka #longway #home #seaworldsandiego(...)" Hayley (tillitime) on Instagram
33. ↑ "What We Need to Learn From the Death of Kasatka, the Orca Captive at SeaWorld"
34. ↑ "SeaWorld Stock Sinks Amid Federal Probes; Care of Key Orca Kasatka Debated"
35. ↑ "Kasatka"
36. ↑ "SeaWorld Euthanizes Killer Whale Kasatka; Matriarch Had Lung Disease"
37. ↑ "LIVE, UP CLOSE, POOLSIDE AND VIRTUALLY, SEAWORLD’S ORCAS AWE AND INSPIRE GUESTS EVERY DAY"
38. ↑ "Timeline: WHO's COVID-19 response"
39. ↑ "10/03/2020: SeaWorld San Diego's Orca Encouter during COVID19 at Spooktacular (4k) - Full Show @ 1pm" by Mr. & Mrs. Theme Park on YouTube
40. ↑ "Virtual Visit: Marine Mammal Mask(…)" New England Aquarium on Facebook
41. ↑ "San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld Closing Amid COVID-19 Pandemic"
42. ↑ "SeaWorld San Diego set to reopen Friday on limited basis with Zoo Days"
43. ↑ "SeaWorld San Diego closes again due to stay-at-home order"
44. ↑ "SeaWorld San Diego Set to Re-Open Feb. 6 After Temporary Pandemic Closure"
45. ↑ John Hargrove, Beneath The Surface, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, p.170
46. ↑ John Hargrove, Beneath The Surface, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, p.176-177
47. ↑ John Hargrove, Beneath The Surface, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, p.178
48. ↑ {| class="fandom-table"
49. ↑ Shouka Six Flags Killer Whale Attacks Trainer