Kasatka

Kasakta on Mar. 26, 2014. Photo provided by EchoBeluga.

Kasatka *(pronounced KAH-saht-ka)* was an approximately 40-year-old female Icelandic killer whale who lived at SeaWorld San Diego. She was the matriarch of the San Diego pod for almost 3 decades. On August 15th, 2017, she was humanely euthanized following years of treatment for chronic respiratory disease. She was the mother of Takara, Nakai, Kalia, and Makani, the grandmother of Kohana, Trua, Sakari, Kamea, Amaya and Kyara, and the great-grandmother of Adán and Victoria.

## Early Life & Capture

Kasatka was born sometime around late 1977 or early 1978 in the waters of the North Atlantic. In October of 1978, Kasatka and her pod were seine netted near Tvísker, Iceland. Kasatka and another whale named Kahana were selected to live in captivity, and the pair were loaded onto the *Guðrún*. Because they were from the same pod, the pair were likely related.

Kasatka and Kahana remained on the boat for about a day before arriving at Grindavík harbor, where they were moved to a sea pen. There they met another recently captured whale, Kotar. The newcomers seemingly adjusted to captivity very quickly. On October 18th, three more whales arrived at Grindavík: Katina, Shawn and an unnamed male.

## Life at SeaWorld

Shortly after her capture, Kasatka and several other whales were purchased by SeaWorld. On October 24th, Kasatka, Kahana, Shawn and Kotar were loaded into a Boeing 747 cargo plane and flown across the Atlantic ocean to their new home. The following day they briefly landed in Florida, where Kahana was moved to SeaWorld Orlando. The plane took off again not long after, and the 3 remaining whales were on their way to SeaWorld San Diego. They finally arrived in California about 2 days after first leaving Iceland.

Upon their arrival the 3 whales were likely introduced to the park's resident whales, Canuck II, Kandu V, Kenau and Winston. Due to overcrowding, Kasatka spent some time in the dolphin petting pool with Kotar and Canuck, along with several different smaller species of cetaceans, including bottlenose dolphins, pilot whales, belugas, false killer whales and Pacific white-sided dolphins. Shawn and Kandu may have lived in the dolphin petting pool for some time as well.

## Death

In 2008, Kasatka developed a reoccurring bacterial infection. For many years she was treated for it, and she even received treatments from a custom-built inhaler. In 2017, her health began to decline. She developed prominent skin lesions, and in August she became lethargic and started to eat less. In order to prevent her quality of life from being compromised, Kasatka was humanely euthanized on August 15th, 2017, at 8:15 pm PST. Kasatka died surrounded by her pod members and caretakers. Kasatka was one of SeaWorld's most well known killer whales, and her death impacted many people. Tributes to her from fans and caretakers appeared all over social media. Following her death, Kalia and Shouka took over as the dominant females of the San Diego pod.

## Behavioral Incidents

* Between 1989 and 1993, Kasatka had multiple incidents where she would mouth her trainer's thigh, leg, and feet.
* On July 31st, 1991, Kasatka grabbed a trainer's foot ("jaw popped on foot" in Injury Report) and fluked a trainer's back.
* On April 25th 1993, Kasatka tried to bite a trainer's feet and legs.
* On July 15th, 1993, Kasatka mouthed a trainer's feet and legs, grabbed a knee and dunked the trainer, and grabbed a foot and dunked the trainer.
* In 1999, after her calf, Takara, split to a back pool during a show, Kasatka began to fast swim around the perimeter. She grabbed trainer Kenneth Peters' leg and attempted to throw him out of the pool. Peters was pulled out of the pool by another trainer.
* In 2004, another incident occurred when a trainer was attempting to Scuba dive in "E" pool with Kasatka and her calf Nakai. The trainer did not have approval to swim with fins. He may have brushed her with his fins and she became aggressive, mouthing his fins and Scuba gear. She eventually responded to a hand slap stage call.
* In 2006, Kasatka attacked Kenneth Peters, SeaWorld San Diego's most experienced trainer, during a show at Shamu Stadium. She grabbed his trainer's foot and dove to the bottom of the 36-foot tank. They surfaced less than a minute later, but she ignored other trainers' signals to draw her to the side. She dove a second time with Peters for about a minute. Peters only escaped after other trainers worked a large safety net between the two. He suffered puncture wounds and a broken left foot.
* In 2008, Kasatka was reported to have come out at a trainer twice that year.

## Trivia

* Kasatka’s name was derived from the Russian word "*Косатка,*" meaning "killer whale."
* Kasatka shared her name with a wild whale, L82 Kasatka.
* Kasatka's nicknames were "Kas" and "Kassy".
* While in captivity, Kasatka lived with a total of 32 different killer whales from 4 different ecotypes.
* When she was younger, Kasatka lived with various smaller cetacean species. She was kept with bottlenose dolphins, pacific white sided dolphins, common dolphins, false killer whales, pilot whales, and belugas off and on over the years. From 1997 to 1998, a grey whale named JJ lived in the back pool of Shamu Stadium, although none of the killer whales ever directly interacted with her. In 2010, bottlenose dolphins, a bottlenose/common dolphin hybrid, and pilot whales were briefly kept in Shamu Stadium, although they never interacted with any of the killer whales.
* Kasatka has lived at all four Seaworld parks.

## Galleries

* **Photos** of Kasatka
* **Videos** of Kasatka

## References

1. ↑ https://inherentlywild.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/swprofiles2.pdf