Chimo

Chimo and Haida. Photo provided by George Hunter.

Chimo *(pronounced chy-MO)*, also known as T004, T4, or Moby Dick *(moe-BEE dik)* was a 4 year old female West Coast transient killer whale who lived at Sealand of the Pacific. She was captured on March 1st, 1970 from Pedder Bay, British Columbia at approximately 2 years old. Chimo was the first and only albino orca ever kept in captivity. She had Chédiak–Higashi syndrome, a genetic disorder that caused her leucism and gave her a weakened immune system, sensitivity to sunlight, and shortened life span. She also had problems with her echolocation which made navigating her environment and hunting on her own very difficult. She died only 2 1/2 years after her capture, likely from complications related to her genetic disorder leading to infection.

## Capture and Early Life

    Chimo was a Bigg's Transient from T Pod who was born sometime around 1968. Chimo’s mother was T003. Chimo appears to have had at least one older sibling, another white killer whale who was spotted in 1958, but they died sometime before she was born. Chimo's mother was often spotted with another adult female, T002, and they are likely related in some way, possibly sisters. Both females were possibly seen with other white whales long before Chimo's birth.

Not long before her capture, Bob Wright, the owner of Sealand of the Pacific, began to look for a mate for his whale Haida. For decades, a white killer whale nicknamed "Alice" had been seen occasionally in the area. *(Although Alice was originally assumed to be a single individual, more recent research indicates that there may have been several different white whales that earned the moniker "Alice" over the years. Wright, however, did not know this at the time.)* Like a real-life Captain Ahab, Wright become obsessed with the white whale. He searched franticly for her, but it would be Chimo that he eventually caught. When he spotted her and her pod he rushed to get his boat and nets, and a chase ensued.

      On March 1st, 1970, Chimo, along with four other whales, were netted in Pedder Bay. Chimo was captured with her mother T003, the aforementioned T002, and T002's calves: T001, an adult male, and T005, a juvenile female. Four of the five whales in Chimo’s pod had visible deformities. Some people called them a "leper" or "outcast" colony because of their unique features. T001 was quickly separated from the four females and kept in a different net.

Chimo's unique coloration quickly earned her the nickname "Moby Dick". The other whales soon received names as well. Due to a large scar on her lower jaw, Chimo's mother was named "Scarredjaw Cow". T002 was named “Pointednose Cow” because of her pointed rostrum, and T001 was named “Charlie Chin” because of his abnormally long lower jaw and prominent underbite. The only “normal” looking member of the pod, T005, was named Nootka.  Wright received many generous offers for Chimo, even from as far away as Australia, but he would not give her up. He believed that she was a "Canadian whale" and belonged in Canada. He estimated Chimo to be worth at least $500,000, which would be the equivalent of about $3.35 million dollars today.

    Although it was unknown at the time, all of the whales were transients, or mammal-eating whales. When they were offered fish, all five whales refused to eat. Then went for weeks without eating and began to show signs of malnutrition and dehydration. Although divers put fish directly into their mouths, the whales just spit them back up. At one point, Chimo became entangled in the nets, almost drowning. She had to be cut loose by a diver.  25 days after the capture, Bob Wright decided to move two of the whales to Sealand.  Nootka was separated from the other whales and moved 13 miles northeast to Sealand. When they returned for Chimo, the two adult females attempted to shield her from their captors. They could not protect her for long, however, and eventually she was taken from them. That evening at 6:30 pm, Chimo arrived at her new home, Sealand of the Pacific.

### The Fate of the Whales Left Behind

    Although plans were made to sell the other three whales, the whales were too sick to be moved. The whales began to get thinner and thinner. Pointednose Cow developed severe sunburns from floating at the surface for hours at a time. She was covered in zinc oxide to protect her skin. Scarredjaw Cow passed away from starvation 75 days after her capture. The remaining two whales began to get glucose and vitamin B12 injections. After the second injection, Charlie Chin finally took a salmon. He split it and offered the other half to his mother. The two whales finally began to eat fish and their health improved. On October 27th, 240 days after the whales were captured, someone came during the night and weighed down the net. Charlie Chin and Pointednose Cow finally managed to escape.   Wright claimed that they had been released for a "scientific study", but this seems to be a lie.  Despite their ordeal, both whales lived for several more decades. Charlie Chin lived until 1992, and Pointednose Cow lived until 2009 and even went on to have several more calves and even grand-calves. Had the two of them not been released, over a dozen whales would not have ever been born.

## Life at Sealand

    At Sealand, Chimo and Nootka were reunited.  They were placed in the recently-expanded main pool  where they met a male Southern Resident from L Pod named Haida.  At first, the whales were separated by a net. Several hours after their arrival, Haida took some fish from his trainer and brought them over to Chimo and Nootka. Haida, who was already used to eating dead fish, convinced the two newcomers to end their almost 4-week hunger strike. This was probably the first time either whale had ever eaten fish.

Not long after their arrival, Nootka and Chimo were introduced to Chloe, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin.  Although they all seemed to get along at first, two of the killer whales were reportedly seen roughhousing with her and tossing her around on their backs.  A pacific white-sided dolphin named Nikki was also moved in with them around the same time, possibly the same day.   It seems that Nikki was originally thought to have been a male and named Nick, and that her name was changed later, but this is unconfirmed.

    Likely due to the same genetic disease that caused her white coloration, Chimo had trouble using her echolocation. Before her capture, she relied on her pod mates to help her move around and hunt. Without them, she began to have difficulties. She would swim around erratically and collide with the netting of her pen.  Haida was closer to Chimo than he was to Nootka and mostly ignored the older female. Haida would often "nuzzle" the little white whale and chased her around the pen.   Haida began to help Chimo navigate around their pen, and he encouraged her to eat and follow the trainers' commands.

"Moby Dick" wasn't a very flattering name for Haida's new "bride", so in September Wright opened up a contest to find her new name. The grand prize was 250,000 pennies, or $250.  Within 2 weeks, he had received at least 25,000 name suggestions.  On November 11th, the winner was chosen. Mrs. John Harrison from Cobble Hill won with the name "Chimo", a well-known Inuktitut greeting. Wright said that nearly 300 other people had suggested the same name.

    Chimo made Sealand famous. She, Nootka, and Haida performed together every day, drawing massive crowds of people eager to see the "white whale". For the first few months, the three whales got along well. The peace wouldn't last, however. Nootka began to grow more dominant and aggressive. Nootka, who was older, bigger, and healthier than Chimo, became especially aggressive towards her. Chimo was already suffering from serious health issues, and she began to get even sicker due to Nootka. Chimo developed significant skin issues from the stress. At one point, a wild bull killer whale swam over to the pen, and he and Nootka began to vocalize loudly to each other. Sealand believed that she was "mate hungry", and that either Chimo or Nootka needed to leave. Bob Wright could not bear the thought of losing his white whale,  so he sold Nootka to the Japanese Deer Park in California. Nootka left in April of 1971.

    After Nootka left, there were hopes that Chimo would become pregnant. She was given heavy doses of vitamins and antibiotics, and she began to grow stronger. But, Chimo was still very young, and Haida was a maturing male. They mated several times, but Chimo’s was too young to become pregnant. He grew older, Haida became increasingly sexually aggressive towards her. In the mornings, Chimo was often found bruised and bloodied from the previous night.

### Death

    On the morning of November 2nd, 1972, staff noticed that something was wrong. Haida was repeatedly breaching in his pen, and Chimo was gone. Divers were sent in to the water. They found her body tangled in the containment nets and covered in deep cut marks. Haida would not let the divers near her and even bit one of them. It would take at least an hour to remove her from the pool.

    After they removed her from the pool a necropsy was performed on her body. Instead of moving her from the park, however, they conducted the necropsy directly next to Haida's pool. Only a flimsy piece of plywood was used to shield him from the sight of her body, and nothing was done to stop her blood and body fluids from pouring into his pool. Although her cause of death was ruled to be "infection", Haida's history of aggression towards her has made some people suspect that he was what actually killed her.

After the ordeal, Haida seemed depressed and ill. He floated listlessly at the top of the water for days and refused food. To keep him fed, Sealand pumped him full of a mixture made of eggs, multivitamins, and alcohol. He reportedly acted "drunk" after receiving the fluids. He began eating soon after. Michael Bigg, a famous killer whale researcher, studied Chimo’s body to figure out how to attach radio tags to killer whale dorsal fins.  Because Chimo had Chédiak–Higashi syndrome, a genetic disorder that can also affect humans, scientists hoped that they could study her and find a better way to treat it in humans.

## Personality

    Chimo was a very submissive whale. Although females are usually dominant, Chimo was very young, chronically ill, and relied on Haida to navigate her habitat. Haida was the dominant whale. Chimo liked music. There were no records of Chimo ever being aggressive towards trainers, but she was shy and hesitant to trust them.

## Appearance

    Although Chimo was mostly a mottled grey, she had still had several spots of normal coloration. Some areas on her face, pectoral fins, and dorsal fin, and around her eyes, were much darker than the rest of her body. There were darker "outlines" around the normally white markings such as her eyepatches, side markings, and lower jaw, although her saddle patch was almost completely covered. Her left eyepatch was larger at the front and smaller at the end, while her right side was the opposite. Both eyepatches tapered into pointy bits that extended over her eyes. She had very subtle mouthchips, but her shoulder chips were much more conspicuous. Both shoulder patches had rounded "bulbs" that stuck out over her pectoral fins. On the darker parts of her body she had lots of small white "freckles" that looked like paint splatters, particularly on her rostrum. Additionally, the markings inside her mouth were very pale and almost nonexistent.

## Gallery

* **Photos** of Chimo.
* **Videos** of Chimo.

## Transfer History

Chimos's Transfer History
 Pedder Bay Sea Pen, British Columbia

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 *Transients: Mammal-hunting Killer Whales of British Columbia, Washington, and Southeastern Alaska*
2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 *Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator*
3. ↑  "Whale of a catch: maybe $1 million"
4. ↑ Cetacean Cousins - Chimo's Profile
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Bigg's (Transient) Killer Whales"
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "A special family: the T2's"
7. ↑ "Whale Researcher to Publish Paper"
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Hey-Day for Haida: Girls, Girls, Girls!"
9. ↑ "Date with Diana A Pure Delight"
10. ↑ "FOLLOW THIS VICTORIA ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE" (May 12 1970)
11. ↑ "FOLLOW THIS VICTORIA ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE" (August 10 1970)
12. ↑ "Jumping Taught on Porpoise To Expand Whale of a Show"
13. ↑ "It's a Nose-to-Nose Affair for Haida, White Playmate"
14. ↑ "White Whale Contest Opens"
15. ↑ "25,000 Entries"
16. ↑ "White Whale Named 'Chimo'"
17. ↑ Cetacean Cousins - Chimo’s Profile
18. ↑ "Mate-Hungry Nootka Sold to U.S. Marina"
19. ↑ "Killer Whale Chimo Dies From Hereditary Disease"