Taku, a male killer whale at Sea World died unexpectedly Wednesday. Taku was one of Sea World San Antonio's six killer whales. He was 14 years old, measuring about 22 ft and weighing about 7,250 pounds.
According to a Sea World spokesperson the team was alerted that something was wrong with Taku late Wednesday night and he died shortly thereafter. The Zoological Operations team have not yet determined a cause of death. A full report should be available in about six weeks.
In a statement, a Sea World spokesperson said, "While we recognize that death is part of the life cycle, we are saddened over the unexpected loss of this animal."

A trainer at the Loro Parque theme park on Tenerife is in hospital after she was injured this weekend during a training session with one of the killer whales at the centre in Puerto de la Cruz. The Canarias 7 newspaper says the incident happened at the pre-show warm up on Saturday, when the orca crashed into the trainer, injuring her right lung and breaking her forearm in two places. She was rescued by two colleagues after the marine mammal dragged her down to the bottom of the pool. The trainer is now said to be stable after surgery on Saturday.
Source: Typically Spanish

Tekoa and Claudia

Note: The injured trainer is 29 years old biologist Claudia Vollhardt from Germany, who has worked at the park since 2003. Some news write that it was a male orca that hit the trainer and dragged her down after the impact. Then that same animal grabbed the trainer by the arm and brought her back up to the surface. Claudia trained mostly with young male Tekoa and some news refer to him as the orca involved int his incident.

MEXICO CITY - A baby killer whale at the centre of an international animal trafficking controversy has died at an aquarium in Mexico because it lacked its mother's milk after becoming stranded on a Pacific beach. Owners of the aquarium had warned that the whale, who they named Pascuala, would die if she were not sent abroad because there was no tank in Mexico big enough to hold her and she could not fend for herself at sea. But the government and environmentalists opposed a move from the aquarium in Nueva Vallarta because they feared it would set a precedent of animal trafficking from Mexico. Mexico's environment agency said on Monday that the whale, also known as an orca, died on Sunday, two months after becoming stranded on the beach, because her immune system failed to develop due to a lack of milk and she was attacked by infection. The aquarium owners had wanted to send the whale to SeaWorld, an aquatic theme park in San Diego, California, which is home to seven other killer whales that live in a 26.5 million litre tank.

Copyright © 2007 New Zealand Herald

By Oliver Ellrodt, Reuters

A newborn killer whale found bleeding on a Mexican beach has become the centre of an international controversy over whether she should stay in Mexico or be sent to a U.S. marine theme park. Mexican aquarium workers have been feeding the baby named Pascuala around the clock with milk from a tube inserted in her mouth since she was found beached in a Pacific fishing village in April. Pascuala, just over a month old and weighing 403 pounds (183 kg), is still recovering, but if she survives, the aquarium's owners want to send her to the Sea World park in San Diego, California. Her caretakers say there is no tank in Mexico big enough to keep her when she grows and she will die if put back in the sea or kept in an aquarium that is too small for her.
Some environmentalists oppose transferring Pascuala to Sea World, however, because it could set a precedent that might enable animal traffickers to export more killer whales, also known as orcas. "It hurts us that this animal might die, but we cannot set a negative precedent," said Alejandro Olivera, head of ocean campaigns for Greenpeace in Mexico. The Mexican government's environmental protection agency has so far blocked a transfer to San Diego, saying Mexico's wildlife should not leave the country. Sea World said it would be happy to accept Pascuala, where she could learn from the park's seven existing orcas. Those killer whales live in a 7 million gallon (26.5 million litre) tank and perform tricks for legions of visitors.
Unaware of the controversy surrounding her, the baby orca spends her days swimming and playing with her trainers, who have grown attached to her while acting as surrogate mothers. "It is more than a job or a work experience. This will be one of the most important parts of my career," said Fernando Miranda, who has worked at the Dolphin Adventure park in the Nuevo Vallarta resort city for 10 years.
Visitors have flocked to see the baby and hundreds check a blog set up in her name, where videos, photos and testimonials detail her meals, swimming lessons and attempts to play with nearby dolphins. If Mexico refuses the transfer to Sea World, Pascuala could be released into the ocean. But experts say a successful reintroduction would be difficult for an animal raised with human contact and being fed by hand.
Killer whales, the largest and most intelligent members of the dolphin family, live in tight-knit pods that can travel 75 miles (120 km) a day in search of prey. Scientists would have to find Pascuala's family and hope it would accept her. This is not Mexico's first killer whale controversy. 'Free Willy,' the 1993 Warner Brothers blockbuster about an orca whose life is in danger, starred the real-life killer whale Keiko, whose home was a Mexico City amusement park. Following the film's success, fans forced Keiko's move to a larger tank in Oregon and his 2002 release into the ocean. But Keiko continued to seek human contact and after a year died of pneumonia.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited.

Updates on the condition of Pascuala and new photos can be found here:

• Save Pascuala - the official blog by Dolphin Adventure
• Jessica's blog - by one of the volunteers who put their time and effort in for Pascuala's survival.

Last Tuesday a very young killer whale calf, probably just a couple weeks old, stranded in the Bay of Matanchén, Mexico. Luckily a stranding response exercise was being conducted not far away, so marine biologists were quickly alarmed to help the calf. Villagers named the calf Pascuala because it was discovered at the time of Passover. Authorities don't know how or why the small female calf got separated from its mother, although there were strong currents at the time. Unfortunately the mother could not be located. For now the calf has been transported to a dolphinarium in nearby Nuevo Vallerta.
Whether the calf survives or where it might end up has to be seen. Apparently two experts from SeaWorld California have already arrived and evaluate a possible transfer to San Diego. Authorities might approve this move despite legal problems to increase the short-term survival chance.

Update April 20, 2007:

A killer whale at SeaWorld Adventure Park was getting a sonogram to prepare for possible artificial insemination when she knocked her trainer off a low wall Tuesday.
The 35-year-old trainer was taken to a hospital for examination and was found to have suffered minor injuries after the bump from the 5,900-pound whale, said SeaWorld spokeswoman Darla Davis. "She just lost her balance," Davis said.
The 18-year-old whale named Orkid was getting her weekly ultrasound when she knocked the trainer off the wall next to the whale's tank, said Dave Koontz, another park spokesman. He said it was unclear if the whale intended to head-butt the trainer or accidentally bumped into her. SeaWorld monitors all of its female orcas for potential insemination. The park is reviewing the mishap.
All but three of the 25 calves born in SeaWorld parks were conceived naturally, but the park hopes to use artificial insemination to bring genetic diversity to its whale population, said Dr. Todd Robeck, corporate director of animal reproduction for Anheuser-Busch Entertainment Corp., which owns SeaWorld. "It's a lot easier to fly semen around the world than to fly a whale," Robeck said.
Whales are trained to roll on their sides so that veterinarians can put ultrasound probes against their flanks and monitor their ovaries. Last November, Orkid grabbed a trainer and pushed him under water during a show at Shamu Stadium, tearing a ligament in the trainer's left ankle. Koontz said trainers do not believe Orkid's behavior was aggressive.

The newest addition to the family was born on March 12th, 4:48pm. The baby was six feet long and weighed 350-pounds at birth. Taima gave birth to the baby in Shamu Stadium, following a one-hour labor. Moments later, the baby whale instinctively swam to the surface of the water for its first breath of air. The calf began nursing within hours.
Taima is also the mother of two other killer whales. Editor's note: both Sumar and Tekoa are no longer with their mother. Taima was also born at SeaWorld Orlando during a 1989 thunderstorm, which is where she get’s her name; "Taima" is Icelandic for "crash of thunder."
SeaWorld animal care specialists remain cautiously optimistic about the progress of the baby and its mother.

By Terry Rodgers, San Diego Union-Tribune

By Matthias Gafni, Vallejo Times Herald staff writer

Sentimentality aside, Marine World now is known as Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, and its parent company announced plans Wednesday to sink up to $16 million in renovations to "relaunch" the Vallejo park. As the Times-Herald reported last week, the president and CEO of Six Flags, Mark Shapiro, announced the name change and various other operational and capital improvements to the theme park. "Marine World, I'm not so sure what that meant. Was it a water park? Just sea mammals? For some people, they could have thought it was an armed forces park," he said. "It's a kingdom ... (The new name is) much more representative of what the park is," Shapiro said. The city of Vallejo and Six Flags are in a joint ownership deal where they share profits. Shapiro said nothing was in the works to buy the park from the city. "There's no update. We have a great partnership and we look forward to collectively prospering in the years to come," the CEO said. Shapiro also put to rest any thoughts that Discovery Kingdom was on the list of Six Flags parks up for sale. "We'll be here for a long time to come, and this is year one of a major investment," he said. Last week, Six Flags announced it agreed to sell three of its water parks, including Concord's Waterworld USA, and four of its theme parks to PARC 7F-Operations Corp. of Jackson, Fla., for $312 million. Shapiro made Wednesday's formal announcement in the soon-to-be Explorer's Outpost, a central concierge hub, before a couple dozen VIPs, staff and media. Vallejo Mayor Tony Intintoli Jr., former mayor Terry Curtola, councilmember Tom Bartee and mayoral candidate Osby Davis joined the festivities. Curtola was largely responsible for bringing the park to Vallejo from Redwood City in the 1980s. "It'll always be Marine World to me," Curtola said. "But that's progress. ... Hopefully, it will be bigger and better for the city." Shapiro hoped to gain city officials' support in further marketing the park, especially with increased signage along Interstate 80. He hopes to widen the park's marketing campaign to the San Francisco and Napa areas. "In years past, the park was not doing a good enough job getting out the message," he said. The park's new logo includes a Golden Gate Bridge in the background. The newly named park will re-organize itself, separating areas of the park into Land, Sea and Air. "We will begin to model other parks off the three-pronged offering we have here," Shapiro said. Officials also promoted Holiday in the Park, a holiday-themed enterprise similar to its Halloween Fright Fest, and new shows, rides and other entertainment that will be announced at later dates. Even with the multi-million investment, Shapiro said adult admission prices will drop by $2, to $49.99. Plus, all season long, anyone bringing a Coke can enter for a kid's fee of $29.99. Before the press conference ended, African Acrobats performed a preview of their upcoming Discovery Kingdom show, featuring Cirque de Soleil-style tumbling, gymnastics, jump roping and human pyramids. The six-person team from Kenya, who have long worked at Las Vegas hotels, will have a 10-week run at the Vallejo park. As attendees left Wednesday's indoor press conference, they were greeted by a circus scene. A row of saluting elephants led the group to a giant circle of animals, park mascots and superheroes, trainers and park officials. Ping and Pong, two black-and-white African penguins, swam in the park's fountain. Kamala, a 5-year-old tamandua, a smaller anteater, waddled along the floor, occasionally dipping her 16-inch long tongue into a test tube full of blended beef heart. Bacardi, a 3-year-old giant Indian fruit bat, hung out upside down, while Freddy, a 16-year-old Sulcata tortoise slowly meandered away from his trainers. "You come here and you get interaction with animals, where you can't get that anywhere else," Shapiro said.