Whale Jail: Inside the Secret World of Imprisoned Orcas

Today is World Orca Day, and with our campaign to save Wikie and Keijo — two orcas currently trapped in a closed marine park in a deteriorating tank in the South of France — it feels especially timely to take a closer look at the broader issue of captive whales and dolphins.

In 2021, France banned all cetaceans from appearing in performance type shows and while that is ultimately the right decision it has left animals like Wikie and Keijo, already held in captivity, in a dangerous state of limbo. 

Wikie’s firstborn son, Moana, and her brother, Inouk, have already died in the same park in just the last 18 months. And while the plight of Wikie and Keijo has been receiving press and public attention – there has still been no solution to their plight.

Legendary actor William Shatner collaborated with EARTHDAY.ORG to release a statement urging President Macron to intervene on these two orcas’ behalf. Unfortunately, both President Macron and the whales’ owners have yet to find a long term home for either them, or 12 bottlenose dolphins also held at the park. 

Wikie and Keijo are Not Alone

Wikie and Keijo are not the only captive cetaceans in need. The Dolphin Company operates four parks in Florida, in the U.S and has been under investigation for the deaths of five dolphins in just eight months at the Gulf World Marine Park. The fourth dolphin died after performing a trick and the park finally closed after Samaria, the fifth dolphin, died. 

How is this happening in the United States of America? It’s unconscionable that we’re allowing this type of abuse, and it’s very public.

Valerie Greene, Former Animal Trainer and Volunteer with TideBreakers

But while the remaining dolphins have been moved out of the Gulf World Marine park, they are still being held in facilities owned by The Dolphin Company and therefore remain in their care. 

In Argentina, the plight of Kshamenk — the country’s last captive orca — is a stark and deeply disturbing reminder of the suffering endured by whales in captivity. For over three decades, Kshamenk has lived completely alone in a tiny, cramped, shallow concrete pool at Mundo Marino, Buenos Aires’ largest aquarium. Footage from 2025 shows him lying almost motionless for hours at a time, pressed against the gate. It’s as if he is dead already. 

Since the death of his only companion, Belen, in 2000, Kshamenk has spent 24 years in total isolation from his own kind, deprived of the social bonds and vast ocean spaces that orcas need to thrive. 

Despite mounting public outcry and urgent calls from animal welfare groups to move him to better facilities, Kshamenk remains trapped — his story is a symbol of the loneliness and despair faced by captive orcas everywhere.  If you want to speak up for Kshamenk and ask for him to be treated with dignity and kindness please write to Argentina’s President Javier G Milei, care of the [email protected].

We Need Sanctuaries Not Platitudes

Orcas are some of the most intelligent, emotionally complex animals on the planet. In the wild, they swim hundreds of miles, form deep family bonds, and pass down orca culture through generations. In captivity, they circle endlessly in sterile, concrete pools, performing meaningless tricks, and suffer from stress-related illnesses and often early death. Some neuroscientists describe their confinement as a form of “neural cruelty.” We allow this not for conservation or science purposes, but for profit and entertainment.

As advocacy succeeds and more countries ban cetaceans, it’s becoming increasingly urgent to create refuges where captive whales and dolphins can be safely rehomed. So that when these performing animals are finally freed from marine parks, they have a safe place to heal and thrive. 

Sanctuaries minimize human interaction, reducing stress on the animals and enabling them to engage in species-typical behaviors. These facilities also serve as genuine research hubs, offering scientific but just insight into animal behavior and health. The issue is there are very few whale sanctuaries anywhere in the world. 

There are no ocean based facilities anywhere designed to specifically rehabilitate or re-home orcas. The media often cite locations in Canada but no sanctuary exists there, it has not been built, and therefore Canada cannot re-home Wikie and Keijo as of now.

There is a whale sanctuary in Iceland, the world’s first open-water facility designed to provide a more natural and spacious home for beluga whales formerly kept in captivity. Located on a remote island, the sanctuary is already home to two belugas, Little Grey and Little White. It cannot take Wikie and Keijo.  

But as legislation outlawing cetacean captivity spreads around the globe, the demand for whale and dolphin sanctuaries has never been greater.

Bans All Over World 

While France banned cetacean shows in 2021, other countries acted much sooner. India banned all cetacean captivity over ten years ago in 2013, declaring dolphins “non-human persons” and making it illegal to keep them for entertainment. 

Chile amended its laws in 2005 to prohibit the capture or import of any cetacean species for public exhibition. Brazil, Luxembourg, Nicaragua, Norway, and the United Kingdom have laws so strict that keeping cetaceans in captivity is virtually impossible. In addition, South Korea banned the capture of whales for captivity in 2024.These measures reflect a growing global consensus that the welfare needs of whales and dolphins cannot be met in tanks, and that their place is in the wild — not on display for entertainment.

Canada passed the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act in 2019, making it illegal to capture, breed, or keep cetaceans — whales, dolphins, and porpoises — in captivity for entertainment purposes. Exceptions are made only for rescue, rehabilitation, or licensed scientific research. 

This means that facilities like Marineland in Niagara Falls must now comply with the ban. But as of early 2025, there are 31 beluga whales remaining at the facility. The park previously housed a killer whale (Kiska, who died in 2023) and at least 18 belugas, and one dolphin have died at Marineland since 2019. 

The question is where will all their whales now go? We know preparing whales and dolphins for release into the wild is an arduous, expensive and highly complex process, especially if as in the case of Wikie and Keijo, they were born into captivity.  Of course no for profit marine park has stepped up to fund the creation of a whale or dolphin sanctuary.

A Moral Imperative for Change

We must move away from captivity for profit and toward conservation rooted in empathy, science, and sustainability.  

The evidence is overwhelming: for many species, captivity causes suffering. The ethical choice is clear.  If you want to help Wikie and Keijo you can start by sending a letter to President Macron asking him to step in and hold the owners of Wikie and Keijo accountable and fund a solution. You can also watch William Shatner’s full statement here. Live long and protect life.

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, two humpback whales helped save planet Earth. It was gripping fiction — but what’s happening today in the south of France is heartbreakingly real. Wikie and Keijo aren’t characters in a script. They are highly intelligent, social creatures trapped in a crumbling marine park with nowhere to go. We have the power to write them a better ending—if we act now. I urge President Macron to act decisively to find a better location for these animals now.

William Shatner, Actor

Tags:

• animal