Kshamenk, the last orca in captivity in Argentina, died on December 14th at the age of 36 years.
Kshamenk was captured in the BahÃa de Samborombón and taken to the amusement park Mundo Marino in 1992, where he was confined in the smallest orca tank in the world.
For a few years he shared the tank with another orca, Belén. But when Belén died in 2000, Kshamenk was left with just a bottlenose dolphin for company. And it remained that way until his death. He spent much of his time lying on the bottom of a tank that was barely deeper than the length of his body. When he was at the surface, he circled endlessly with nowhere to go and nothing to do.
The ways in which he was exploited went beyond simply being forced to perform. Staff members from SeaWorld were dispatched to Mundo Marino to forcibly collect his sperm so they could breed yet more captive whales. They took what they needed and left him to languish. He had a son, Makani, who survives at Seaworld San Diego, and a daughter, Kamea, who died this year at SeaWorld San Antonio.
There may be no other orca in the world who symbolized the brazen greed of the marine mammal captivity industry the way Kshamenk did. His suffering was palpable and now it has ended – but without even the grace of having a chance to regain a part of what was taken from him: His autonomy. His dignity. His life.
Just as after the deaths of Kiska, Tilikum, Tokitae and so many more, we grieve our inability to help him in time. But his death spurs us onward in the knowledge that the days of forcing these intelligent beings to do our bidding are now numbered.
Rest in peace.