Were there any attempts at keeping a whale in captivity? (Excluding orca since they are actually a dolphin)

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MissMarionMac@reddit

There was Gigi.

Gigi was a gray whale calf that was captured in the wild in 1971. She was kept at SeaWorld San Diego for about a year before being released back into the wild.

I saw a documentary about her in the early 2000s, but I can't find it now. Gigi also appears briefly in a National Geographic documentary that I watched many times as a kid. Here's the section with her.

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TheMemeVault@reddit

A whole documentary about Gigi? I'm interested.

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MissMarionMac@reddit

It was on a VHS that I borrowed from (and then gave back to) a science teacher friend more than twenty years ago, and I can’t remember what it was called. Every version of “Gigi gray whale documentary” that I’ve googled has come up empty.

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FrenchForRooster@reddit

Thanks dude, that was an awesome watch

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MyFaceSaysItsSugar@reddit

They’ve tried rehabing gray whales and kogia breviceps but were unsuccessful. Beluga whales are in captivity in many aquariums. They banned live capture for aquariums back in the 80s so they will not likely be in captivity for much longer since breeding success has been limited. The Georgia Aquarium applied to live-capture belugas in the wild about 10 years ago to add to the captive numbers but they were denied.

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ZakA77ack@reddit

Idk why you said they were unsuccessful. JJ the Grey whale was rescued, raised, and successfully released back into the wild by Sea world San Diego.

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Indie4Me@reddit

It’s only a success in that he was put back in the ocean. He was never re-sighted and his tracker didn’t stick, so he’s largely believed to be dead and because of that, calling it a success is dubious compared to other cetacean rehab work

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ZakA77ack@reddit

I suppose we have Shrodingers whale here. No evidence to prove he died, nothing to prove he's alive. Either way. The release was successful and there was nothing ever quite like it.

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coyotemidnight@reddit

FYI, the Georgia Aquarium did have belugas captured at their behest. The import permit was denied, but the animals were captured in Russia.

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Responsible_Break_72@reddit

The Atlanta aquarium has a whale shark.

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d1zzymisslizzie@reddit

It has 2 male whale sharks still (used to have 2 females as well but one died in 2020 & one in 2021, the 2 males they've had since 2007)

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Demidostov@reddit (OP)

The Whale shark is a shark, not a whale.

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KnotiaPickles@reddit

Still insane they manage to keep it alive when it’s adapted to swimming incredible distances every day

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RevolutionaryGrape11@reddit

They swim those incredible distances to find food, and in an aquarium, they get that food for free without the trouble.

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KnotiaPickles@reddit

There’s a lot more to life for huge animals than just eating food mindlessly

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Yewoobi@reddit

The boundary between dolphin and whale is a little unclear. If you’re excluding orcas, I assume you also would exclude the other commonly captive belugas and pilot whales.

Pygmy sperm whales have briefly been in captivity

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coyotemidnight@reddit

Orcas, false killer whales, and pilot whales are all members of Delphinidae, the oceanic dolphins. Belugas are not; they are toothed whales, but they are not dolphins.

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metaldeval@reddit

Belugas are still kept at mystic aquarium

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coyotemidnight@reddit

Belugas are kept at a number of other facilities in the US (including Mystic, Shedd, and Georgia Aquariums and the three Sea Worlds) and around the world. Ceta-Base is in maintenance mode right now but keeps really good records of the captive cetaceans around the world.

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