#orky 2

[the-cetacean]

Corky II, Orky II, and their first calf (World of Discovery: Beautiful Killers)

[the-cetacean]

Orky II (World of Discovery: Beautiful Killers)

[orcinus-ocean]

A whale of a tale: Former troublemaker writes memoir detailing infamous Marineland break-in

Remember that time when those guys broke into Marineland in the ’80s and rode the killer whales at 2 a.m? We do.

This was a story I only read about a few months ago, and I bet most of you haven't heard about. I came across this now while googling old photos from Marineland of the Pacific.

After descending the steps of the amphitheater where the whale shows were held, Mulligan climbed down the ladder to the platform to get closer. Three of the Daves started to get antsy and decided to leave. Dave Berg and Mulligan stayed and kept petting the whales. Then, Mulligan made a rash decision.

“I just said ‘f*** it’ and got on one and it immediately took off,” he said.

Berg shouted after him, “Mullo, you’re crazy, what are you doing?” but then he hopped on the other orca.

They swam with the whales — surfing and standing on them or floating with them — for about a half-hour, still fully clothed. The whales, Orky and Corky, were playful and seemed excited to have visitors, he said.

“They were like two giant puppies,” Mulligan said. “… Sometimes I would be floating and I would see a big white patch go under me and I would think, ‘Wow that’s a killer whale.’ That was the only time that it would really hit me.”

Stupid thing to do, and they were lucky this was Orky and Corky, two gentle whales used to waterwork.

But this kind of stuff of course does not get blown up in the media. People prefer to read about mindless killers, crazed from years in "prison".

Just after Dawn's death, a woman who swam with a pilot whale (!) at Marineland of Florida I believe, decades ago, said "Oh I just realized I'm so lucky to be alive", as if every single whale out there us just waiting to kill people.

I’m only lightly reading through the article, but it gets one major thing wrong: “where Corky was renamed Shamu and Orky later died.“

She was never renamed. She's still Corky.

[orcinus-ocean]

Marineland of the Pacific switch

According to a pdf document Ceta Base has dug up, April 9th, 1970 was the day when Marineland of the Pacific had their animals switch tanks. They now had three killer whales (Orky 2, described as 5800 pounds, Corky at 4000 pounds, and little Patches at 1125 pounds), and they were moved to the main tank (which was renamed the Killer Whale Coliseum), while the dolphins and pilot whales were moved to the old killer whale pool.

In the first two photos, it's Orky being moved and lowered into the new tank, and in the third, it's Bubbles (our Bubbles who passed away last year) being moved out of the big tank.

The document says Bubbles was moved along with two other pilot whales (Bimbo was released before this), two bottlenose dolphins and four "striped" dolphins (they were not actually what we today call striped dolphins, but lags, Pacific white-sided dolphins). Since they don't mention Swifty, it seems she died before this. (And it adds up with my previous assumption, Swifty died some time in 1970.)

What's strange is that they also specifically only mention three killer whales, while databases I've seen said Corky 1 died in late 1970, and of course, Corky 2 came in late 1969. So is this article speaking of Corky 2, and Corky 1 was perhaps already deceased?

They also don't mention Kenny, and he died in 1972. Perhaps it was Corky 1 who was moved, and Corky 2 and Kenny were in another pool (remember, Orky 2 and Corky 1 were caught together in 1968. Corky 2 came with Patches and Kenny in 1969.) This is all terribly confusing.

The last photo above of three whales, is Corky 1 - very recognizeable - Patches, and Orky 2, which makes this theory more likely. But still, why wasn't Corky 2 and Kenny with them? Kenny was the last killer whale to die before Orky and Corky were alone.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12210904/marineland_pacific_orky_corky/

[orcinus-ocean]

Some photos Orcahome claims to be of Orky 1, but are actually of Orky 2.

I recently realized, while trying to compare the two, that some of these photos are actually of Orky 2, not 1.

The first one is especially clear, but the latter can also be told from looking at the eyepatch (second, in the background - it's Corky 1 in the foreground of course), and from the belly marking just by the left flipper, on the third.

Here's Orky 2's belly/chest markings.

And here I made complete ID ref sheets for Orky and Orky 2.

https://image.ibb.co/k4vvHa/Orky.png

https://preview.ibb.co/gq3ROF/Orky_2.png

[orcinus-ocean]

May 13th

Today it’s 49 years, almost half a century, since Corky and Orky 2 (then known as “Snorky” - possibly the worst killer whale name ever) were moved to Marineland of the Pacific, which already had the first Orky.

[orcinus-ocean]

The Big(gest) Boys

Like I said yesterday, I am currently working on my biggest killer whale sculpt so far, at 18 cm long. I started making them in 1:40 scale instead of 1:50 scale, so why not start by making the biggest of them all, Orky 2. The thing is... I'm almost done and I just realized Orky was not as big as I had been told.

I had previously read, on several occasions, that Orky measured 23-24 feet long (7-7.3 meters) and 14000-15000 pounds (6.35-6.8 metric tons). His necropsy report however, states he was 21'10" long (6.65 meters), and his healthy weight is unknown since he had lost almost half of it by his death, resulting in a very emaciated 7600 pound (3.5 ton) body.

The veterinarian carrying out the necropsy stated no weight was taken at Marineland or the move to SeaWorld nearly two years prior, and so an "estimate" of his healthy weight was put to 10000 pounds (4.53 tons).

Then I thought, should I finish this as Orky, or should I make the sculpt someone else, like Winston or Kanduke? So just because I have way too much free time, I stacked up all the known lengths and weights of grown bulls.

11. Oscar only measured 19 feet (5.8 meters) and 7000 pounds (3.17 tons)  shortly before his death at the age of 26.

10. Keet is unusually small, and measured 19 feet (5.8 meters) and 8000 pounds (3.63 tons) at the age of 23.

9. Keto measured 20.5 feet (6.2 meters) and 8600 pounds (3.9 tons) at the age of 20.

8. Ulises measured 21 feet (6.4 meters) and 9500 pounds (4.3 tons) in his late 30s (should be the same today, he's 41 and long done growing).

7. Bingo measured 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) and 9480 pounds (4.3 tons) at the age of 32.

6. Orky measured 21'10" long (6.65 meters) and very approximately 10000 pounds (4.5 tons) at the age of 30.

5. Kyuquot measured 22 feet (6.7 meters) and 9300 pounds (4.22 tons) at the age of 23.

4. Kim 2 measured 22.8 feet (6.9 meters) and 11000 pounds (5 tons) at the age of 22.

3. Tilikum, in his 30s, measured 22 or 23 feet long (6.7-7 meters) and weighed 12000 pounds (5.44 tons).

2. Kanduke was 22′2″ (6.75 m) and 12275 pounds (5.57 tons) at the time of his death (20 years).

1. Winston measured 24'7" (not even one inch under 7.5 meters) and 12000 pounds (5.44 tons) at the time of death, age 20+.

So Winston aka. Ramu 3 is the king, and while I already knew he was bigger than Tilly, I have to say I'm disappointed Orky was pushed down to 6th place (and this is not including all the bulls even). His size was really overestimated, it seems.

But everyone's saying Ulises is the biggest whale after Tilly's death, no, it's Tilly II, Kyuquot!

I have been unable to find measurements for Kandu 7, Goro, Benkei, Hyak and Finna, reliable measurements of Keiko, or recent measurements for Kshamenk (2005 is very not-recent). I am not including Kotar because he was only 17 when he died, same reason I am not including Nakai, Ikaika, Tekoa and Inouk - they're not full-grown. Also Valentin, same reason.

We can wonder at how large Ramu would have grown, as he was 24 feet long (7.3 meters) at the time of death (18 years old), but weighed only 5900 pounds (2.67 tons).

[the-cetacean]

Orky II, Corky II, and their first calf (World of Discovery: Beautiful Killers)