Orca dies at SeaWorld San Antonio
WDC is saddened to hear the news that Unna, a female orca held at SeaWorld’s park in San Antonio, Texas, has died. She was just 18 years old.
For the past few months Unna had been fighting a chronic fungal infection but failed to respond to treatment. She died on December 21st and SeaWorld announced that all orca shows would be cancelled at the park for the remainder of the day.
Unna is the third whale to die at the Texas park in the past 6 months. In November, a two year old beluga died of intestinal problems and in July a beluga died after being born prematurely.
Even though Unna was born in captivity she was 100% Icelandic. Her mother is Katina who was captured in Icelandic waters in 1978. Her father, Tilikum, who featured in the 2013 ground-breaking documentary, Blackfish, was captured from the same area in 1983.
There are now 56 orcas held captive in the world today – 23 of these are at SeaWorld’s three American parks.
