MY RARE SHOT OF NOOTKA 4

MY RARE SHOT OF NOOTKA 4

I received a comment yesterday and one today regarding the following photo, which I took in 1991 at Sealand in Victoria, B.C. of an orca that I thought might be named Tillicum, according to what I wrote on the back of the picture. The date I took it was 10/18/91. As you can see by the comments that I received on Flickr and that follow the picture, from someone who knows, this was Nootka 4, a female orca.



My decription: I took this picture at a Victoria B.C. sealife aquarium in 1991. This was one of two killer whales there, one of which later killed its trainer.

My conversation below this picture with Marhi 226:

Marhi_226 says:

Its Nootka, one of the females. They had another two whales in 1991. You saw only females? I know that they held Tillikum (big male) apart of females in small pool next to main.
Really beautiful shot and very rare too!
Posted 20 hours ago.

SuzanneR Pro User says:

Thanks for that information, Marhi 226. And also for your kind words about the photo. I wondered if it could be rare. I wrote on the back of the photo: Smiling Orca (Killer whale) -- "Tillicum"? 10/18/91

As it happens, due to the killer whale's "smile," I am posting the photo also to the "Flickr: On Assignment" group as the theme there right now is "smiles."
Posted 19 hours ago.

Marhi_226 says:

Yes, its rare! It isnt a lot of photos from Sealand.

You can write on the back of the photo: Smiling orca - Nootka 4 (your orca on the photo is really Nootka).

Aquarium had 3 orcas in this time - Haida, Nootka and Tillikum. In december Haida gave birth to Kyuquet, first Tillikum's baby.
I found out that attack was on 21th february 1991. All three orcas were involve in the incident but only Tillikum was accused in this attack.
Posted 3 hours ago.

SuzanneR Pro User says:

I have changed what I wrote on the back of my picture. :-) Thank you for this continued information!

I checked Marhi's profile and she is actually Martina, from Prague.

According to Wikipedia, this was what happened during the incident where the trainer was killed:

"On February 20, 1991, a group of 3 Orcas (Haida, Nootka, and Tilikum) killed a trainer named Keltie Byrne at Sealand in Victoria, British Columbia (where employees were not allowed in the water with Orcas). After this, and due to Tilikum being bullied by the two females in the tank, Tilikum was relocated to SeaWorld of Orlando, Florida, where he remains. He is currently the largest Orca in captivity."

There is also a notice with this article that it is being considered for deletion, so it may not be up there all that long. I learned that the spelling of Tilikum in this paragraph is the correct one.

It is so nice to be on Flickr and communicate with people there from all over the world!

*****

I am happy to say that I found my missing pictures -- the originals of me and also my mom's obit that I brought back from my Idaho/Utah trip to go to her funeral. I got to thinking yesterday afternoon that they must have been put in my treasures trunk. I dug into it and lo and behold, they were there. I have them out in a dresser drawer now so they'll be easy to get to if and when I scrapbook again.

*****

I had a note from the mailman waiting for me this morning when I picked up my mail from my rural mailbox out front, in which he said that the flag had been up but nothing had been in the mailbox. It is obvious my mail was stolen. Thankfully, the only thing I had out there was a note to my friend Edith in Toronto, containing an article from Time Magazine on the FLDS situation in Texas. I can imagine the frustration of the person who opened that letter! It quite amuses me to think about. However, I did report it to a lady at the post office's toll free number. I was thinking I might let neighbor Bobi know about this, as well as Nick and Jeff at the shop, in that last instance in case mail was stolen out of our business's mailbox. Very, very maddening!