||| FROM WJBD RADIO.COM |||
(LONDON) — Animal rights activists are calling for the release of an orca who has been living in Argentina’s largest aquarium for over 30 years.
The orca named Kshamenk, pronounced Shamenk, is the last captive orca in all of Latin America, living in Buenos Aires’ Mundo Marino aquarium since his rescue in 1992.
Recently, viral drone footage showing Kshamenk lying almost motionless in his small concrete pool has brought renewed attention to the fate of the lone orca, with thousands around the world calling for him to be released from captivity.
“Time is not on Kshamenk’s side,” Canadian whistleblowing organization Urgent Seas, which has been leading the campaign for Kshamenk’s release, told ABC News. “The recent deaths of solitary orcas highlight the despair social animals such as Orcas feel when not living in their proper families or with members of their own species.”
“To witness their mental healths decline is gut-wrenching – as we are seeing with Kshamenk,” Urgent Seas said in its statement.
In November 1992, three fishermen sailed from San Clemente del Tuyú, a town on Argentina’s Atlantic coast, to embark on a normal day of sea fishing, according to Mundo Marino’s biography of Kshamenk. A few hours into their trip, the fishermen spotted four black figures lying near the coast in a marshy area of Samborombón Bay, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.
The figures turned out to be four stranded orcas that had become trapped on a muddy bank.
One of the orcas was Kshamenk – then approximately 3 years old – found by rescue teams in “critical condition” and “showing various signs of weakness” including being “severely decompensated, dehydrated’ and with “very altered blood parameters,” according to the biography.
The group of orcas was presumed by rescuers to have been stranded for approximately two days, becoming stuck in the sand on a mud bank after chasing a school of fish during a higher tide.
After consultation with local authorities, it was considered the “best thing” for the young orca to remain in the care of the Mundo Marino team following rehabilitation, according to the aquarium. The aquarium said specialists who evaluated Kshamenk’s physical and mental health “reject the possibility of transfer” because it would “seriously put her well-being and life at risk.”
According to testimonies of fishermen, it is believed the other three orcas were able to swim back into the sea the next day as the water level rose.
Kshamenk is estimated to be around 35 years old, Mundo Marino told ABC News. He is one of at least 54 orcas currently being kept in captivity in marine parks around the world, according to the International Marine Mammal Project.
Online petitions to free Kshamenk have garnered tens of thousands of signatures, videos posted on TikTok and Instagram shining light on the plight of the orca – which has lived for years without orca companionship – amassing hundreds of thousands of views.
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