On July 16, 1964, a sculptor, Samuel Burich, hired by the Vancouver Aquarium to make a life-size model of a killer whale, headed out onto the water. He planned to harpoon one, then drag the body back as a model for his sculpture. He found a pod of whales, and noticing a young whale off to the side, he harpooned it.
The whale, however, didn't die. Instead, it squealed and thrashed, as family members rushed to its side. After a while though, the pod moved on, leaving the young whale with the boat by its side.
More boats arrived. The whale was shot, but still it didn't die. Finally, someone had the bright idea of keeping the whale alive. They dragged the whale by the harpoon in its back, behind the boat, for 16 hours. Despite attempts to ease the orca's pain, it clearly hurt the creature. A lot.
Finally, they made it back to Vancouver Harbor. Kept, officially, at the Vancouver Aquarium, it was concluded the whale was a female, and she was named Moby Doll.
People came the world over to see Moby Doll. Thousands and thousands came to see her; scientists traveled from all over to investigate this 'murderous animal'. But everyone was shocked at one thing in particular: Moby Doll wasn't dangerous. In fact, she was quite gentle. Everyone attributed her gentleness to shock...."Its quite rare," said the Aquarium director.
Moby Doll wouldn't eat, though. All she did was circle the pool constantly in exactly the same way. Finally, on the 55th day, she ate. And ate and ate and ate. Unfortunately, she still remained unhealthy, and a month later, she died.
It created a sensation around the world. Magazines everywhere published articles (Reader's Digest and Life, to name two), and The Times in London gave her obituary a heading the same size as the outbreak of World War 2. While the aquarium director told people that Moby Doll 'was a nice whale, but it was still a predatory, carnivorous creature. It could swallow you alive.'
But times were changing. For the first time, ever, people were on the orca's side. In the Victoria Times, an editorial stated that Moby Doll had, "died a miserable death-unable to reach the clean salt water that was its natural habitat".
Oh yes-and when the autopsy was performed, it was discovered that Moby Doll was a HE not a SHE.
All that was well and good, and opinions were changing. But there was still a chance that Moby Doll had been one in a million. Just a fluke.
And then, finally, the orca's reputation began a massive change, thanks to yet another male orca.
In 1965, a fishermen, his net tangled and pulling him towards the rocks, cut his gill net and let it float away. The next morning, a friend of his towed over to investigate the net-and found two orcas, a bull and a calf.
Seeing a chance for fame and fortune, the fishermen offered their prize to anyone who wanted to buy it. The next day, the bull escaped, showing the calf the way to go, but the calf didn't move, so the bull stayed. Two days later, however, the calf was gone, and the bull was alone.
Who knows why that whale stayed? But he did. He was named Namu after the town nearby, and bought by Ted Griffen for $8000. After much debate, Namu was moved using a floating cage to Seattle.

Namu became a sensation. He and Ted Griffen became friends; for the first time, an orca was interacting with a human. Griffen went in the water with him, played with him, and proved to everyone that orcas weren't completely evil.
The public's attitude changed overnight. A movie about Namu was made (Namu-My Best Friend), books were written. Immediately, everyone loved orcas.
While the public changed completely, the scientific community was a little slow on the uptake. As late as 1973, the US Navy guide said that killer whales were 'extremely ferocious', and they warned that they 'will attack human beings at every opportunity'.
That, of course, is ridiculous. And people were realizing it. The captive industry began to spread when, a few months after Namu had settled in, Ted Griffen captured another whale, a female, to be Namu's mate. However, 'Shamu', as the female was called, didn't get along with the male. She was sold to a little unknown company called SeaWorld. And so began the SeaWorld saga. Shamu also became an overnight success-people kissed her, hugged her, rode her, fed her. SeaWorld was a big money-maker immediately. What wasn't mentioned was how Shamu was captured: from a helicopter, someone had hit a whale with a harpoon. This whale, "Mother-of-Shamu", died of her wounds, and they captured the calf who had been swimming with her.
While the Shamu saga continued, Namu met the end of his life. A year after his capture, the big male, friend of everyone, died. Years later, researchers determined that Namu had probably been the son of Kwatna (C5), and he was given the ID number C11. He is one of three captive whales who actually had ID numbers.
Shamu fared better than Namu. Back at SeaWorld, she survived six years. Meanwhile, other aquariums were getting into the act. Vancouver Aquarium began their own legacy of orcas by capturing a female orca from the J, K, or L pods. This female, Skana, also became a star. Aquariums started popping up in BC and Washington at alarming rates. Orcas were getting expensive...and the public loved it.
Captures started happening everywhere. Ted Griffen, who apparently hadn't learned from his once-in-a-lifetime friendship with Namu, teamed up with Don Goldsberry and began one of the most tragic times of the orca's history.
Around 1967, it started. The newest way to capture orcas wasn't with fishing nets or harpoons. Instead, whole pods of orcas were driven into bays or small inlets, using airplanes, boats, lots of noise, and even bombs. Once the whole pod was in the bay, purse seine nets were pulled around it, trapping them. Oddly enough, though orcas are capable of jumping over or tearing these nets, they never did.
Once the orcas were trapped in the net, ropes and nets were thrown in, separating mothers from calves. The whales would become frantic-many orcas died trying to get back to their mothers or family. Then, the humans would take the orca they wanted, lift it out, and transport it anywhere in the world. They wanted newly weaned juveniles; weaned from their mothers, but young enough to learn. They took so many at this age level, an entire generation is missing.
Once this way of capture was established, an insane amount of captures began-and no one was about to stop them.