Editing Orca (section)

===Modern Western attitudes===
{{See also|Orcas in popular culture}}
[[File:Woman swims with killer whales in the wild.webm|thumb|[[Ingrid Visser (researcher)|Ingrid Visser]]'s research team filming orcas in New Zealand]]

Western attitudes towards orcas have changed dramatically in recent decades. In the mid-1960s and early 1970s, orcas came to much greater public and scientific awareness, starting with the live-capture and display of an orca known as [[Moby Doll]], a [[southern resident orca]] harpooned off [[Saturna Island]] in 1964.{{sfn|Obee|Ellis|1992|pp=Chapter 1}} He was the first ever orca to be studied at close quarters alive, not postmortem. [[Moby Doll's impact in scientific research]] at the time, including the first scientific studies of an orca's sound production, led to two articles about him in the journal ''Zoologica''.<ref name=Schevill&Watkins>{{cite journal |last1=Schevill |first1=William |last2=Watkins |first2=William |title=Sound Structure and Directionality in ''Orcinus'' (killer whale) |journal=Zoologica |date=Summer 1966 |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=71–76 |publisher=[[New York Zoological Society]]}}</ref><ref name=Newman&McGeer>{{cite journal |last1=Newman |first1=Murray |last2=McGeer |first2=Patrick |title=The Capture and Care of a Killer Whale, ''Orcinus orca'', in British Columbia |journal=Zoologica |date=Summer 1966 |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=59–70 |publisher=[[New York Zoological Society]]}}</ref> So little was known at the time, it was nearly two months before the whale's keepers discovered what food (fish) it was willing to eat. To the surprise of those who saw him, Moby Doll was a docile, non-aggressive whale who made no attempts to attack humans.{{sfn|Francis|Hewlett|2007|pp=58–59}}

[[File:A73 whale transport.jpg|thumb|right|upright|In 2002, the orphan [[Springer (orca)|Springer]] was successfully returned to her family.|alt=Killer whale wrapped in white cloth on a boat, surrounded by four people. A board braces its dorsal fin.]]
Between 1964 and 1976, 50 orcas from the Pacific Northwest were captured for display in [[Aquarium|aquaria]], and public interest in the animals grew. In the 1970s, research pioneered by [[Michael Bigg]] led to the discovery of the species' complex social structure, its use of vocal communication, and its extraordinarily stable mother–offspring bonds. Through [[Wildlife photo-identification|photo-identification]] techniques, individuals were named and tracked over decades.{{sfn|Baird|2002|pp=73–80}}

Bigg's techniques also revealed the Pacific Northwest population was in the low hundreds rather than the thousands that had been previously assumed.{{sfn|Obee|Ellis|1992|pp=Chapter 1}} The southern resident community alone had lost 48 of its members to captivity; by 1976, only 80 remained.{{sfn|Heimlich|Boran|2001|p=11}} In the Pacific Northwest, the species that had unthinkingly been targeted became a cultural icon within a few decades.<ref name=Lyke/>

The public's growing appreciation also led to growing opposition to whale–keeping in aquarium. Only one whale has been taken in North American waters since 1976. In recent years, the extent of the public's interest in orcas has manifested itself in several high-profile efforts surrounding individuals. Following the success of the 1993 film ''[[Free Willy]]'', the movie's captive star [[Keiko (whale)|Keiko]] was returned to the coast of his native [[Iceland]] in 2002. The director of the International Marine Mammal Project for the [[Earth Island Institute]], David Phillips, led the efforts to return Keiko to the Iceland waters.<ref name = Wood>{{cite news|last=Wood|first=Daniel|title=Death of Sea World trainer: Do 'killer whales' belong in theme parks?|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0224/Death-of-Sea-World-trainer-Do-killer-whales-belong-in-theme-parks|access-date=March 19, 2012|newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor|date=February 24, 2010|archive-date=May 13, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513095029/http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0224/Death-of-Sea-World-trainer-Do-killer-whales-belong-in-theme-parks|url-status=live}}</ref> Keiko however did not adapt to the harsh climate of the [[Arctic Ocean]], and died a year into his release after contracting [[Pneumonia (non-human)|pneumonia]], at the age of 27.<ref>[https://apnews.com/f4012a2567261d6a6e661c1c636c128b Movie-Star Whale Keiko Dies of Pneumonia.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607115808/https://apnews.com/f4012a2567261d6a6e661c1c636c128b |date=June 7, 2020 }} Associated Press. Published December 13, 2003. Retrieved June 7, 2020.</ref> In 2002, the orphan [[Springer (orca)|Springer]] was discovered in [[Puget Sound]], Washington. She became the first whale to be successfully reintegrated into a wild pod after human intervention, crystallizing decades of research into the vocal behaviour and social structure of the region's orcas.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{Cite news|title=Orphaned orca's reunion with family celebrated|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/orphaned-orca-s-reunion-with-family-celebrated-1.634335|date=July 13, 2007|publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]|access-date=November 6, 2007|archive-date=November 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106234637/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/orphaned-orca-s-reunion-with-family-celebrated-1.634335|url-status=live}}</ref> The saving of Springer raised hopes that another young orca named [[Luna (killer whale)|Luna]], which had become separated from his pod, could be returned to it. However, his case was marked by controversy about whether and how to intervene, and in 2006, Luna was killed by a boat propeller.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Robert |last=McClure |title=Luna the orca killed by tugboat |url=http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Luna-the-orca-killed-by-tugboat-1198168.php |work=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |publisher=Hearst Corporation |location=Seattle, Washington |date=March 11, 2006 |access-date=April 8, 2009 |archive-date=August 11, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811030505/http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Luna-the-orca-killed-by-tugboat-1198168.php |url-status=live }}</ref>