Jason Colby: On the Capture of Toki/Tokitae/Lolita/Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut and How Penn Cove Almost Ended the Southern Resident Orcas
Skaana Host Mark Leiren talks with historian Jason Colby about a generational loss. “Whether it was illegal or not, it looks like a murder scene.”
“It’s worth remembering that the argument at the time, if there could have been a debate at the time, it was really between whale catching and whale shooting, not whale catching and whale watching.” - Jason Colby
We wanted to do another episode on the orca with many names - Toki, Tokitae, Lolita and Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut - the southern resident orca matriarch who recently died at the Miami Seaquarium after 53 years in captivity that was, supposedly, about to end with her return home to the Salish Sea.
My fight for the southern resident orcas started when I did a deep dive into the history of the first orca displayed in captivity - a member of Toki’s community - Moby Doll.
Historian, Jason Colby, chronicled the Salish Sea’s capture era in his essential book Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean's Greatest Predator - so I reached out to him to share the story of Toki’s capture during the infamous orca round-up at Penn Cove.
The University of Victoria professor shares the story of Penn Cove and the event that almost ended the southern resident orcas and was the beginning of the end of the capture era in the Salish Sea.
I don’t think we’ve given a warning on one of our episodes since our first one where David Suzuki was talking about the Prime Minister, dropped an F-Bomb or three and required us to add a language warning so we wouldn’t get pulled from iTunes. But the story of the Penn Cove capture… it’s a lot. We almost lost all of the southern residents So let’s go with… maybe not the best episode to catch right before bed…
I’ve created short links for both episodes to make them easier to share: iTunes: https://tinyurl.com/tokitalk & Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/jcolby2
“It was a generational loss.”
Ted Griffin’s notes on the Penn Cove capture - courtesy of Jason Colby
“If Griffin had done what the fisherman who was helping him demanded – which is to sell all of them all – you could have seen the entire population of Southern residents extinguished before we had even identified them scientifically as a population.”
And my next live events in Vancouver - this Saturday:
CHANGING THE WORLD WITH (CHILDREN’S) NON-FICTION
Saturday, September 16, 2023
10:00 AM 11:00 AM
UBC Robson Square
800 Robson StreetVancouver, BC, V5S 0G4Canada (map)
https://www.wordvancouver.ca/ubc-robson-events/changing-the-world-with-childrens-non-fiction
And I’ll be launching Big Sharks: Small World on Vancouver transit at…
POETRY BUS! CELEBRATING THE 27TH YEAR OF POETRY IN TRANSIT
Now celebrating its 27th year, this beloved community-engagement project displays the work of ten BC poets on public transit vehicles throughout the province. Join us to hear a selection of the featured 2023–24 poets read from their work, followed by a short discussion and Q&A. Engage with the poets over your love of the written verse!
12:45 PM 2:15 PM
UBC Robson Square: In the poetry tent!
The Original Moon Knight TV Series - That Never Saw Daylight
In my latest personal Substack I share the story of my adventures writing a TV version of Marvel’s Moon Knight that made it onto the small screen,
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And Jason Colby is featured in my documentary about the southern resident orcas - dedicated to Ocean Sun. Winner of the Writers Guild of Canada Award for Best Documentary.
In other ocean news…
If you’re not in Canada, you may not realize that you may no longer be seeing Canadian news online… Google and Facebook are at war with the Canadian government and our news sites aren’t being shared and/or are actively being blocked, so we are sharing links to Canadian stories/sites.
I hope you’ll also share our stories and episodes because our stories are also being disappeared from search engines and social media.
Toki
The Lummi Nation sees ‘parallels’ with the orca Tokitae’s story
‘She came home not physically but spiritually’: Orca Tokitae’s death sends powerful message
The Salish Sea
More than 130 orcas spotted Thursday in the Salish Sea, but population concerns remain
CHEK TV on an illegal tuna catch: 32,000 pounds of tuna seized from Vancouver Island fishing boat
Awesome orcas
It’s a girl! Baby orca snapped by Victoria whale watching company
Video shows orcas putting on a show in Port Alberni
Orca pod in Newfoundland Whale of a time! One of the largest orca pods ever seen in N.L. recently spotted