Double Bay Sanctuary

 

 

 

 

Our Vision

 

Double Bay Sanctuary is Corky’s ideal retirement home: For a better quality of life in her home waters, with continued 24/7 care by her SeaWorld team.  Bring Corky Home!!!

 

Bring Corky Home!


A comprehensive proposal for Corky’s retirement to the Sanctuary will be presented to SeaWorld soon.  Please join our supporter email list at bottom of the page to receive updates and action items.  And Please keep checking this website for updates and how you can support Corky.

Corky Documentary

 

 

 

 

Trailer

Corky Song

Help us Finish the Sanctuary!

 

Sanctuary News: Dec 11, 2023

Today we commemorate the 54th anniversary of Corky’s capture at Pender Harbour, British Columbia on December 11, 1969.  Four year old Corky, A16, was among 12 orcas of A5 Pod captured including her mother A23 Stripe, who was later released with five others.  Corky was sold to Marineland of the Pacific in Los Angeles, joining her cousin Orky, who had been captured the year before.  They had 7 offspring, the longest living for only 46 days.  In 1987 Corky and Orky were moved to SeaWorld San Diego, where Orky died the next year.  Corky is an amazing survivor, looks strong and continues to perform shows at SeaWorld.  She is the longest surviving captive whale in the world.  We are pushing on ever harder to prepare Double Bay Sanctuary to be Corky’s retirement home and house a SeaWorld team to give Corky the continuity of quality care she now receives.  The Sanctuary features a 15 acre doubled netted enclosure, big enough for Corky and a companion orca, and includes feeding and medical stations.  Unlike other winters when we shut down, we have a construction crew working on site throughout the winter.  We continue to request a meeting with SeaWorld management to present our full proposal for Corky’s retirement and repatriation to her home waters. 

Sanctuary News: Sept 19, 2023

The sudden passing of Tokitae, “Toki” (Lolita) at the Miami Seaquarium on August 18, 2023 was shocking and devastating. A ceremony will be held soon in Bellingham, Washington by the Lummi Tribe, who played a major role in efforts to repatriate Toki. A goal at Double Bay Sanctuary is to keep the legacy of Toki alive by inspiring and encouraging marine parks to join with a growing movement building sanctuaries and retiring their performing orcas and other cetaceans to these sanctuaries for an improved quality of life in natural ocean settings with continued feeding, wellness, and medical care.

Despite grieving the loss of Toki, Double Bay Sanctuary is resolved more than ever to complete the rebuild of the former fishing lodge to house a care team for Corky in a 15 acre netted enclosure in Double Bay. Last year we reached out to SeaWorld several times requesting a meeting to present a comprehensive proposal for the retirement of Corky to the Sanctuary and offered an all expense paid trip for a SeaWorld team to visit the Sanctuary.  At one point they did request more communications and we immediately sent more detailed information, but never received a response.

In recognition of the United Nations Declarations of Rights of Indigenous People and the principle of free, prior, and informed Indigenous consent, we have started engagement with the ‘Namgis First Nation on our approach to the return of Corky and look forward to the development of a lasting and meaningful relationship with them.

In addition, we are working on more ways for the public to help us in our efforts to retire Corky to the Sanctuary, and scaling the larger sanctuary movement. We will post action items here soon.

About Our Sanctuary

Double Bay Sanctuary is the ideal retirement home for Corky.  It is situated in a protected bay with room for an 18 acre netted enclosure with depths up to 80’, good flushing tidal flow for clean water, and is pristine and isolated, yet near to towns for easy access by water.  In addition, the former fishing lodge on the bay purchased by Michael Reppy in 2018 is being rebuilt to house a SeaWorld team to continue the feeding and medical care Corky needs.  Double Bay opens to Blackfish Sound, which is a major highway for the northern resident orcas, including Corky’s A5 family.  They would surely be in acoustic communication with Corky in the Sanctuary, and come in to reconnect with Corky at the netted enclosure.  What an amazing moment that will be!

This will be a model ecological facility which is now fully solar powered, and with a new grey water/composting toilet system under construction allowing the removal of the present septic system discharging into the bay.  We support clean healthy oceans, restored watersheds, phasing out of all open net salmon farms, and the return of wild salmon.  Two non-profit foundations have been established to administer the facility and for fundraising: the Double Bay Sanctuary Foundation in British Columbia, and Friends of Double Bay Sanctuary in the US. 

There are many steps to take to realize this dream.  Double Bay lies on traditional First Nation Territory requiring prior informed consent, and consultations are underway with the ‘Namgis First Nation Council.  Requests have been made to begin the process of permitting with Canadian Federal and Provincial agencies.  The most crucial step is SeaWorld agreeing to collaborate with us to retire Corky to the Sanctuary.  A request will be made this year to SeaWorld to begin the process.  Please join us in making this dream come true to “Bring Corky Home!”

Watch American Cetacean Society Webinar with Michael Reppy