Killer Whale Captured in Newport Harbor!
By: William Lobdell
It all began quietly on a chilly November evening, a week before Thanksgiving in 1961. Under the cover of darkness, a wayward killer whale slipped into Newport Harbor and made its way up the main channel until it reached the deadend that was the Lido Channel Turning Basin on the edge of the bay.
Just after daybreak, early-morning boaters and passersby walking along the harbor noticed a nearly unbelievable sight: a 17-and-a-half-foot, 5,000-pound orca swimming lazily in circles. To appreciate the uniqueness of what was happening, you need to understand that back in the early 1960s, so little was known about killer whales –which were universally portrayed as vicious man-eaters – that the Orange County Harbor Patrol initially misidentified Newport’s female orca as a California gray whale.
Soon, authorities sorted out the whale’s species and began to warn boaters to stay away from the dangerous monster of the deep that had got itself trapped in Newport Harbor. But those watching the orca experienced something far more benign: a whale with a friendly personality, playing peek-a-boo with the vessels (which included a rowboat filled with wide-eyed pre-teen boys, their parents nowhere in sight).
At this point, authorities faced a dilemma no one had ever encountered: How do you get a stuck killer whale out of a harbor? After a few hours of head scratching, they decided to call the experts at Marineland (a predecessor to SeaWorld on the Palos Verdes Peninsula). The excited aquatic specialists – who had learned to capture wild dolphins – jumped into a truck, sped down the coast, and joined the thousands of spectators on the edges of the harbor who gathered to watch the whale – dubbed Wanda by the media.
The press called the men from Marineland “whale hunters,” which was an accurate description since they had no intention of leading Wanda back out to sea. They wanted to make history by being the first to take a killer whale into captivity. The determined whale hunters acted like those shadowy government officials in the movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” who relentlessly tracked down the lovable alien, hoping to be the first to capture and study a visitor from outer space. After observing Wanda until sunset, the Marinelanders came up with a plan.
The next morning in the pre-dawn hours, the whale hunters climbed aboard their collection boat, Geronimo, docked in San Pedro and motored 50 or so miles down the coast. They entered Newport Harbor just before sunrise and found Wanda still doing circles in the turning basin. By this time, word about the killer had spread throughout Southern California. Traffic jammed Pacific Coast Highway and Newport Boulevard, backing up the two main roads into Newport for miles. By the end of the day, the crowd would swell to more than 5,000.
The whale hunters initially tried to lasso Wanda, a capture technique they had used for dolphins. But with a 5,000-pound killer whale, the lasso might as well have been a rubberband on the end of a twig. They quickly went to Plan B: trying to throw a massive net over Wanda. But the turning basin was large–more than four football fields wide and 30 yards deep in some places–and Wanda, at least at the start, easily avoided the trap.
As this cat-and-whale game continued, Wanda’s efforts earned the admiration of the spectators, who started rooting for the whale. Each time the Marinelanders tossed out their net and Wanda avoided it, the crowd would yell in unison, "Olé! Olé!”
Wanda did get tangled in the net from time to time, but she was so powerful that she easily broke through. And this pleased the crowd even more. The spectators witnessed even more drama when a whale hunter fell overboard, right in Wanda’s path. The crowd waited for the man to be devoured, but the killer whale swam right past him.
Finally at dusk, 12 hours into the hunt, an exhausted Wanda got too tangled in the net, and no longer had the energy to break free. The Marineland team had their orca, and they thought they had stuck it rich. The Marineland’s giddy general manager told the press that the whale's “mistake” of swimming into the harbor was “one of the greatest things that had ever happened to us. And that there was no way to put monetary value on her, now we have everything.” He went on to say that “Wanda is more important to us than all of the Marineland fish together.”
But now the whale hunters faced their next problem: Getting a 5,000-pound killer whale up the coast 50 miles to Marineland. Here's what they did. They took a deflated raft, put it underneath the netted Wanda, and blew up that inflatable. They then tied the raft to a tugboat and slowly motored to a nearby boatyard. Next, they lifted Wanda out of the water with a boat crane and onto a flatbed truck that had a tarp with a few feet of water in it. Wanda’s docility amazed captors who expected a thrashing wild animal ready to kill..
At Marineland, the whale hunters lowered Wanda into a claustrophobically small tank. Killer whales can travel up to 100 miles in a day, and now Wanda’s permanent home measured ust 100 feet at its widest, 50 feet at its narrowest and 19 feet deep. She was basically in–what was for her–a splash pool.
Meanwhile, Marineland cranked up its PR machine, telling the eager press corp that Wanda was “relishing the tons of chopped mackerel and squid being fed to her by the delighted keepers at Marineland.” In reality, Wanda refused to eat and had difficulty navigating the tank, bashing her head forcefully and repeatedly into the wall. After two days in captivity, Wanda died. According to Marineland logs, “At 8:30 a.m. on November 20, the whale became violent, and after encircling the tank at great speed and striking her body into the walls on several occasions, she finally convulsed and expired.”
A Marineland autopsy concluded Wanda died of several pre-existing conditions. Others believe she ended her own life. Either way, it was a tragic end for a killer whale whose only sin was taking a wrong turn into Newport Harbor.
William Lobdell is an award-winning journalist and host of the local history podcast, “Newport Beach in the Rearview Mirror,” which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Subscribe to follow along as he shares some of the most fascinating stories about our beloved town. You can also follow him on Instagram @newport_in_the_rearview_mirror.