In the beginning, we thought of them as monsters, see monsters out of some saltwater nightmare.

We called them or orca's or killer whales, emissaries from the kingdom of the dead.

The first live orca ever captured and shown to the public was actually caught by accident.

This was 1964, and an expedition left Vancouver with a simple, sadistic

errand, Killinorka, and bring back its carcass so an artist might sculpt a life-size replica for the

local aquarium. The media were captivated by the story of these brave hunters who left town

and were expected to return within a week. But that's not how it happened, in fact.

Nearly two months passed before they finally managed to harpoon a killer whale who inconvenienced them all by failing to die.

So they dragged it, wounded, but still alive, for about 20 hours back to Vancouver.

The animal was put on display in a shipyard where it received thousands of visitors.

So many, the aquarium curator, began to suspect it might be worth more alive than dead.

An aquarium in California offered $20,000 for the animal, but they refused to sell.

55 days after its capture, the orca ate for the first time in captivity.

This was a big enough deal that it made it into the local paper.

And then, a month later, after nearly 90 days in captivity, it was dead.

The whale's death was likely related to exhaustion.

The water where it was kept was less salty and therefore less buoyant than the ocean it was accustomed to.

What now seemed self-evidently cruel or barbaric back then simply was, and no one seems

to have thought much of it.

Jeff Foster was just a kid when this happened, growing up not so far away across the border in Seattle.

And this first orca capture would come to shape his life in profound ways, though he might not come right out and admit it.

And I don't really like talking about myself very much. So it's always a little bit awkward.

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