Edward "Ted" Griffin

Edward "Ted" Griffin, is a former aquarium owner and entrepreneur, and was the first man to ever swim with a killer whale (orca) in a public exhibition. He is best known for capturing, performing with, and selling a number of orcas during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

He established and owned the Seattle Marine Aquarium on Pier 56 on the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, which opened in 1962 and was originally known as the Seattle Public Aquarium (not to be confused with the contemporary Seattle Aquarium). In 1965 Griffin purchased the orca Namu after it was accidentally caught in a fishing net, and then displayed it and performed with it at his aquarium. Namu was only the third orca ever captured and was the first to perform and swim with a person for audiences. Namu survived just over one year in captivity and died in his pen on July 9, 1966. Griffin also captured the original Shamu in 1965 and leased (and eventually sold) her to SeaWorld in San Diego. Altogether, Griffin and his partner Don Goldsberry captured and sold about 30 orcas in and around Puget Sound between 1965 and 1972. They charged buyers $20,000 to $25,000 per captured orca. Their largest capture took place in August 1970, when they netted most of all three pods of the Southern Resident orca population. When activists attempted to cut the nets, four animals drowned, included three calves. Griffin and Goldsberry attempted to conceal the deaths by weighting and sinking the bodies, but months later the carcasses washed up. This operation also resulted in the capture of the orca Lolita, who is currently kept in Miami and has been subject of petitions and legal actions to retire her to more natural life conditions. In May 1972, in response to rising regulation, Griffin retired from orca capture and sold his portion of the Seattle Marine Aquarium to Goldsberry, who soon after sold it to Sea World.

In 1982 Griffin published Namu, Quest for the Killer Whale, a non-fiction account of his time with Namu and the transformation of public views of killer whales.

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