(Photos courtesy of Washington State Archives)

The State Archives has hundreds of classic photos of all things Washington, including historic events and incidents. One such incident is the topic of our second Archives Treasure for February.

In March 1976, several orcas in Budd Bay were herded and captured by Sea World in an incident that outraged many, including Gov. Dan Evans and one of his assistants, Ralph Munro, who later became Washington’s Secretary of State. The killer whale capture was captured in several photos taken by the state Game Department’s public relations office. Those photos are now part of the Archives.

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The PBS show Frontline has this historical chronology of whale or dolphin captures, which includes the 1976 orca capture in Budd Bay:

“Washington state waters are closed to killer whale captures, in the aftermath of the notorious Budd Inlet killer whale capture of the same year. The whale roundup and capture was witnessed by Ralph Munro, an assistant to Washington State Governor Dan Evans. Munro happened to be sailing in Puget Sound at the time. He reports that Sea World’s captors were using aircraft and explosives to herd and net the whales a clear violation of the terms of their collection permit. When Washington State Governor Dan Evans learned of this, he sued Sea World. All of the whales were eventually released, and a Seattle district court ordered Sea World to give up its permit-granted right to collect killer whales off Washington. Washington state waters became an unofficial sanctuary for killer whales, and so far, no organization has ever again applied to capture killer whales from these waters.”

The third Archives Treasure is coming soon.