Seaworld - Orcas in Captivity

Emma Chynoweth        

ENG 103

12/2/15

Orcas in Captivity

        People come from all over to see the animals at SeaWorld and think absolutely nothing of it except that they get to see the animals swim around and put on a show. What many of these people don’t know is how horrible it is to keep these animals in such small areas of captivity. SeaWorld has three different locations in the United States, they’re located in San Diego, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Orlando, Florida. All of these locations are home to animals who have been confined to small bodies of water for many years, some of them, their entire lives. Not only is keeping animals in such a small area of captivity dangerous for them, but for the people who work around them as well. Animals that belong in the wild should not be kept in captivity just for the pleasure of human enjoyment.

        After the documentary “Blackfish” was released, SeaWorld parks began to receive tons of negative publicity, and it’s been ongoing ever since. Over the years, more and more news and information is revealed about SeaWorld, and the true harm it causes to the animals and the people who work there. Not only have animals killed each other, but they have killed the people who work there as well. Despite these horrible tragedies, the parks continue to stay open. The parks have changed certain conditions and policies to try to improve their parks. After the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau, trainers were no longer allowed in the water with the Tilikum, the largest orca in captivity, they can only interact with him in knee-deep water, but they’re still allowed to be in the water with the other whales. In an effort to improve its conditions, SeaWorld installed a lift floor in the bottom of one of its pools, so that with the push of a button the whole floor can be lifted in out the water, but this just made the size of the tank where the orcas are held even smaller. The company argues that the contact between humans and whales is educational and necessary for the caring of the animals. They said in an argument “On rare occasions, killer whales can be dangerous, Sea World has taken extraordinary measures to control that risk.” They argue that the danger of interacting with the animals is just like the dangers of rock climbing or kayaking (“SeaWorld Fights to save Its Whale Shows”).

        Everything about SeaWorld is unnatural, the living conditions, the food they feed the animals, and even the way they breed the animals is horrible for their health. Animals shouldn’t be forced to live in such small confined places, it causes them to behave unnaturally which then causes them to act out and it leads to the deaths of other animals, and the humans that work with them. When orcas are left in the wild, aggression amongst them is almost nonexistent, and to this day there is no record of any orca doing harm to a human in the wild. When the orcas are forced to live in incompatible conditions, they begin to lash out and attack each other. These animals suffer from phycological and physical trauma from being confined for so many years (“Former Trainer Slams SeaWorld for Cruel Treatment of Orcas”). The animals become stressed out and cramped, and as a result they begin to attack one another. Former SeaWorld trainers spoke out about how when they would dive to the bottom of the tanks and they would see long strips of what looked like rubber, and it would be the skin from the whales. The whales have scratch marks all over their bodies, from the other whales raking their teeth up and down the entire lengths of their bodies. Sometimes blood can even be seen in the tanks from them attacking one another.

        Collapsed dorsal fins on a whale means the whale is unhealthy, and every single male orca kept in captivity at SeaWorld has a collapsed dorsal fin. The fin collapses because the whales don’t have enough space to swim around freely and are fed an unnatural diet of thawed dead fish. The whales also cause damage to their teeth by biting on metal and concrete around the pools which results in the loss of their teeth, or the drilling of holes in their teeth without anesthesia (“8 Reasons Orcas Don't Belong at SeaWorld - SeaWorld of Hurt”).

        There are numerous problems with the breeding that takes place at SeaWorld. The animals are bred over and over again, one pregnancy after another, without giving the animals any time in between pregnancies. SeaWorld starts breeding its animals far too young, as early as 8 years old, when they shouldn’t start having babies until around 14 years of age. Although their advised not to because of his violent past, they use Tilikum as a breeder. Animals with a violent history should not be used for breeding because it can be passed down to their offspring. Tilikum has 21 calves, all which have potential to posses his violent ways. Once capturing wild orcas became illegal, SeaWorld had to find a different way to obtain it’s animals so they began to artificially inseminate them. Artificial insemination is extremely unnatural for the animals and often doesn’t result in successful pregnancies. Another problem with the breeding is that some of the animals are inbred, one of the orcas at SeaWorld is the offspring of a mother and her own son. As a result of this unnatural breeding program, many of the pregnancies result in stillbirths or the mothers do survive and the babies are born but they don’t live for more than a few days if that (“5 Reasons Why SeaWorld's Orca Breeding Program Is Seriously Bad News”). On certain occasions, babies are taken away from their mothers. In one incident, a calf was removed from SeaWorld and transported to another facility, and the mother orca went to the corner of her tank, cried, and screamed (Blackfish). Orcas have an emotional part in their brain that even humans do not possess. To train the whales, the trainers deny them food until they perform properly, or if they are performing and they don't perform properly they’re denied food as well. When the animals are denied food they not act out and harm each other. Almost everything that goes on at SeaWorld causes these animals to turn into monsters they wouldn’t normally be.