When I was a little girl, I visited the SeaWorld in Aurora, Ohio. However, this certain SeaWorld park, the second one to be formed, is no longer opened. Due to its location – northeastern America – which we all know has a much different climate than say Orlando, Florida, where the main SeaWorld is located, the park in Ohio was not able to stay open for too long. This trip to the Ohio SeaWorld is the only trip I will ever make to SeaWorld.
Pictured below is a picture in one of the scrapbooks my mother as I grew up (I am really loving our outfits).
So, what’s so bad about SeaWorld? You would think that the people who work at such a place would want to ensure good health and long lives for their animals, yet that is sadly not the case. The main and most infamous problem at SeaWorld is the orca whales, commonly referred to as killer whales.
In the park, the orca whales are a popular site attraction for those who visit. The whales perform multiple tricks, which typically provides fun entertainment for the audience. Shown below is the most infamous trick that the trainers and killer whales perform together, which is called nose surfing. Here’s a link to a quick video of this trick, if you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHGbhYJdB3E
Sadly, the tricks that the killer whales are forced to complete are only fun for the audience. In SeaWorld, the average lifespan for a captive killer whale is thirteen years. Now, the average lifespan of a wild killer whale? Thirty to fifty years old, some even living up to eighty years old. Less than half of the average wild lifespan seems good…. Right? Why are the whales dying so abnormally young? Perhaps because SeaWorld restricts orcas, who could swim nearly 100 miles a day in the wild, to tanks that are the size of bath tubs to them (imagine living in a bath tub for the rest of your life… doesn’t sound too fun to me). In order for the whales to swim as much as they would in the wild, in their tanks they would have to swim about 1,208 laps a day around the perimeter of the tank. Another negative due to their small and confined tanks: the collapsed dorsal fin. SeaWorld has made claims that these floppy fins are due “genetics or injuries” (Killer Whales Animal InfoBook). However, according to Dave Ellifrit and Dr. Astrid Van Ginneken, from the Center for Whale Research, dorsal fin collapse affects less than 1% of wild killer whales, and can be caused by gravity, dehydration, or illness/injury. (shown below on the left is an orca’s collapsed dorsal fin, which should look like the picture on the right)
Another reason for early deaths – fighting. Killer whales are not supposed to be forced to live in tight quarters together. In the wild, they have the whole ocean to roam free. In fact, in the wild, orcas live with their children and pods (there can be about 100 orcas in one pod), and hardly ever fight their friends. So why do captive whales fight? The tiny tanks cause unease and tension in the whales, which ultimately results in fatal fights. When the whales are not fighting with each other, they are attempting to escape their captivity, which almost always ends with injuries. One method of attempted escape is breaking their teeth (which are typically some of the strongest bones in their body) to escape. The anxiety that the whales feel cause them to gnaw on iron bars and even the concrete tanks themselves…which can be compared to your dentist drilling into your teeth without anesthesia. Sounds fun.
Wild killer whales, despite centuries of sharing their ocean with humans, have only harmed a human once in the wild. However, captive killer whales tell a different story, due to the stress of captivity and their poor diet in their tiny tanks (pig and cow bones… definitely not the same sea birds, squid, octopuses, sea turtles, sharks, rays and seals), orcas have attacked and killed three trainers. All three humans were killed by Tilikum, the largest bull killer whale ever held captive. Tilikum killed Keltie Byrne in 1991, Daniel Dukes in 1999, and Dawn Brancheau in 2010. All three were trainers who fell, or were pulled in by Tilikum himself, died in the massive orca’s tank.
Do you think it is right that orca whales are taken from the wild and forced into a miserable life of captivity? Knowing this, do you want to visit SeaWorld anymore? I know I don’t.
