Contesting sources have different claims with regards to the accurate lifespan of Killer Whales (also known as Orca’s). These different viewpoints are something I have been observing since I saw the documentary Blackfish that mainly contested SeaWorld and its marine life processes. The documentary claimed that there were different opinions as to Orca’s lifespans, and showed employees at SeaWorld making comments about Orca’s living longer in captivity versus in the wild. This bit of information intrigued me, for I thought captivity would lengthen the lives of Killer Whales due to the predatory aspects of the wild. So, I decided to research further into the matter and what I found confirmed the claims of the documentary that shocked me even before I began my research.

When I examined SeaWorld, perhaps the widest chain of marine life parks, I discovered a webpage that highlighted an array of facts on Killer Whales. Under the lifespan category it was stated that female killer whales live around 50 years whereas males only live around 30 years. This information is presented as fact even though the SeaWorld Cares website makes note of Tilikum-a 35 year old whale still performing at SeaWorld. The differing information was puzzling, so coming across the Orca Network webpage only served to add more confusion because it showed research that contradicted claims made by SeaWorld. A several-decade long study on female killer whales, conducted by Emma Foster and her colleagues at the Center for Whale Research, suggested that killer whales could live much longer than the lifespan stated by SeaWorld as well as other researchers in a similar field. The study showed evidence that in natural Orca communities female Orca’s will give birth in their teens while SeaWorld breeds their whales after only a few years. Foster believed that suggested hormone supplements or other medications given to whales to produce offspring years before the normal observed rate. The study found that female killer whales often live 3 to 4 decades after having their last offspring, so this makes sense when thinking of the lifespans of whales of SeaWorld because the last offspring of the females there are born before the females reach 10 years of life. However, in a natural environment in which female whales begin having offspring around14 or 15 years, the life expectancy increases significantly. In fact, some of the post-reproductive female whales observed in Foster’s study (which suggested they were between 30-40 years of age) are still alive to this day. Seeing as the study has been occurring for decades, those females would be around 60 or 70 years old. Furthermore, Foster comments on a 2005 study that states “..it is possible substantial numbers may have been injured or killed opportunistically by fishermen, fisheries personnel, and sportsmen during an era of widespread predator control. Bullet wounds were evident in up to 25% of the animals taken during the live-capture fishery in the 1960s and early 1970s”. SeaWorld was known to capture live whales during that time period, so it makes sense that their whales would live shorter lifespans after having exposed bullet wounds. In her own essay on her research Foster states that if those sorts of events had not occurred females could have lived to their 80’s or 90’s and males could have lived until their 70’s (similar to human lifespans).

            The evidence I found from watching Blackfish and the study conducted by Foster led me to believe that Killer Whales have the potential to live much longer lifespans than I originally expected-especially while living in their natural habitats versus in captivity. The early breeding of whales in captivity makes SeaWorld’s claims somewhat accurate in a sense, but now I can see that it is simply because their methods of reproduction are causing the shorter lifespans of the whales they claim to take care of very well.