My 5 year old cousins favorite animal is an Orca, whenever I am with him we swim and play with his Orca float. Theses days, Orca’s have become one of the biggest reasons why SeaWorld is constantly in the hot seat. At least once a year an article/protest/law suit comes out against SeaWorld- more often than not relating back to its Orca captivity.

How many miles can an Orca (Killer Whale) swim in a day? The answer is 100 miles, in a SeaWorld tank that would be the equivalent of 1,208 laps. To put that into perspective its approximately the distance from New York City to Wilmington, Delaware. The tanks that SeaWorld has do not provide enough room for the exercise that these creatures need.  This is part of the reason why the life span of Orca’s in captivity is significantly lower.

Deborah A. Duffield, Daniel K. Odell, James F. McBain and Brad Andrews wrote, “The live wild-caught whales ranged in estimated age from 12–27 years. The captive-born whales ranged in age from <1 to 8 years.” The oldest known wild Orca is Granny who is 103 years old, she was spotted 800 miles off the coast of Canada this spring. SeaWorld likes to dispute the fact that the tracking of wild Orcas started 40 years ago means no one actually knows Granny’s age. But  Melissa Cronin wrote that based off of Granny’s offspring, she was born around 1911. There is a significant difference in lifespans based on where the Orca is living.

Orca’s in SeaWorld have also been seen with collapsed dorsal fins. The  National Marine Fisheries Service Northwest Regional Office wrote:

“The collapsed dorsal fins commonly seen in captive killer whales do not result from a pathogenic condition, but are instead thought to most likely originate from an irreversible structural change in the fin’s collagen over time. Possible explanations from this include: (1) alterations in water balance caused by the stresses of captivity dietary changes, (2) lowered blood pressure due  to reduced activity patterns, or (3) overheating of the collagen brought on by greater exposure of the fin to the ambient air”

Orca’s are supposed to live in the wild and feed themselves, that’s why releasing them into the wild is only semi-successful. Once in captive, they are used to being fed, not having to fend for themselves. They also don’t have physical deformations like the collapsed dorsal fins. It is not popular for wild Orca’s to suffer from collapsed dorsal fins, studies have proven that its uncommon. However SeaWorld has twisted these studies and made it look normal for this to happen.

Clearly, an Orca living within a tank with the sole purpose of amusing audiences is unethical- especially when it is causing health problems to the animal. Orca’s belong in the wild, if they remained there, we would not have had any orca related deaths. As much as SeaWorld tries to dispute the facts, the facts remain the same- and holding Orca’s in captivity is really hurting them.