Sea World

[Marrissa]

I haven't seen anyone bring up Sea World's recent new buddy, HSUS, and their new plans for the whales.

I do not plan to ever attend their park again after this. For so many years SeaWorld spoke out against these groups and talked about what their true agenda was. I DO think the whales need an upgrade to their enclosures size definitely. The new "Blue World" would of been an awesome step forward and I would of gone to the park for that reason. SeaWorld is what got me interested in orcas. It's one thing to see footage of them in the wild. It's a whole other level to see them up close and personal. It really helps to get people inspired about the species and take action to better their oceans and care about their well being. Watching the new SeaWorld commercials does nothing but make me sad. No more breeding. These are the last orcas in captivity. Many wild orca populations are in trouble with the amount of pollution. In certain areas calves are barely reaching adulthood because they are so full of chemicals they die off. Just like zoos, the point of SeaWorld is to have captive breeding populations of these animals to safeguard the species. Now that will be no more.

And if anyone wants to quote Blackfish, first look into all the flaws, editing, and inconsistencies in stories. No SeaWorld isn't perfect. The enclosures need some improvement in space, design, and enrichment but they were on the road to that from public pressure before HSUS.

And the orcas are not going to be the last thing HSUS does to change SeaWorld. Next it'll be the pilot whales or dolphins I'm sure. I wouldn't doubt eventually the park will be a theme park with little to no animals.

[Megg]

Yes, I had seen that SeaWorld and HSUS are now "partners". I have no stance on the orca debate, but it's a real shame.

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[Caspian]

I'm not a fan of captive Orcas, personally, but that's primarily due to having read the book by one of the guys who was instrumental in capturing the first live orcas for public display - and what was done to capture those whales. A vast number died before they got a live one, and more died before they figured out how to transport them safely. Pods were slaughtered to try and get one live whale. However, the results of that atrocity was a drastic shift in public perception. Before that, there was a huge amount of bias against orcas - and people took the term 'Killer Whale' literally. Seeing them in captivity changed public perception on a massive scale, from considering them unimportant and harmful vermin to magnificent, intelligent creatures. I am not at all sure that a captive breed and release program would ever work with creatures such as Orcas.

[PhoenixGate]

I've seen a lot of information about Orcas away from Blackfish, though that film is the trigger that inspired me to research more.

The captive breeding programs aren't there for conservation, they're in place to keep the industry and entertainment going. Yes, seeing one up close is very inspiring. The problem is that we can't viably keep them living happy and full lives in captivity. It's basically like shoving a human into a twenty by twenty room for their entire life. You'll have one bored, frustrated, upset person.

[Jeanne]

I agree w Caspian..the current captive breeding certainly does nothing for the population/conservation of killer whales. I might feel differently if they were releasing them into the wild.

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[Marrissa]

Orcas are pod animals. You couldn't just turn one loose a year. They've never tried keeping the whales with their natural instincts as much as possible and they've never tried to release a pod into the wild. I know the current state is a money maker. What I'm saying is they were heading down the right track. Public pressure and loss of profits are huge motivators. What I think they should do is large sea pens where the animals can be moved into something like Blue World for a few hours or so for that up close experience. I think large sea pens are the going to be one of the few ways enough room can be provided for them. I think there's a lot of untried avenues here and I think they've been doing it the wrong way for a while now, but I think they could get this figured out. Focus less on shows and more on public awareness of their efforts to clean up the oceans and rescues and such. Make it more of a this is how we are preserving our planet and these are the animals we are using to help keep the species. But now it's too late for that.

[JodanOrNoDan]

I am not a bleeding heart by any means. I hunt and I despise the way a lot of the "animal rights" organizations operate. That said, I have a few animals that are on my exception list and orcas are one of them. If you ever see them hunt you will come to realize that they are very bright and very self aware. On top of that they are large animals. I would go insane if I was kept the way these animals are. We just need to leave them alone. They do not belong in captivity for extended periods.

[wolfy-hound]

Sorry but this is a real issue to me that people still don't get it.

Seaworld does right by their whales. Period. The enclosures aren't the open ocean but they are extremely large and extensive AND designed specifically to have echoloction bounce so that they 'feel'(hear??) even larger than they already are.

Captive breeding does nothing for conservation? BS. Almost EVERYTHING we know about orcas, health, breeding, aging, health issues, parasites, etc is directly from captive orca programs. All those rescues done(primarily by Seaworld too) are by-and-large successful because of the captive programs.

The whales that were captured were from coastal ppopulations, that primarily live in the more shallow and restricted waters (and thus easier to catch too), not the open ocean pods in the first place. The current animals were raised in captivity. The training programs are geared to help stimulate the whales and keep them engaged and not bored. The dolphins at Marineland are now rather pathetic, since they stopped all the 'shows' and only have them doing whatever it is they feel like doing. I don't mean "They're boring now", but all they do is drift about all day, where before, they engaged with visitors, looking at everything going on, inventing games with each other, etc.

All the research, all the rescues, all the information and all the people who decide they love orcas and want to support conservation from visits to Seaworld will end. You know why people give a poo about orcas? Because Seaworld, that's why. "Go see them in the wild!" is not a viable option for 99% of people AND it does not inspire kids to see a few fins trailing through the water if the whale watching boats have a poor day of viewing. Not to mention how much the whale watching industry harms things themselves. In 20 years, people will care about wild orcas about as much as people care about wild populations of newts.

The ideal in some people's world is that every animal is roaming free in the perfect environment. That would mean no pets, no animal industry of any kind, no zoos and no one caring about the animals that have needs out in nature either. It's all well and good to think that people would donate money to have research on wild populations of animals... but they don't donate now and they won't donate without anything in front of them to engage them either.

And all the people who jumped on the bandwagon after Blackfish shouldn't say one single word about Seaworld "cowtowing" to HSUS now. You guys threw them under the bus, leaving them zero ability to salvage anything. Their only choices were to give in to stop the hemmoraging of money caused by HSUS and their cronies and all the hangers-on saying they should be shut down. You want people to support us when HSUS attacks keeping reptiles. You think that it's wrong for HSUS to put out false information about keeping reptiles. But then you supported it when the victim was Seaworld. Seaworld isn't "working with" HSUS. They're trying to keep themselves afloat by making enough concessions that they won't shut down entirely.

[PhoenixGate]

SeaWorld employees have never seen a wild orca in captivity and are given a very select amount of information. The problem is this, in the wild the males can live upwards of 70 years, the females can live to be over 100. In captivity the average lifespan is 13 years.

Let me say that again. The average lifespan of an orca in captivity is only 13 years old! That's insane. Maybe large sea pens would work. Maybe they wouldn't. But if the average lifespan of an animal in captivity is less than a fourth of what it is in the wild, there's something very, very wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV2V-4pHuak