When I was 9, my family took a trip to SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. Ten years later, the one memory that has stuck with me is that of the Shamu Show. I had never seen such a large animal so close before. The only thing separating the whale and me was a piece of glass. My little mind was fascinated by SeaWorld’s ability to contain a whale within a tank and to train that same whale to put on multiple shows for visitors each and every day. Little did I know, the same glass that I found to be so interesting, was trapping these beautiful animals in a cruel and tiny environment.
In 1961, Wanda, the first wild orca was captured. After just two days of being in a tank, the whale swam at full speed into the tank wall and died due to her injuries. The successful capture of this first killer whale paved the way for many more whales to suffer a similar fate. In 1964, the first SeaWorld park opened. In the '60s, the first orca was brought to SeaWorld and the famous show starring Shamu was born.
Like humans, orcas are extremely social animals. They travel in groups that are typically large families. Sometimes, children remain with their mother’s for the duration of their lives. Orcas are also intelligent hunters and communicators. They have forms of communication or language that are usually specific to their group.
In captivity, whales are held in tanks with many other orcas. Because the whales that are grouped together are socially incompatible, these orcas often do not get along. In the wild, there is an entire ocean for these whales to escape to when tension arises within the group. But, in the tanks, there is no room to flee, leaving the whales in dangerous situations that often lead to injury.
SeaWorld has also been known to separate calves from their mothers at a young age. Many times, mothers and their children have physiological damage due to their separation. When Takara, a young calf, was taken away from it’s mother, Kasatka, sources revealed that Kasatka made vocalizations that no one had heard from the whales prior. The orca’s mother tried desperately to communicate with her calf that had already been taken away.
Kasatka is not alone. Orca Network has been keeping track of SeaWorld’s whales for decades, according to the group, at least eight orca calves have been separated from their mothers when they were still 4 years old or younger. It doesn't end there. In the wild, six calves have been torn from their families at the age of 3 or younger and put into captivity.
Contrary to popular belief, the “killer” whale has never actually been known to harm a human in the wild. But, when trapped within the confines of a tank, there have been more than 100 incident reports regarding orcas. The most famous incident involved Tilikum the whale drowning his trainer, Dawn Brancheau. Dawn was not the first death Tilikum has been directly associated with. In fact, Tilikum has been linked with the deaths of three people: in 1991, 1999 and Dawn's in 2010. Tilikum is the largest whale in captivity, weighing in at over 12,000 pounds and 22 feet long. When he was first captured and taken from his family off the coast of Iceland in 1983, he was only 13 feet long and just 2 years old. Since Dawn's death in 2010, trainers are no longer allowed in the water with the orcas at SeaWorld parks.
The saddest fact of all, is that orcas in captivity have a significantly shorter lifespan than orcas in the wild. According to PETA, the average age of death for whales in captivity is 12 years old for females and 16 years old for males. In the wild females have a life expectancy of 50 years with a maximum of 80 to 100 years, whereas males have a life expectancy of 30 years with a maximum of 60 to 70 years. This means that the life expectancy of orcas in captivity is DRASTICALLY lower than that of orcas in the wild.
Recently, these images went viral online:
These four stories are just a fraction of the tragic deaths that these whales have suffered in the last five decades. Nearly 50 orcas have died in SeaWorld parks throughout the years. These issues only scrape the surface of all that is wrong with the whales' lack of freedom. This unnatural environment is unhealthy for the whales and contributes to their early deaths.
It's time to let these massive creatures out of their tiny pools and allow them to freely roam their natural environment — the ocean. Although entertaining, orcas are not meant to be trapped within the confines of a tank that is less than 0.0001 percent of what they are capable of swimming in each day in the wild.
