After over 30 years of keeping and breeding killer whales in captivity, SeaWorld announced on Friday that it will be ending its orca shows and breeding program.

While controversy has surrounded the keeping of these whales for decades, SeaWorld has been under much more severe scrutiny over the past few years, primarily due to the release of the documentary film "Blackfish." Since the film's release, animal rights and activist groups have applied more and more pressure on SeaWorld to end their whale shows, breeding, and even demanded that the company release the whales they still have.

Over the past several months, SeaWorld has worked toward making changes to the whale habitats and the context of their shows and have now announced that they will be ending the whale shows altogether, along with their breeding program.

With its new changes, an unlikely partnership has formed between long-time critic -- the Humane Society of the United States -- and SeaWorld. According to USA Today, the partnership will emphasize education for the health and conservation of marine life, and the company plans to spend $50 million over the next five years to rescue animals and work to stop shark finning.

Although breeding will end at SeaWorld, their whales will still be around for many years. One whale, named Takara, is currently pregnant. Also, the whales at SeaWorld have a quite a long lifespan, so it will be decades before they are completely phased out of the parks for good.

Along with repairing its damaged reputation, SeaWorld sees other benefits of changing up its entertainment, such as increased park attendance and greater revenue. Through this decision, SeaWorld is looking to adjust to the changing audience views, and expects to appeal to more after these changes.

SeaWorld California currently has 11 whales, San Antonio has five whales and Florida currently holds seven whales.

"SeaWorld has been listening and we're changing," SeaWorld stated on their website. "Society is changing and we’re changing with it. SeaWorld is finding new ways to continue to deliver on our purpose to inspire all our guests to take action to protect wild animals and wild places."

Some may continue to criticize the company and claim that their killer whale program is the only way that people have learned to love and have a desire to conserve this species, but with many years to come before this generation of whales even dies off, it is safe to say that this could be the best decision SeaWorld has made in a long time.