SeaWorld is arguably one of the most popular vacation destinations in the United States. People will travel across the country, and sometimes the world, in order to catch a glimpse of the famous Shamu and all the other exhibits SeaWorld has to offer.
Adults and children alike can be seen having the time of their life while at SeaWorld, leaving the park with a grin that stretches from ear-to-ear. There are roller coasters, a plethora of animal shows, arcade games and exhibits for just about any marine animal that you could think of.
The problem with all of this is that these animals who are bringing so much joy to the crowd at SeaWorld are living miserable and unnatural lives. Contrary to the public relations campaign SeaWorld has just started, these animals are not living a life that is enjoyable, or even safe for that matter.
It is easy to look past the reality of what is going on when you are surrounded by smiles and games. If you take a deeper look into what is happening it becomes quite clear that this is not the life these animals should be living.
One of the main issues SeaWorld fails to bring to light is the fact that these whales in captivity have a lifespan that is not even half of those living in the wild.
Male Orca Whales, or the killer whale, live between 30-50 years when living in the wild, and sometimes have been found to live as long as 70 years. For females the average lifespan is between 50-100 years of age, and there has just recently been a female Orca that was found to be 103 years old off the Canadian coast. This is bad news for SeaWorld.
Since SeaWorld was founded in 1959, there has been only one female Orca who has lived past the age of 40, and only two males have made it past 35. According to the website SeaWorldofHurt.com, an organization that tries to bring the truth about SeaWorld to the public eye, the median age for these whales living in captivity is nine years. There are many contributing factors that have lead to these early deaths, but the main reason is because they are living in unnatural habitats.
Orcas living in the wild have been found to swim up to 100 miles in just one day, and spend 95 percent of their time submerged in the deeper depths of the ocean. At SeaWorld these whales are confined to a tank that is not even 100-yards long, or the size of a professional football field.
The deepest tank SeaWorld has to offer from any of it's three parks across the country is 40 feet. This is not adequate living accommodations by any means, especially since these creatures tend to spend most of their time hundreds of feet below the surface in the wild.
These shallow tanks have made it so it is nearly impossible for the Orca whales to escape the sun's rays, many times leading to the whales getting sun burnt. In 2011 the Orlando SeaWorld had a lawsuit filed against it claiming that the whales were being held in depths as shallow as 8 feet. In the lawsuit SeaWorld was accused of using black zinc oxide to cover up these burns in an attempt to hide this from the public eye. SeaWorld must have realized how hard it is to get the audience involved when the whale they are watching is in excruciating pain.
On January 11, 2012, the USDA issued a formal warning to SeaWorld in San Antonio for not having proper drain covers in the exhibits. Due to the improper covers a sea lion was found dead inside one of the drains after it was trapped and could not escape.
The USDA also found crumbling concrete inside the dolphin exhibit, which could have been ingested by the dolphins and could cause intestinal problems. They finished up their investigation by finding surgical tools that were being used that were over a decade old; a direct violation of the Animal Welfare Act.
Collapsed dorsal fins have also been a sign that these exhibits are not suitable for the whales living in them. Almost every males Orca in captivity at SeaWorld has a collapsed dorsal fin, whereas in the wild only between 1-5 percent of male Orcas experience this. Scientists believe this is due to the whales not being able to get the amount of exercise they need, as well as the unnatural diet they are being fed which consists of mainly thawed dead fish.
The behavior of these whales in captivity tells the story perfectly. There has been only a handful of documented cases of an Orca whale posing a threat to humans when in the wild, and to this day there has been no fatalities. The story is much different for the whales in captivity. There has been over 50 incidents of orca whales attacking humans since SeaWorld brought the creatures into their park, where four of these incidents ended in death.
SeaWorld has tried to gain supporters by making claims of only having animals that were once injured and needed rehabbing. While many of their exhibits consist of animals that are being rehabbed, there are many cases where these animal have been taken from their family and natural habitat when they were perfectly healthy. In 1983 a 2-year-old orca whale, known as Tilikum, was captured near Iceland and taken from its family even though it was perfectly healthy.
Tilikum was transported across the world, being put in a tank with two aggressive orcas in Canada who constantly cornered him, until it made its way to the SeaWorld in Orlando. In just 30 years this whale has been responsible for the deaths of three people, something that never would have occurred if he was left in his natural habitat.
In 2011 Tilikum was found to have stomach ulcers from what was believed to be stress from constantly performing. Instead of releasing the animal back into the wild where it clearly wants to be, SeaWorld continued to make the whale perform multiple times a day, seven days a week. Since acquiring Tilikum 54 percent of the orcas owned by SeaWorld have had the genes from this male.
SeaWorld is not all bad. They rehabilitate animals who would be left for dead if in the wild, they give attention to sea creatures that would not normally be brought to the public eye, and they have done many studies that have helped scientists better understand these marine animals. They have recently started a project called "Blue World" where the whale exhibits are supposed to serve as a more natural habitat with more surface area and deeper tanks. That being said, SeaWorld needs to be held responsible for their actions that do more harm than good.
Instead of taking animals that are perfectly healthy in the wild the organization should focus more on obtaining animals that NEED to be in captivity. Once animals have been rehabilitated and can survive on their own they should be released back to where they belong. It is so easy to overlook the pain and suffering these animals are going through when an entire stadium is chanting "SHAMU" in unison.
I like seeing a whale leap from the water doing flips just as much as the next person, but we have to start taking these animals into consideration. It is inhumane to treat these animals as though they are nothing more than a commodity, and nothing will change until people start to look at the matter in a different light. With pressure from the pubic SeaWorld will have no other option but to start making changes. You CAN make a difference, you just have to be willing to get involved.
