It seemed just like any other performance at a marine park, people cheered and laughed until the audience had gotten up to leave when the show had finished. A few fans had stayed around to take pictures with the Orcas who had just performed when some had noticed one Orca named Morgan pulling herself up onto a granite slab, click here for the video. People began to film the Orca and of course post saying that the Orca was “trying to kill herself” to only now have people disagreeing. So which is it?
There is no real way to know what the Orca was doing, but there is evidence that back up both assumptions.
The Facts to In Support Of
Orcas are known to never stop moving; even when they sleep they continue to move due to their weight. See Orcas weigh between 8,000 - 3,000 lbs. depending on their sex, so if they actually pull themselves out of the water for too long their organs can actually collapse. This happens because the buoyancy of the water is usually able to hold the weight of the animal in the water.
The size of the pools that the Orcas are kept in compared to a human would be on average 9.5m in length, 5.7m in width, and 2.1m in height to put it in perception. To actually meet the same distance a wild Orca would swim in a day they would need to do 1,400 around the circumference on the pool to match it. This actually result in 100% of the Orcas to have their dorsal fin collapse due to the gravity pushing down and them sitting on the surface due to the amount of space in the pool.
Other Orcas have killed themselves before; Hugo was an Orca who killed himself by ramming his head into his tank wall. This was after reportedly him attempting to do it multiple times, even breaking the glass of his tank at one point.
Morgan the Orca had also been seen ramming herself repeatedly into her gate only weeks earlier with noticeable damage to her teeth from grinding them against these gates to escape or due to anxiety.
The Facts In Opposition Of
Orcas are unlike humans in the case of breathing, they are conscious breathers, which mean every breath is planned by the animal. So if the Orca wanted to kill itself it is argued that they could just plug up the blowhole to die.
SeaWorld came out saying that the Orca wasn’t trying to kill itself, but actually trying to escape other Orcas that were bullying her. In an extended video it shows Morgan outside of the pool for nine minutes before the trainer made her get back in, it wasn’t long though before she was right back up sitting on the slab again. Supposedly the other orcas and her do not get along which has caused her to act this way. Typically in Orca groups known as pods there is a hierarchy, which is usually female led. So if Morgan were found at the bottom of the social food chain she would have to deal with head-butting, jaw snapping, biting, tooth scratching also known as raking, and other gestures. When hearing this it’s not hard to believe that she would try to escape that behavior.
Whether you believe that she was attempting to take her life or not, this event pointed out a big issue. The conditions in which Orcas or animal entertainment needs to change, whether it's making pools larger or allowing open swim with fewer animals in the same tank. People and animals are getting hurt when conditions are expectable it’s up to us to reflect and act before it is too late.
