As many people who have visited Sea World know, the killer whale show leaves people speechless.  The bond between whale and trainer helps to produce the masterpiece of a show.   Families visit amusement parks, like Sea World, on their vacation because seeing live orcas can be next to impossible otherwise.  Some do not realize, though, that these shows are only a facade; when the show ends, the whales return to their stationary, lonely lives.  The beautiful orcas jumping out of the water are only going through the motions in order to get the rewarded food they need from an inadequate diet.  When the day concludes, all of the orcas get locked up in pools too small and many of the orcas do not even like each other, prompting persistent fights.  Over time, living in an unnatural space affects them emotionally, causing changes in their behavior that have been known to lead to the murder of their own trainer.  

Having been to Sea World and also gone whale watching, I saw a major difference in the orcas' behavior, physical condition, and environment.  Orcas travel in pods with up to twenty-five family members and during my whale watching experience, I got the chance to see the adults teach their babies how to breach the water.  They absolutely love the freedom of the ocean.  As for their personal physique, almost all male orcas' dorsal fin curves when held in captivity.  Scientists still do not understand the cause of the physical condition, but statistics prove that captivity is the source because less than one percent of the male orcas' dorsal fin droops in the wild.  

Being a Marine Science major enlightens students, including me, about problems occurring within the ocean, whether physical, chemical, environment, or biological.  A documentary on Netflix, "Blackfish", is well-known throughout the Marine Science community.  The documentary itself comprises of about ninety minutes of eye-opening information from credible scientists.  It contains interviews with multiple trainers who previously worked at Sea World so that the audience could realize the severity of the problems occurring from reliable sources.  Personally, watching the documentary brings me to tears due to the conditions these creatures live in every single day or how they even got there in the first place.  Sea World, like other parks, captures baby orcas because they will live longer in captivity.  People had to physically separate them from their mothers and take them away on boats, traumatizing both them and their mothers.  The damaging separation is only the beginning of a long, treacherous journey for the killer whale calves.

Another source found includes information about orcas being born in captivity and the condition of the orcas behind the closed doors of the park.  Both authors have credibility because they are both scientists with multiple journals published.  Reading their writings shows how much research they've done and proves their intelligence.  Unfortunately the article about being born in captivity could only be read to its full extent if you purchased it, so a summary of the total journal is not possible.  A fix for the future would be to find an article with the same topic that could be read to its entirety.  The remaining article describes multiple problems within Sea World that people do not think about or even know about.  It proved to be enlightening and will help prove the point of this paper.

  The main question for this paper cannot be answered with simply a "yes" or "no"; it requires a more in-depth response.  By not ending my title with a specific time, I can complete the paper by adding that the behavior changes, turns more aggressive, and results in multiple deaths that could have been prevented.  Later on, when revising, I could probably add more sources and maybe even change the last source due to its lack of information.  Adding a source with a different perspective, one that supports Sea World, could add depth to this paper because it gives me a chance to respond with other sources to back up the claim of this paper.  Even though including an opposing viewpoint might irritate the audience, it can be used to help if incorporated effectively.

The problems occurring in Sea World need to be brought into the light.  Not enough people have heard of the deaths of trainers due to Sea World covering them up.  Many people do not realize that keeping the killer whales in captivity is the source of the problem because the whales are normally friendly creatures.  This paper has the ability to inform its audience of the problems so that changes are possible in the future.  Stop paying for the constant torture of these poor animals by visiting Sea World for enjoyment.

