For many decades SeaWorld, has been a place for families and friends to go and learn about all the ocean has to offer, from Killer Whales and dolphins to otters and baby parakeets, The SeaWorld theme park is an over glorified zoo. For over forty years, SeaWorld has allowed humans to be come closer than ever with marine life and land animals. “Killer whales, more properly known as orcas, have been kept in captivity since 1961, helpless victims of a blatantly commercial experiment which has seen dozens of wild orcas plucked from their families and forced to live in artificial social groupings which bear scant resemblance to their natural order of life” (The Fate of Captive Orcas). Well, would it shock you when I say that SeaWorld has been harming and endangering the lives of almost all the marine animals in the park? The answer is yes, the most of the public was shaken by the news that has been going on at SeaWorld for years. When news came out in 2010 about the death of one of the most popular SeaWorld trainers, Dawn Brancheau, due to a freak killer whale accident, the nation was shocked. Her passing brought about many different arguments regarding exactly what SeaWorld was doing with the care of the most famous Killer Whales in the country. The SeaWorld organization was originally designed to take care of and conserve marine life and all life for that matter, their mission statement being: “To apply basic physiological research efforts and state-of-the-art reproductive technologies toward wildlife species management and conservation” (Sea World Parks). Some of the raw evidence that came out after Dawn Brancheau’s death made the public uneasy about what was happening at this oceanic theme park. Three years later in 2013 the documentary “Blackfish” surfaced to the box office and on the Netflix screens all across America, making it virtually impossible for SeaWorld to live down this watery horror story. Evidence such as other SeaWorld trainer deaths, how the animals were really being treated, and former SeaWorld trainer interviews regarding why keeping beautiful Killer whales and any other animal for that matter in captivity is a horrid thing and a disgrace to a company who prides itself on trying to “conserve and protect” marine life were all used in the argument against SeaWorld. Whales in SeaWorld should not be in captivity due to increased death tolls at a young age, lack of performance due to depression, and on top of that hindering their ability to reproduce. “SeaWorld’s history of confining and exploiting orcas is appalling, including premature orca deaths, avoidable orca injuries, and the death of a trainer” (The Heartbreaking Real-Life Capture of Orcas). Uncovering the evidence from Dawn Brancheau’s case and information from the documentary “Blackfish” will help us as a society understand why we need to keep these beautiful whales out of captivity such as places like SeaWorld and why these wonderful Orcas need to roam freely in the ocean for miles and miles.

Killer whales, otherwise known as “Orcinus orca” have swam on the earth thousands of years before man” (Ford). Killer whales live in groups known as pods, it’s like a family and most whales are related to the whales within that pod. “Pods were identified from unique natural markings on individual whales” (Ford). The whales can also speak to each other with different tones of sound that comes from the back of their throat. “Vocal exchanges within pods were dominated by repetitious, discrete call and each pod can produce 7–17 types of discrete calls” (Ford). “When one whale is taken from it ’s family (pod) then it messes up the entire family dynamic” (Hele). With all this evidence being laid out before you, when it comes to killer whales sticking together and staying in their pods, it seems like it is a pretty important part of the way the killer whales live. Come to find out for the past thirty to forty years SeaWorld has been taking infant killer whales from the ocean, from their pods, and from their mothers. According to “Blackfish” “The Truth About SeaWorld and Animal Cruelty” Online Video Clip, a woman named Gabriela Cowperthwaite the producer of “Blackfish”, talks about how John Crowe the diver regretted catching the baby whales to send to SeaWorld. The online video clip from YouTube.com talks about the importance of pods and how killer whales have adapted to living together in these groups. John Crowe speaks about how when he and a group of divers and fishermen that were working for SeaWorld at the time, would cast nets around the pods and pick out the littlest ones. “SeaWorld needed the smaller ones because they cost less for shipping purposes” (Thelip TV). Not only is SeaWorld taking away the baby killer whales from their pod and from their mothers, but the divers were also very violent when taking the whales from the ocean. Taking the whales at such a young age can be very detrimental to the whale’s development and overall well-being. “They had aircraft, speed boats, ropes and even bombs” says Howard Garnett who also speaks in the “Blackfish” documentary. Now considering that SeaWorld is supposed to protect and preserve marine animals, they have not been living up to the standards they have been speaking about to the public. SeaWorld is supposed to be one of the leaders of the world when it comes to animal care, but instead they are focused on obtaining the whales in the cheapest most inhumane way possible. All in all, one of the main reasons large whales like these should be kept out of captivity is because they are taken from their natural habitat and pods in the ocean, and forced to live in pools when these massive animals are used to swimming miles per day. 

One of the many downsides to keeping such large animals in captivity is that the whales become depressed, most of the whales in SeaWorld are kept with maybe one or two whales with them in a tank. So, unlike in the open ocean where the whales can swim freely and have interactions with other animals, the whales at SeaWorld are stuck with the same whales for their entire life. “Being trapped in a giant bathtub can screw with your mind” says Howard Garnett. The whales become depressed and their top fin, otherwise known as the dorsal fin becomes flopped over. In the “Blackfish” documentary you can see videos of employees at SeaWorld speaking about the flopped over dorsal fins. Saying the flopped fin is caused by old age, even saying that killer whales in captivity live longer than killer whales in the wild. These sayings are lies; SeaWorld has been lying to the public about facts of killer whales. According to whalfefacts.com “Depending on the pod the killer whales belong to their dorsal fin may either be long, tapered and pointed in a triangular fashion or rounded and curved towards the end, and flop down when depressed” (Home). This is just another example of how SeaWorld lies to the public and how they are mistreating these beautiful whales. To address another lie told by SeaWorld and their employees, killer whales do not live longer in captivity than they would in the wild. Another fact from whalefacts.com is that “in terms of lifespan killer whales can live for an average of fifty to eighty-years with females tending to have a longer lifespan than their male counterparts” (Home). So, SeaWorld would have had to be open in the late 1800’s for the original whales they had to live to their full lifespan of fifty to eighty years. SeaWorld cuts the lives of the killer whales extremely short because “Killer whales living in captivity however are estimated to have a lifespan of less than twenty-five to thirty years, which makes their lives cut short by almost two thirds” (Homes). Another lie from the SeaWorld employees is that the dorsal fins on top of the killer whale’s flop over due to old age but the dorsal fin flops over due to depression. On top of SeaWorld lying to the public, who is supposed to believe them because SeaWorld brands themselves as being a place where anyone can come and learn about marine life and zoology. Kind of ironic when they have depressed whales swimming around in circles in their tanks. “For killer whales being able to live in natural open spaces is extremely important for their health and well-being” (Homes). Not only is SeaWorld putting the lives of one of the most popular whales but SeaWorld is also lying about it as well. 

After many years of hurting and endangering the lives of many killer whales by putting them into the theme park that is SeaWorld, lying about facts of killer whales and taking them away from their pods and mothers, SeaWorld has finally decided to shut down the Killer whale training program. “The company said the twenty-four orcas it currently has in three parks would be SeaWorld's last generation, a long-awaited move following intense criticism from animal-rights campaigners over keeping the whales in captivity” (Jamieson). This movement has been long awaited since 2010 when Dawn Brancheau passed away and when the 2013 documentary “Blackfish” came out. SeaWorld claims in the NBC article that they have not taken killer whales from the wild in over “four decades” (Jamieson). In the documentary “Blackfish” John Crowe said that he was taking whales out in nineteen seventy, so that would be SeaWorld is telling the truth about how most of their whales at the SeaWorld parks are born there. But unfortunate there are still a substantial amount of killer whales still in captivity. “There are currently a total of sixty one killer whales held  in captivity (twenty eight wild-captured plus thirty three captive-born) in at least fourteen marine parks in eight different countries” (The Fate of Captive Orcas).  So in SeaWorld’s effort to try and end the showing of killer whales in captivity, SeaWorld and the rest of the world still have a long way to go, due to the fact that the killer whales can’t be released because they would not be able to provide for themselves. SeaWorld’s efforts to cover up endless amounts of lies and the bad treatment and judgement calls of the whales just to sell tickets at the door and plush stuffed animal whales. 

On top of the killer whales having depression and declining health, the killer whales also have problems reproducing in captivity in places such as SeaWorld parks. Most likely the whales in SeaWorld are forced to mate with the killer whales that SeaWorld puts them with and are unable to mate naturally as well. In the documentary “Blackfish” they show how the large whales are used for mating. SeaWorld harvests the whale sperm and keeps it to inbreed other mother whales. This unnatural way of mating can cause health problems for the whales as well as pass on aggressive tendencies from other killer whales allowing them to move on from generation to generation. For example Tilikum, the killer whale that attack Dawn Brancheau in 2010, his sperm was used to pregnant multiple female killer whales at SeaWorld. So essentially SeaWorld is allowing these aggressive behaviors to be passed on to the next generation of whales that live as SeaWorld and also work with other trainers. SeaWorld started breeding from other killer whales within the parks because SeaWorld was under so much fire for taking whales from the open oceans. SeaWorld clearly does not care about who they put in danger just to have the biggest whales and to get more of the public into the park. Not only is SeaWorld parks endangering the lives of the killer whales that live in the park but now they are also endangering the lives of the trainers that work at the park. By passing on these aggressive behaviors through other killer whales on to the next generation, they are putting innocent lives at risk when the trainers go to work every day. 

SeaWorld started as a positive idea to help marine life and as a research tool so we could gain insight in order to improve the quality of life of marine animals. After SeaWorld began receiving a lot of clout and love from the world population it lost sight of the reason it was established in the first place. All the sudden the animals were being used as entertainment instead of research. SeaWorld began to realize that millions of dollars could be made by utilizing the animals for entertainment in theme parks. Additionally, in order to gain maximum profit they obtain these aquatic animals in the most efficient and cheapest ways, not to mention harmful as well. The large corporation is no longer interested in the well-being of marine animals or their own animals for that matter. SeaWorld is only interested in their massive revenues and all the riches that come from harming these creatures for their own personal gain. SeaWorld has been harming the whales by keeping them in tiny tanks when these killer whales were made to swim for miles and miles in the open ocean. “An orca at SeaWorld would have to swim around there tank fourteen hundred times in order to match the amount the whales swim in the wild” (The Fate of Captive Orcas).  How is depressing is that? On top of the health and well-being of the killer whales being at risk, SeaWorld parks are also putting the lives of the marine animal lovers that come to work every day to try and make a difference in the lives of the killer whales. Thanks to the documentary “Blackfish” and the unfortunate loss of the trainer Dawn Brancheau and the many SeaWorld trainers that came before her, the public has been able to see the lies that SeaWorld parks has been saying and all of the false accusations that they rest upon in their everyday sales and pitches to the public. I believe as a society we will learn from our mistakes and move on into the future. The SeaWorld organization was originally designed to take care of and conserve marine life and all life for that matter and they have not been living up to the standards they set for marine life over forty years. I firmly believe that SeaWorld is doing the world of marine life animals a disservice by keeping these whales in captivity, instead they need to find a way to preserve the life of the whales and keep them from being on the endangered sepsis list. Whales in SeaWorld should not be in captivity due to increased death tolls at a young age, lack of performance due to depression, and on top of that hindering their ability to reproduce. The fact that SeaWorld is using these harmless defenseless whales for entertainment and then lying about the way the obtain them, treat them and lie to the public about facts about the marine animals, is just wrong and is going against everything they claim to be. 
