Dilemma on SeaWorld and Animal Parks

Last year's documentary film, 'Blackfish', has stirred attention and controversy on the dark side of SeaWorld. What is believed to be pure entertainment and joy catered to families and kids apparently comes with cruelty and suffering for orcas, dolphins, marine animals held captive in the popular animal theme park. Behind the dolphin smile, killer whale splash and amazing tricks... there lies loneliness, agony and frustrations for these captive animals that have been deprived of their natural habitat. In the wake of this remarkable documentary film, more reports have circulated regarding the awful lives of orcas that are trained to perform for the audience at SeaWorld. 

I feel like the 'Blackfish' along with the 2009 Oscar Winning documentary film 'The Cove' that presents the heartbreaking and shocking hunt and slaughter of dolphins in a cove of Taiji, Japan delivers an ethical dilemma for us. At some point, we all have gone to the zoos and animal parks. We have this fascination for beautiful and seemingly elusive sea animals. A lot of that has to do with the fact that we don't get to see and interact with them in our daily lives and the zoos and animals parks serve this purpose for us. Because of places like SeaWorld, we get to see the amazing killer whales and adorable dolphins up close, take pictures of them and maybe even touch them. Zoos and animal parks have always served to entertain and educate us about them and the marine life.

I have gone to SeaWorld twice after a decade of absence at the park. At the beginning of Shamu show, I looked around the large stadium. I see audience applauding and thumping on the bleachers, cheering for the killer whales to come out. I looked at the small tank behind the center stage where the orcas are waiting to be released for the show. Something didn't feel right. I asked my sister, "Do you think they get stressed out with all of these, 'cause I feel like they do."

Few months later, the 'Blackfish' comes out and all my assumptions about the emotional and physical stress of orca performers in captivity are validated.

So what happens when this blissful belief of education and empowerment about sea animals becomes tainted by the harsh reality of what really goes on in these animal theme parks? All it takes is documentary films like 'Blackfish' and 'The Cove' to open our eyes to this animal cruelty. Hunt and slaughter of dolphins, beluga whales and killer whales. Living in small tanks. Forced to perform tricks. Separated from their families. Deprived of their natural habitat. These are all the uproars of animal advocates, activists, documentary films and investigations regarding SeaWorld and animal parks.

Dolphins in Taiji, Japan

Dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan

So, what now? Should we boycott SeaWorld and animal parks? Do we tell our kids that they are never to set foot in those parks? 

While my personal take on this matter is to never go to SeaWorld or any animal parks anymore, there seems to be no shortcut solutions to this dilemma. There is a tradeoff. To not go to SeaWorld anymore would stop the demand for the marine animal performers like the orcas and dolphins. When there's no demand, the need to hunt, capture and torture these sea animals also stops. Hence, killer whales and dolphins get to live their lives free in the vast ocean where they belong. But when you take out SeaWorld and animal parks out of the equation, it's hard to imagine how to bridge the gap between people and marine animals. So, there's that question that haunts me -- would majority of the people show great concern and appreciation for sea animals if there's no medium like SeaWorld that conveniently connects us to life in the ocean? SeaWorld and its underlying cruelty exist because of animal lovers and fascinated people. So, there's the irony. 

Dolphin tanks

This brings me to one compromise that respects the lives and wellness of orcas and dolphins in their natural habitat without depriving people of their desire to connect with the fascinating marine animals. If we can create a humane alternative to SeaWorld along the lines of sanctuaries and whale watching, we might have a shot at changing the flawed system. Marine animal sanctuaries, whale watching tours and local waterways seem like a better way to observe and appreciate sea animals in their natural environment. Their effectiveness on changing this form of animal cruelty is still yet to be seen. Maybe down the road, big and money hungry corporations would still find ways to exploit and abuse them after all. However, I still want to believe that they're the beginning to more research and evolution to come for animal parks that would give high regard to the welfare of marine animals. As of now, what's important are the echoes of thousands to millions of people who were captivated by the heart wrenching lives of orcas like Tillikum in the 'Blackfish' and the international concern for the annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan. Awareness and compassion are a good start. A start for a better attitude that leads to better choices and actions for a better world for these fascinating and highly intelligent marine animals. People who have gone to SeaWorld and animal parks do not generally support animal cruelty and captivity. We are just often misinformed or unaware of the realities. 

A landmark bill that seeks to ban orca shows, orca captivity and captive breeding of orcas at SeaWorld is recently introduced in the legislation by Assemblyman Richard Hershel Bloom. Whether this bill would pass or not, it signals a changing trend and changing views toward SeaWorld and marine parks.

Below are some of the widespread controversies that came up against SeaWorld in follow up to the spurt of 'Blackfish.'



Five orcas currently at SeaWorld were kidnapped from their ocean homes, as were others who have since died. For example, Tilikum, a 32-year-old orca, was captured at the age of 2 by a marine "cowboy." Tilikum wasn't taken from his natural environment because he was injured—instead, he was torn away from his family against his will and confined to a small concrete tank for a hefty profit.

A scientific study by Newcastle University found that dolphins in close proximity to humans experience extreme stress, "preventing them from resting, feeding or nurturing their young." Despite these findings, SeaWorld continues to allow park guests to swim and touch dolphins at its Discovery Cove location in Orlando, Florida.



In 1965, the first-ever orca show was performed by a female orca named Shamu at SeaWorld San Diego. During Shamu's capture, her mother was shot with a harpoon and killed before the young orca's very eyes by a marine "cowboy" named Ted Griffin. Griffin's partner, Don Goldsberry, later worked for SeaWorld and was assigned to bring orcas into the park. He continued kidnapping and slaughtering orcas, and at one point, he hired divers to slit open the bellies of four orcas, fill them with rocks, put anchors around their tails, and sink them to the bottom of the ocean so that their deaths would not be discovered.



In nature, orcas choose their own mates. But at SeaWorld, orcas are forced to breed on a regular basis. Male orcas are trained to float on their backs, and their trainers masturbate them to collect their sperm. Females are artificially inseminated and forced to breed at a much younger age than they would in nature. Katina was forced to breed when she was only 9 years old (at least five years earlier than she would have naturally bred in the wild). Now she is used as a virtual breeding machine and is even being inbred with her own sons.

SeaWorld's corporate incident log contains reports of more than 100 incidents of orca aggression at its parks, often resulting in injuries to humans and even causing one death by extensive internal bleeding.

Following a 2006 attack by an orca on a trainer at SeaWorld in San Diego, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health concluded that it was "only a matter of time" before someone was killed while interacting with the orcas. A further investigation into these attacks could have prevented injuries and deaths.



Orcas in the wild have an average life expectancy of 30 to 50 years—their estimated maximum life span is 60 to 70 years for males and 80 to more than 100 for females. The median age of orcas in captivity is only 9.

In captivity, all male orcas have collapsed dorsal fins as adults, which is a sign of an unhealthy orca. SeaWorld claims that this condition is common and natural for all orcas. However, collapsed dorsal fins are caused by the unnatural environment of captivity and are rarely seen in the wild. Only 1 to 5 percent of male orcas in some populations (and none in others) have fully collapsed dorsal fins.



Contrary to popular belief, trainers often have no formal education in marine biology. Their main purpose is to entertain and put on a "good" show for visitors, not educate people about the intelligence, social nature, or natural families, foraging behavior, and habitats of the animals held at SeaWorld.



On January 11, 2012, the USDA issued an official warning to SeaWorld San Antonio for its "repeated failure to provide drain covers that are securely fastened in order to minimize the potential risk of animal entrapment"—a violation that resulted in the death of a sea lion.

In March 2013, prompted by PETA's complaint about a child who had been bitten by a dolphin at SeaWorld, the USDA conducted an investigation and cited the marine park for several violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including the use of expired surgical materials, some almost a decade old. The USDA also documented that a dolphin tank and the areas surrounding the orca performance tank were in disrepair and contained cracked and crumbling concrete and rusty beams that could pose a threat to the health and safety of both the animals and workers. The USDA pointed out that the unsafe conditions "might create a health risk if these pieces of concrete fall off into the pool and get ingested, or if they become abrasive" and that they "do not facilitate cleaning and disinfection."



SeaWorld confines whales and dolphins—who often swim up to 100 miles a day in the wild—to tanks that, to them, are the size of a bathtub.

SeaWorld presents itself as a family establishment full of fun "educational" activities. However, these activities harm animals physically and emotionally. SeaWorld has the financial means and ability to create coastal sanctuaries, where the orcas would have a more natural and less stressful life and where they could feel the tides and waves; see, sense, and communicate with their wild relatives and other ocean animals; and engage in other natural behavior that they are now denied. However, the park instead chooses to stick with the same inhumane business model that it has used for 50 years, despite all the violent and deadly incidents and evidence of harm. Please say NO to SeaWorld and its enslavement of animals by refusing to buy a ticket to this abusement park, and ask the marine park to release these animals to sanctuaries.

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