Should parks like SeaWorld keep Orcas in captivity? People disagree about whether or not using whales at sea parks is a good idea. I believe that all Killer whales should be free. Killer whales are highly intelligent and social beings that have been taken away at early ages ,separated from their families and are held to become clowns for amusement parks for the rest of their lives. Some of the whales are being kept alone in tiny tanks, suffering for nothing. While others are being forced into pods with other whales they do not get along. Their life span is shortened in captivity. We are killing and hurting others. It is beyond cruel and a shame on the human race. I just want to invite you to change its business and stop using animals for entertainment.

            Each year, millions of people pay top dollar to watch and visit SeaWorld and other captive orca entertainment parks. But they only witness the shiny and happy side of the killer whales. Each whale suffers in that obnoxious, cramped tank. SeaWorld obviously does not notice what they are doing to the poor animals. They only worry about the money. On the New York Times website “Public Offering Sea World at 2.5 Billion”, William Alden (18 April 2013) states that “SeaWorld has turned a profit from live shows, thrill rides and other attractions, earning $77.4 million last year, four times what it made in 2011. As a sweetener for its new investors, it plans to pay a dividend of 20 cents a share starting this quarter.” SeaWorld money means less than nothing. SeaWorld should not keep orcas as prisoners. All the money in the world cannot build or repair all the realistic damage SeaWorld has done to the poor killer whales and trainers that have died.

One argument that killer whales should not be in captivity is, their first arrival. Sea World separates Orcas families. As I was watching the documentary, Black Fish, Howard Garret (2013) explained how young orcas are taken away from their mothers, taken away from their homes and are put into very confined little small tanks. When being captured, they are trapped by a net both the mother and child; the youngest are picked out of the group and the rest are left heartbroken. Once the net is released, the rest of the orcas will not leaved. They will stay, communicating back and forth and crying for those who were taken.

Orcas in captivity have a shorter lifespan. Killer whales in captivity die more frequently than the ones that live in the wild. They are put into these small tanks that are only twice their size and are being forced to swim in small circles or float aimlessly. According to “Death at SeaWorld, Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity”, David Kirby (St. Martin’s Press, 2012) “a rate of 6.2 percent among killer whales is being killed in captivity, but among wild whales, the rate was 2.4 percent.” In the documentary Black Fish, the majority of the people that work in the SeaWorld amusement parks, misrepresent this well-documented data to their visitors by saying “Killer whales live up to 25-35 years”, when that is false. They can live up to an equivalent human life span. “Their estimated maximum lifespan is to 60 to 70 years for males and over 80 to 100 for females” (Howard, Garret Black Fish). No killer whale should be in captivity whatsoever.

Another reason why killer whales should not be in captivity is having collapsed dorsal fins. As I was doing my research, in the website “Swimming Free”, Ellifrit, Dave and Van Ginneken, Astrid, MD, PhD, Interview at the Center for Whale Research in WA, states that “Less than 1% of killer whales fin collapse, where the dorsal fin leans to one side.” Also ,The National Marine Fisheries Service reported that the majority of the whales that have “collapsed dorsal fins are commonly seen in captivity”. I personally have seen it before because I’ve been to SeaWorld and I always questioned why the killer whales haved floppy dorsal fins. Now that I know and have done my research, the majority of the male  killer whales are the ones that have floppy dorsal fins. In the website “ Fin Collapse in killer Whales” say that “Contrastingly, 30-100% captive orcas, most of them being males, have dorsal fin collapse (male orca dorsal fins are bigger). Due to the inadequate amount of space that captive orcas are given, they spend most of their time resting at the surface, and only have the choice of swimming either clockwise or counterclockwise around the pool”. This is not normal or healthy for a whale. Illness, injuries and depression can cause a killer whale to have a collapsed dorsal fin. 

In captivity, some whales don’t get along, so that makes them commit a fight where sometimes they end up really hurting one another and makes them get wounded. In the documentary Black Fish a neuroscientist, Lorie Marino, mentions that “As being thrown in with other whales that they haven’t grown up with, are not part of their culture is their hyper-aggression”. That causes a lot of violence, a lot of killing in captivity that you don’t even see in the wild because these whales come from other cultures and have different languages.

I can even imagine being stuck in a small, concrete enclosure for the rest of my life. I would go crazy and desperate to get out. This goes for the whales. They should be out in the wild, where they are use to swimming 100 miles a day or more. A producer from “Black Fish”, Jett , asserts “Sometimes this aggression becomes very severe and in fact, whales have died in captivity”.  These whales need their families and cultures back.

            Trainers and Performers don’t have a proper formal education of marine biology. Their main purpose is to entertain and put on a good show for the visitors. Killer whales in captivity pose a danger to trainers, with four documented deaths and a long list of attacks. The most recent occurred in 2010, when Tilikum allegedly grabbed his trainer, Dawn Bran­Cheau, by her hair and dragged her underwater. Tilikum, whose stage name is Shamu at SeaWorld Orlando, weighs 12,000 pounds, and Bran­Cheau was one of their most experienced trainers.They get frustrated when the trainers don’t give them enough food or maybe they did something wrong and get punished for it. But SeaWorld really doesn’t care about it. If a trainer is hurt, well, another will replace his/her spot to swim with the whales. I don’t think any trainer should be in the water. Now Sea World trainers are not allowed to swim with the killer whales because of what happened in 2010. They should have done this a long time ago when the first whale attack occurred in 1991.

In conclusion, SeaWorld needs to stop this! Please help me support these poor animals to live their lives the way they should be free in an open ocean with their families. They belong in the wild, not in small tanks with absolutely no stimulation to them whatsoever. These orcas are not put on this earth for us to enslave them for our own idiotic entertainment. This has to stop; it is so cruel and heartless