As a sophomore in high school, I watched the documentary “Blackfish”(available on Netflix). At the time I didn’t know much about SeaWorld or orcas in general. It was a new concept to me, but it infuriated me. I vowed I would never go to SeaWorld or any of its affiliated parks, and I explained to my family why they should not either. The news has recently had a spotlight on SeaWorld and, more specifically, its greatest attraction, Tilikum, the 22-foot, 12,000-pound orca whale who is dying.
Tilikum is both famous and infamous; famous for being SeaWorld’s best attraction and infamous for the three deaths he caused -- one in 1991, 1999 and 2010. Although the deaths seem to be the most important part of Tilikum’s history, his life in captivity for 33 years has a lot to do with his behaviors.
When reflecting on Tilikum’s size and the fact that he is kept in such a small area, it doesn’t surprise me at all that he became violent. Imagine being trapped in a tiny glass room where you are forced to do tricks for food and tell me that you wouldn’t get violent. There are no other known instances of orcas other than what happens in aquatic parks where trainers are involved. In other words, orcas do not harm people when they’re left to be free in the wilderness.
The orcas at SeaWorld have a few other health problems along with being stuck in a small pool. It is very rare to see orcas who have collapsed dorsal fins in the wild. When in a healthy environment, orcas have straight dorsal fins. So when SeaWorld claims that it is natural to have collapsed dorsal fins, it infuriates me that it would make such claims. When you look at pictures of orcas in the wild, very few pictures have collapsed dorsal fins, but if you were to search Tilikum, you only find pictures of him with a collapsed dorsal fin.
Another problem is that the orcas at SeaWorld are overbred. Many of the orcas are artificially inseminated, where in the wild, orcas pick their mates. Tilikum was used to artificially inseminate many of the female orcas at SeaWorld. Many of the orcas at SeaWorld are bred very young and are inbred. Also, compared to the wild there is a higher number of stillborn orcas in breeding situations than in natural mating situations.
The documentary “Blackfish” interviews former SeaWorld employees, and explains what actually happens behind the scenes at SeaWorld. The documentary was released in 2013, three years after Tilikum killed his trainer Dawn Brancheau. When I first watched the documentary, I watched it in a current events class and it was my favorite thing that we did. After I watched it I knew that the public was not well informed about the problems at SeaWorld.
Although SeaWorld believes it is doing best by those creatures, anyone who knows other information knows that SeaWorld is not doing best by these creatures. As Tilikum suffers through his final days struggling with a bacterial lung infection, hopefully, more people realize that captivity is not a place for orca whales.
If people would look at the evidence and compare what life is like for orcas in the wild and orcas in captivity, there is evidence that these animals are better off in the wild. If these animals were near extinction I could understand why they would be in zoos. However, they’re not endangered and deserve to live in the wild with their pods, not used to entertain us.
For those who have not seen “Blackfish,” it is worth the hour and a half of your time.
