The Forced Life

The Forced Life

Imagine yourself forced into a tiny box for long periods of time and then punished severely due to frustration that erupts because of being squeezed into small areas. I would assume you would say, “No one deserves such a reality,” but unfortunately, this is the truth, as orcas endure many physical and mental issues solely for our entertainment. SeaWorld announced in 2016 the end of its orca breeding; however, as of 2021, there are twenty orcas in SeaWorld parks, and orca shows are continuing to be performed. These last remaining captive orcas are not being benefited by human care and should be released into seaside sanctuaries immediately.

Orcas at SeaWorld are forced into miniature tanks unlike their natural vast amount of space in the ocean. For example, an orca named Lolita is 21 feet long, and she lives alone in a 35 feet wide and 20 feet deep tank for forty years at SeaWorld. In the film, Blackfish, Eric Walter was a trainer who spent time with Tilikum, an orca, and recalls that SeaWorld stored him at night in a module which was 20 feet across and 30 feet deep, barely giving him 4 feet of extra space for two-thirds of his childhood life. Confined spaces that captive orcas live in are known to play a huge factor in depression and boredom because orcas can not perform their regular daily activities as they would in the wild, causing a highly intelligent animal to face increased stress.

SeaWorld’s creation of synthetic families to make the best show possible causes the death toll among captive orcas at SeaWorld to rise. According to John Hargrove, a former SeaWorld trainer, “SeaWorld claims that the orcas are in their family and they have their pods, but in reality, the captive orcas are grouped in tanks with all animals, part of different cultural subsets, they have different communication ways, which leads to whale-on-whale aggression.” SeaWorld is responsible for the many deaths associated with quarrels between unique orcas, so SeaWorld’s care for their orcas is not beneficial because they force the animals into danger, even when aware of the consequences. Orcas often swim hundreds of miles to escape a violent encounter with another orca in the wild, but congested spaces at SeaWorld cause orcas to fight due to the limited space to flee. Trainers often discover the orcas covered in teeth rakes revealing flesh and blood, and sometimes orcas have been found at SeaWorld missing whole pieces of flesh because of violent interaction between tank mates. One horrific example of aggression between the animals at SeaWorld was in 1998 when a female orca, Kandu, was irritated by a male orca, Corky, so she smashed into Corky’s head, resulting in a ruptured artery in Kandu’s jaw. Kandu bled out for forty-five minutes continuously and spurt blood out from her blowhole, and died as trainers watched her in agony helplessly.

SeaWorld’s apparent first-class care for its orcas is a fallacy as their orcas face many rare health problems and body transformations. In the wild, orcas spend ninety-five percent of their time in deep oceans to shield themselves from the sun, but orcas at SeaWorld live in shallow pools with water infused with chemicals, so they frequently experience sunburns. A rare phenomenon among wild orcas that regularly occurs between captive orcas at SeaWorld is dorsal fin collapse which hosts a pathway for illnesses. In the wild, dorsal fin collapse occurs in only one to five percent of male orcas, but at SeaWorld, all male orcas have dorsal fin collapse due to lack of waves and ocean currents to structure the dorsal fin upright. Captive orcas have dental difficulties because they bite on concrete and iron bars out of boredom, stress, and nervousness; this fractures their teeth and requires tormenting dental drilling without anesthesia. At SeaWorld, an orca named Kotar was engrossed with biting and yanking on the metal bars of the gate surrounding his tank, and in 1995 the gate fell on him, smashing his skull and killing him within seconds. Biting the concrete bars makes the teeth devoid of a filling or cap which causes the tooth to be vulnerable to pathogenic invaders, resulting in infections, abdominal organ damage, and premature death. In 1985, aquatic animal veterinarians Andrew Greenwood and David Taylor published a study which discovered that fifty percent of dead orcas in captivity died due to bacterial infections like pneumonia. SeaWorld’s orcas are not being benefited by human interference because the orcas endure many damages due to captivity, not seen in the wild.

SeaWorld’s merciless acts of family separation to maximize profits are sorrowful as these orcas deserve to be with their families. For example, Kasatka, the mother orca, and her calf, Takara, were very close and inseparable; yet, in 2003, SeaWorld decided to move Takara to another location to which Kasatka wildly reacted by screeching and crying for four months in efforts to communicate with her daughter. This is just one example of family division at SeaWorld, as orcas are separated from each other and often kidnapped from their pods in the wild. Families stick together in the wild, but as a result of family detachment in captivity, these orcas face depression to combat their inner struggles, which is the opposite of what human care should achieve.

Although these captive orcas at SeaWorld deserve to be released into the ocean for completely freedom, it would be life-threatening because majority of these orcas were born in captivity, making them dependent on humans, so releasing them into the wild would be illogical because they do not have basic skills that are necessary to survive in the wild like hunting. The Whale Sanctuary Project finds a simple solution to this controversial topic, which is to shift these orcas to seaside sanctuaries for more space and the opportunity to allow orcas to explore their natural habitats while providing them with care. Seaside sanctuaries are a better alternative to concrete tanks offered at SeaWorld because orcas at the sanctuaries would not suffer from depression or various health issues.

SeaWorld promises its remaining twenty orcas are the last generation of captive orcas; but, SeaWorld’s care for its orcas is ineffective and detrimental. Orcas at SeaWorld are not being benefited by human care because they are imprisoned in tanks less than twice their size, put in unnatural family groups leading to deadly aggression between orcas, obtain sunburns, suffer dorsal fin collapse, are depressed, endure dental problems, have premature death because of microbial infections, and are separated from families. Captive orcas at SeaWorld should not be released into the wild because it is dangerous, but should be moved to seaside sanctuaries constructed by The Whale Sanctuary Project. Animal abuse must no longer continue to occur as animals are entitled to freedom and have authority to exercise that right. Do not wait for the change, but become a part of the movement and help change the fate of these orcas.