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Shirley Ramos
Professor Batty
English 113A
4 December 2015
The Three Kinds: Nature vs. Nurture and Sea World
There is a difference between seeing your cat or your dog inside your house, enjoying
every free open space available. Theres a difference between your pet and a whale that weighs
more than a million tons in a small space, dwelling amongst four more whales. Which is more
comfortable? For many centuries, animal rights have been an issue among us humans. It can be
seen from animal abuse, animal testing to animal farming. Now, when we think about animal
captivity, we turn our focus to zoos and possibly out of millions, to Sea World. People around the
world have paid to come see Sea World and their magnificent creatures perform. We dont stop
to sit and think about, Hey, are these creatures being treated properly? Do they have everything
they need compared to their natural habitat? The answer is no. Sea World has kept secrets away
from the public; many of those secrets should be obvious to our eyes. When you look at different
species of monkeys, you can easily tell that they are different. With whales, such as the Orcas,
its hard to tell that there are three different species, and they happen to look somewhat the same.
Three of those species are transient, residential, and offshore whales. They are from different
parts of the ocean and their migration patterns and diets vary from time to time. These whales are
not used to being together. Their sound waves are different when they communicate with each
other. Putting three different species under the same tank, can cause harm to one another and
thats what Sea World has done. Keeping transient, resident, and offshore whales in the same

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tank and in captivity, causes an array of emotional, physical, and health problems compared to
their relatives back in the wild.
Orcas, known as killer whales, are categorized to three different eco-types (species) that
are known as resident, offshore and transient. Those three have different aspects on behavior,
ecology and their dietary specialization. In this quote, it says that resident, offshore, and transient
whales prey on different marine animals. "Eco-types are associated with dietary specialization:
resident and offshore whales eat fish whereas transient whales prey on marine mammals (Baird
& Dill). This means that the video that everyone was talking about in 2008, where the orcas
worked together to bring down a seal on an iceberg, featured transient whales. The videos where
the whales are eating fish, well they are most likely either resident or offshore. Scientists
characterize the social organization of transient whales as fission-fusion, and what that means
is that mothers and their offspring show lifelong associations, the basic unit in the orca society.
Maternal and adult males are grouped separately. Offshore whales are known as fish-eating killer
whales compared to transient whales. They also appear smaller and their dorsal fin is rounded
above the tip. The clear difference between these three whales is on their dorsal fins. In the wild,
they are shaped different and stand up straight, whereas in captivity, they are lop sided. Their
saddle patch shape was similar in size to that of resident killer whales and was usually closed
(i.e., no intrusion of black pigmentation into the gray saddle); however, the saddle patch showed
more variation than that described for transient killer whales (Baird and Stacey). Residential
whales mostly feed on Pacific salmon, halibut, sablefish and even arrow tooth flounder. They
also travel in maternal groups like both offshore and transients. Compared to the wild orcas and
the ones in captivity, their dorsal fins place a major role in distinguishing what kind of whale
they are among their species and that is a matter of their social bonding. Keeping the whales in

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captivity and together in their separate species, has made them loose all of these special qualities
that theyre suppose to use in their natural environment.
Since the late 1960, many people traveled the Pacific coast and coast lines of Canada
capturing whales for many amusement parks as seen on the film Black Fish. Not only has Black
Fish showed us many possibilities of keeping captive whales, it has also showed us the other
side of the picture. One of the downside was the enclosure that the whales are kept in. Whales
swim for miles all over our oceans. Being kept in a small tank next to five other whales you are
not related to and cant communicate with is very stressful. Like humans, animals can suffer
PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Many of our whales have been diagnosed with that
illness and that leads to their emotional health. Sea World has also been breeding three species
among each other risking every genetic advancement or even a genetic illness. Despite their
sympatric distribution, these ecotypes do not associate or interbreed and are acoustically and
genetically distinct (Hoelzel and Dover). In the film, it was said that one killer whale known as
Tilikum has fathered many of the whales Sea World has used to this day. How many interbred
whales are there in Sea World combined? With genetics, there is no telling which rait has been
passed down to the offspring and not knowing that trait, can only tell that one in five offspring
may have the same traits as Tilikum. Also with interbreeding, same as humans, there can be
mutations. Theres so little a whale in captivity can do. Forcefully being breed to another of its
species, not letting nature take its course.
Hundreds of people worldwide can disagree with my argument that keeping these whales
together can cause an array of problems to them but we have to focus on our benefit which is
what we are learning from of our marine waters. Yes, keeping whales in captivity helps us learn
more about these magnificent creatures from up close, but we have to take in consideration how

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we are harming them all at the same time. What benefit would it be if we were the reason why
killer whales went extinct just like the Grizzly Bear in California? We still have time to fix our
mistakes one step at a time such as avoiding breeding in captivity. A lot people say that releasing
the current whales in captivity is a form of animal activism and they are doing them a favor. But
if you actually release a whale that has been born in captivity and bred through captivity, there is
a chance that that whale does not know how to survive on its own. For being an activist to save
lives of whales, youll be killing them instead. Whales in captivity has lost their knowledge on
how to live among a pod of whales like them, like a family. They wont know how to find food
on their own and they wont know how to use their sound waves to detect food or even to
communicate with each other. Its like placing a kindergartener in a swimming pool; they
wouldnt know how to swim if they werent taught. Orcas in the wild have lived in the oceans for
all their life and they would know how to communicate and find food. Through their behavioral
patterns, there is a fifty-percent chance that theyll accept any homeless whale to their pod. We
want whats best for the whales, for their rights on this planet, but we have to be careful with
each step we take; their lives literally rests in our hands since we are the only advance species
capable of changing the planet completely.
Animal Rights is a controversial conversation to have with anyone. They will have their
own opinions about it and maybe many of them will stand on the thin line on differentiating
which is bad and good. The problems we face are the facts we ourselves cannot accept. The killer
whale dilemma has been around for many years and yet so little has been done for. They both
deserve the right to be treated the same way we would treat our beloved pets. The only difference
would be that orcas were never made to be our pets or to be used for our own amusement. They
were made to be wild and free in their family groups roaming our oceans for the rest of their

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lives. Watching them out in their natural habitat is one of the most extraordinary thing to
experience in a persons lifetime. These three species of whales, transient, resident and offshore,
all suffer the same emotional pain such as being separated from their families when they were
first captured like Tilikum in Black Fish; physical health from all the beating they cause to one
another from miscommunication and mistreatment; health problems such as PTSD that depresses
them and makes a bigger issue for the rest of their lives. The differences are there right in front
of our eyes and its only a matter of time before it gets more out of hand than it already it. The
longer we wait; the more damage will be caused for our beloved whales.

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Work Cited
Dahlheim, ME, and PA White. Ecological Aspects of Transient Killer Whales Orcinus Orca as
Predators in Southeastern Alaska. Wildlife Biology, 16.3 (2010): 308-322.
Dahlheim, Marilyn E, Alisa Schulamn Janiger, Nancy Black, Richard Ternullo, Dave Ellifrit,
And Kenneth C Balcomb III. Eastern Temperate North Pacific Offshore Killer Whales
(Orcinus Orca): Occurrence, Movements, and Insights into Feeding Ecology. Marine
Mammal Science, 24.3 (2008): 719-729
Matkin, Craig O, J Ward Testa, Graeme M Ellis, and Eva L Saulitis. Life History and
Population Dynamics of Southern Alaska Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus Orca).
Marine Mammal Science, 30.2 (2014): 460-479