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Mazzy Weiland

Mrs. DeBock

English IV Honors

9 March 2017

Inhumane Captivity in Sea World

Sea World is a large corporation that has been in the works for years, and continues to

make millions of dollars a year. Through the captivity of many different sea creatures, tourists

pour in day after day to see these magnificent creatures perform silly tricks and swim in circles.

The animals get rewarded for performing in these shows with the form of food to fill their

ravenous stomachs. Sea World claims that the shows are educational and beneficial for everyone,

although the trainers are generally unknowledgeable about the whales, and performing unnatural

tricks gives no insight into a whales normal lifestyle. The inhumane and unethical Sea Worlds

Orca whale captivity causes suffering to the animals through a tortured lifestyle, and benefits

nobody but the ringmasters of the company.

Firstly, it is extremely ironic that Sea World claims that its shows are educational,

although the trainers are unknowledgeable about the majestic creatures. The company is in

charge of caring for these special animals, therefore, the choosing of trainers should be

incredibly important. Yet, Sea World chooses its trainers for their swimming abilities and their

good looks (Palmer 1). Orca whales are so large and heavy that they could crush a trainer

instantly, thus killing them. The trainers claim that they have a personal connection with the

whales and that the whales and the trainers are one big, happy family. On the other hand, Tilikum

would not have killed Dawn Brancheau if this was the case. Dawn died in a tragic incident of
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Tilikum mistaking her ponytail for a toy, dragging her through the water, thus drowning her.

Reports claim it to be a freak accident, but the autopsy of Dawn and members of the audience

attempt to prove that the death was clearly because of Tilikum. Investigators believe that the

confining tanks cause stress upon the whales, causing them frustration which provokes attacks

upon the trainers. In the wild, it is likely that a whale would never normally interact with a

human, and when interacting with humans in Sea World they have to be careful due to their

razor-edged teeth and strength (Grant). Dawns death has been greatly mourned but also

intensely investigated because it was a blow to Sea Worlds reputation, and the corporate leaders

do not want anything like this to happen again. Sea Worlds profits dropped in response to

Dawns death, and if someone else died, the profits would continue to decrease. Another factor in

relation to how the shows are uneducational is the fact the whales are considering performance to

be a play, by giving the whales roles to humanize them. The whales are not treated like the

animals they truly are. The emphasis of the shows is put onto trained behavior rather than their

natural behavior. Other unnatural instances in the show include the use of water than is not actual

sea water, because visitors would not be able to see through the natural sea water. The whales are

clearly deprived of their natural surroundings and are instead trapped in their tank by clear

plexiglass (Rennie). These artificial conditions in no way represent the natural seawater the

whales would normally roam in, and does not provide an educational example of the whales

lifestyle for the viewers. All in all, the shows that Sea World prepares for its visitors to watch do

not constitute the typical life of an Orca whale in the wild, and the whales act out because of this

on occasion. Aside from Dawn Brancheaus death, there have been other incidents relating to

harm to trainers. Profits have been dropping because of realizations people are making, and this

may continue if the realizations grow.

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Secondly, the life cycle of an Orca whale that has either been captured from his/her

home, or a whale that was born into captivity, is notable. In the case of a whale that was ripped

from his/her home, Tilikum is a prime example. According to Mimi, when he was no more than

a two-year-old baby, Tilikum was ripped from his ocean home off the coast of Iceland in

November 1983. He would never see his family, feel the sea water on his skin or experience

freedom again. Instead, he was sold to the highest bidder as though a mere commodity. Tilikum

was sold to Sealand in British Columbia, then was transferred to Sea World Orlando where he

would reside until his death in 2016. He continued to live out his life in a confining cement pool,

performing tricks for the hope of food to fill his ravenous stomach. Due to his size and strength,

he was regularly mastrubated for his sperm, in order to breed more whales for the park, thus

putting more money into the pockets of the ringleaders. Tilly continued to live this repetitive,

unnatural life cycle for 24 years (Mimi). Because of this tortured life Tilikum has endured, he

lashed out and killed Dawn Brancheau as earlier described. The confined lifestyle of a captive

whale has no benefits for the animal. In addition to animal activists believing that the whales

should not be in cramped tanks, performing for food, visitors of the park also agree. There have

been many lawsuits against Sea World, but a notable one is Holly Halls. Hall believes that Sea

World puts on an act, and wants visitors to think that the whales are completely content in their

tanks. Although, in Halls eyes, this is not the case. Hall even goes so far to claim that the Orcas

are given drugs so that they do not realize what is truly happening to them, and that the cramped

living spaces cause aggression within the whales (Pedicini "Sea World Deceives Customers

about Whales, Federal Lawsuit Alleges"). The fact that Sea World puts on a huge show for its

visitors, yet they notice the wrongdoings of the company, is an outstanding fact. Aside from the

mental issues that the Orcas will encounter in captivity, they also experience physical pains such
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as sunburns and cuts from other whales they share tanks with. Because the whales are in such

shallow tanks with no protection from the sun, the whales backs are open to the strengths of the

sun during the daytime, every day. Due to outrage and stress caused by captivity, the whales also

will take their anger out on other whales and the tanks themselves. Most Orcas have cuts all over

themselves caused by the other whales biting them, which in turn become infected and can be a

major health issue. The whales will also take out their frustration on the sides of the metal tanks,

thus breaking the whale's teeth. In the sea, the Orcas natural home, the animals live to be 50-80.

Meanwhile, in captivity, most whales die before the age of 30 (Tocco 9-10). All of these factors

are clearly detrimental to to the safety and well-being of the creatures, and deserve reform.

Thirdly, the ringmasters of Sea World are the only people/animals gaining from the captivity of

the whales in Sea World. Time and time again, Sea World is called out for this; Blackfish is a

documentary that succeeded in bringing the major attention to the evils of Sea World. In 2013 the

documentary appeared in theatres around the country and pulled at the heartstrings of Americans.

The documentary outlines how in reality, only a small amount of Sea Worlds profits go towards

researching the animals, although the corporate leaders use the research of whales as their excuse

for captivity. The corporate leaders claim that if Sea World did not exist, the understanding of

killer whales would be significantly reduced (Raja 1). The documentary also showed the

cramped conditions of the whales living quarters, and how they are treated disrespectfully. Whale

captivity is unnecessary, and there are other alternatives to learning about how Orca whales live,

rather than counting inessential facts such as how many fish they eat a day. The corporate leaders

are making money off of showing inessential facts about the animals to the daily visitors.

Recently, the CEO Sea World has retired and the company is looking for a new leader to take

charge of the corporation. But what Sea World has found is that finding a new CEO is not as easy
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as it may have seemed. Due to recent public outrage from the documentary, Blackfish, a new

CEO would have to deal with the issues of falling revenues and controversial debates over the

morality of the theme park. The new CEO would have a lot to tackle, making the job an

unappealing one even though the annual revenue is high (Pedicini "Sea World Faces Challenging

CEO Search"). The reason why this statement is so important, is because it shows that the main

goals of the new CEO would be to maintain the reputation of Sea World, rather than focusing on

the research and conservation of the Orca whales. It is in a sense cringeworthy that more focus is

put onto money than ethics. Another noteworthy factor to consider for the money-driven

company is that Sea World only began to support giving the whales bigger tanks and changing

some factors that the activists do not agree with when their profits began to drop. Fry asserts that

its one of the ironies of this story that just when Sea Worlds future had never looked brighter,

it all started to come crashing down, a tsunami caused by Sea Worlds Shamu shows and its

collection of 29 captive orcas. In 2013, the company was booming and visits were as high as

ever. But as soon as Blackfish appeared, as previously described profits dropped and that is when

Sea World decided to change its mindset. It took a blow of a reputation to cause the company to

gain some sense of morals; Sea World needed to understand what they were doing immorally

before the drop in revenue. Overall, the corporate leaders make tons of money a year due to the

suffering of the precious Orca whales in Sea World, and this will continue to happen until Sea

World is shut down.

In 2016, Tilikum died because of the health effects that captivity put upon him; Sea

World claims that he had bacterial pneumonia, completely unrelated to his captivity. There are

many mixed opinions on the death of Tilikum; some believe that he is now out of his misery, I

while others believe that he deserves to still be living whether it is in Sea World or not. He
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resided in captivity for a long 24 years, which provoked major health effects upon him. Day after

day, he had to live in his small enclosure and perform unethical, silly tricks in order to receive his

meal of the day, which consisted of dead fish. Tilikum killed three human beings during him time

in captivity due to his high stress and frustration in his environment. He is considered to be a

victim of captivity, and he is forgiven for his activity because of the situation he was placed in

(Mimi). Many hope that his offspring do not live the treacherous lifestyle that he endured, but it

is questionable. The details of Tilikums autopsy have yet to be released, and it is being greatly

pushed by animal welfare groups. The general public believes that they deserve to see the

records because many people believe that Sea World is lying about Tillys cause of death to cover

up that captivity brought it about (Pedicini "Details of Tilikum's Death at Sea World Remain a

Mystery"). The controversy will continue until the records are exposed, although this may never

happen due to Florida state law. Due to Tilikums death though, there are many changes being

made to the typical training of Orcas at Sea World. For example, trainers can no longer swim

with the whales because of the chance of drowning. Also, girl trainers now have to wear their

hair in buns rather than ponytails, in order to prevent a Dawn Brancheau repeat (Anthony and

Evans). Sea World is doing anything to prevent the disasters reoccuring that happened during

Tilikums life. In conclusion, Tilikum remains in the hearts of many animal activists and

sympathizers, and his death will be forever mourned, and hopefully Sea World will eventually

regret the way it treated Tilly.

All in all, Sea World uses whale captivity to provide lush lives for the corporate leaders

of the company; the whales deal with unethical and inhumane performance and living conditions

on the daily at a humans expense. The shows that Sea World puts on are claimed to be

educational, although the trainers have hardly any knowledge of the normal lives of the whales.
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The whales repeat the same routines every day, or learn new tricks that are useless to their well

being. These inhumanities caused the documentary, Blackfish, to be made. Sea World has had

many incidents that have shot down its reputation, including Blackfish, the death of Dawn

Brancheau, the death of Tilikum, and much more. All in all, Sea World will continue to use its

methods of making money through whale captivity until they are stopped, even at the expense of

these beautiful animals.

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Works Cited

Anthony, Mason and Evans Carter. "The Highly Publicized Death of That Trainer

Changed the Future of Orcas at Sea World." CBS This Morning, n.d.

Fry, Erika. "Swimming Upstream." Fortune, vol. 174, no. 4, 15 Sept. 2016, pp. 160-167.

22 Feb 2017.

Grant, Rollings. "Did Captivity in Sea World Make Killer Whales Carry out Fatal Human

Attacks?." Sun, the, 19 July 2013, p. 22,23.

Mimi, Bekhechi. "Let Tilikum the Orcas Miserable Life and Grim Death at Sea World not be in

Vain." Independent (UK) 09 Jan. 2017: Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

Palmer, Mark J. "Sea World's in Deep Water." Earth Island Journal 2015: 55. Academic

OneFile. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

Pedicini, Sandra. "Details of Tilikum's Death at Sea World Remain a Mystery." Orlando

Sentinel, the (FL), 13 Feb. 2017.

Pedicini, Sandra. "Sea World Deceives Customers about Whales, Federal Lawsuit Alleges."

Orlando Sentinel, the (FL), 25 Mar. 2015.

Pedicini, Sandra. "Sea World Faces Challenging CEO Search." Orlando Sentinel, the (FL), 16

Feb. 2015.

Raja, Tasneem. "Sea Worlds Weird Science." Mother Jones 39.6 (2014): 8. MasterFILE

Premier. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

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Rennie, Hamish. "Marine Park." The Encyclopedia of Tourism and Recreation in Marine

Environments, edited by Michael Luck, CABI, 2008. Credo Reference, Accessed 22 Feb

2017.

Tocco, Nicole. "Should Orcas Be Set Free?." Scholastic Action, vol. 37, no. 11, 14 Apr. 2014, p.

8.