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Marine mammals in captivity essay
Should marine animals be kept in captivity
The effects of captivity on whales
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Captivity is the state or period of being imprisoned, confined, or enslaved, according to Wiktionary. Every year, marine parks and aquariums, like SeaWorld, make billions of dollars through ticket sales. SeaWorld estimates about 70% of their total revenue is due to their performing killer whales (Jeffs). People visit from all over the world to encounter killer whales up close. “Their beauty and power, combined with willingness to work with humans, have made them legendary performers” (Gorman). In recent years, humans have gained the ability to tame and train these creatures. Killer whales should not be kept in captivity simply because it is cruel, unnatural, and dangerous. Orcas, or killer whales are majestic giants of the sea. They are actually …show more content…
These two types typically avoid each other at all costs. In the wild, orcas are predators, meaning they hunt down their food. The whole species has varied diets, depending on which region of the world they come from. “Resident whales feed on fish and squid. Transients feed on seals, sea lions, porpoises, and baleen whales” (Francis). Orcas in captivity are forced to all eat the same thing. Their meals consist of frozen whole fish about the size of sardines. In order to train the animals, they must all do the same trick correctly, if not they are all deprived of food. The jumps, dives and other tricks the whales perform, are similar to their natural behaviors. The severe food deprivation causes aggression between the whales, especially the ones who never have been trained before. As an act of frustration, they take their teeth and rake other whales’ bodies. They would be covered head to tail with rake marks. Park guests would sometimes recall that during shows they could see blood, due to severe rake marks …show more content…
Guests leave parks believing that killer whales enjoy being in captivity. How can humans be so selfish to enjoy the presence of these animals, if the animals aren’t enjoying themselves? After the gates are close and the lights turned off, the whales spend hours alone, floating lifelessly. It’s hard to postulate that they receive world-class care. “Orcas are too large, too intelligent, and too behaviorally and socially complex to adequately provide for in concrete enclosures” (Rose). To put such an intelligent animal into a miniscule living environment, all just to capture their grace for entertainment, has become an inhumane way to entertain humans
Since whales are normally peaceful in the wild and they only seem to attack while in captivity, the argument is that captivity is wrong and dangerous for killer whales. This argument is supported by detailed facts about how the whales are tortured and agitated by other whales with no outlet. Both female and male whales are confined to a swimming pool where they are in a way being forced to try and mate. The female whales tend to abuse the male whales, which leads the whales to become mentally and physically unhealthy resulting in attacks on trainer. In the interviews with Corinne Cowell and Nadine Kallen, they mentioned that when they visited Sealand of the Pacific that three whales were confined to a “dingy pool”. Another appeal to pathos is when a neurologist that has studied killer whales mentions how the animals are very intelligent and are well-aware of what is going on around them. (SeaWorld) Killer whales have similar brains to humans, but have a bigger part of their brain where emotions are processed. With this, whales are more aware of their emotions and the bonds they make with humans and other animals. (SeaWorld) With the huge amount of raw footage, first-hand accounts, and true information, the film is able to grasp the attention of the viewers with the amount of emotion that is shown from the former trainers and the whales themselves. With these tactics, the film effectively appeals to the
Blackfish is a 2013 documentary attempting to elevate public awareness regarding the orca that are being kept in maritime amusement parks, specifically SeaWorld, and the inherent danger of their captivity. The film is effective because it raises a set of important ethical questions for the viewer while presenting with a necessary fact-based style of documentation that does not evoke gratuitous scenes of abuse in order to inspire sympathy, unlike some of the other films that are intended to raise awareness about animal abuse.
After this, he captured a female in the Puget Sound and named her Shamu. Whales continued to be captured and brought to perform at SeaWorld and other aquariums (SeaWorld Tragedy). Howard Garrett, an OSHA researcher, describes the strategy, “They [hired trappers] had aircraft, they had spotters, they had speed boats, they had bombs they were throwing in the water. to herd the whales into coves. ”
2. Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. New York: Greenwillow, 2001. The Ohio Digital Library. Overdrive. Web. 13 Jan. 14. .
Orcinus orca is the scientific name for the massive marine mammal. Orcas are not rare, but have declining numbers in some areas (Martin.) Orcas are found from the Artic Ocean to the Antartic Ocean. (Britannica) They belong to the Delphinidae, or dolphin family, which is the largest of their species. Female orcas grow to be at the most 15 feet, and weigh up to 4 tons, but the males can grow as large as 20-30 feet, and weight up to 8 tons. (Martin) The color of the orca is white in some spots, black on the majority of the body, and gray just behind the dorsal fin. It is white on the chin, belly and the eye. The white patch above the eye is usually mistaken for the eye, and may confuse their prey, but acts as a camouflage for the eye. The name “killer whale” makes people tend to believe that this is a viscious man-eating mammal, yet it is one of the most shrewd, docile and playful species of the marine mammals. The orca is sexually mature at 10-15 years of age, much like humans, which is 12-13 years of age. They tend to mate year round, and is able to have a calf every two years. It is interesting to know that lactation of the mother lasts 12 or more months (Wynne.) The life expectancy of orcas is 45-50 years of age.
"Stories of Captiv Killer Whales." A Whale of a Business. PBS, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
It’s a very common practice in todays society for people to go to Sea World and see the famous shamu show while on vacation or out for a day of fun. Many people don’t fully understand how these animals feel while in captivity. Light has been shed on having these killer whales in captivity when a trainer was killed at Sea World recently. At one of the early parks called Sea Land one of the male killer whales Tilicum killed one of his trainers. After this incident Sea Land closed its doors. This meant that Tilicum was up for sale, Sea World jumped at the chance to buy him at a good price. Sea World was not fully aware that Tilicum was the actual cause of his trainers death. This was a death sentence for one of Sea Worlds female trainers. Sea World and companies like it are only in it to make money, these large animals should not be kept in captivity by any means.
A killer whale doesn’t have very many enemies. One of a killer whale's biggest enemies is the human species. Humans have been hunting killer whales since the 12th century; whalers around the world have killed thousands of killer whales. Other threats to killer whales are toxic wastes, oil spills, and garbage in the oceans. Oil spills are extremely dangerous because not only do they damage killer whales, but also they will hurt any thing else in the oceans. Garbage kills ocean life worldwide every year. Currently the threats are
“Killer whales are the largest of the dolphins and one of the world's most powerful predators” (Killer). It does not take much thought and research to know a killer whale’s diet do not consist of buckets of frozen fish. Killer whales “feast on marine mammals such as seals, sea lions, and even whales…” (Killer) The question now is how do the killer whales in captivity even live with the unfulfilling diet they are put on? After reading about a killer whale’s diet, I came across horrifying research an author wrote about, it includes SeaWorld adding supplements to killer whales’ diets in order to keep the whales alive and healthy. The text I found includes “…supplements are even added to
These killer whales are massive creatures living in these cramped pools not doing what they want to do when they want to do it. Mr. Jett and Mr. Ventre also said “...Typically spending their entire lives within tight family groupings, orcas captured from the wild, have been traumatically extracted from the security, comfort and mentoring which these groupings provide. Captured animals are confined to small, acoustically-dead, concrete enclosures where they must live in extremely close proximity to other whales with which they often share no ancestral, cultural or communication similarities.” Seaworld ends up throwing these animals in random groups of whales that are not their families, having whales that have never been outside of the concrete wall, to whales that all they know is the wild. The Documentary Blackfish states that one of the killer whale
The killer whales are mammals. They have two common names the killer whale and the ocra. Killer whales inhabit most of the world’s oceans, going from warm waters to freezing cold waters (Monterey Aquarium). Not all of the killer whales are known because their are so many. Orca’s are very social and travel in pods. The whales usually stay with the same pods of whales as they travel.
Killer whales are known for their distinctive black-and-white coloring and are the intelligent, trainable stars of many aquarium shows. Killer whales have never been extensively hunted by humans. They can weigh up to 6 tons (5,443 kg) and grow to be 23 to 32 ft (7 to 9.7 m). An average Killer whales are about the size of a bus. Their teeth that can be four inches long (National Geographic).
The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) has had a slow recovery since the cessation of commercial...
Chadwick, Douglas H. "Whatever Happened To "Save The Whales"?." Sierra 93.4 (2008): 52-72. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
The Orca is irrefutably one of the most fascinating animals in the ocean. Killer whales, or Orca, are aquatic mammals which live in almost every ocean on Earth. Their black and white color pattern makes them one of the most easily recognized animals on Earth, and their intelligence and strength makes them apex predators. Though the killer whale sounds like an aggressive animal, Orcas are very social and are very sensible in what they kill.