SeaWorld will end performances by orcas at its San Diego theme park by 2017, saying customers would rather see the marine mammals acting naturally than doing tricks. It鈥檚 a sign that people are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the cruelty of forcing wild animals into unnatural behaviours for the amusement of humans.
There鈥檚 no question that orcas make a dramatic show with their size, their splendid black-and-white colouring, their agility and their intelligence. But it is a mistake to think that the animals derive the same pleasure from the show that human spectators do. They are basically performing for food, doing tricks that have little resemblance to their natural behaviour. These creatures of the open ocean suffer in many ways from being penned by humans.
The history of captive orcas is a dark one. When capturing of the whales began in the 1960s, many died in the process, and most of those who survived capture led shortened lives in captivity. The Southern Resident orcas, whose territory is the Salish Sea, lost 48 members to captivity and by 1978, the population was listed as endangered, with fewer than 80 members. That鈥檚 about the number that exists today.
As the U.S., Canada and other countries clamped down on the capture of orcas, those in the business turned to Iceland, where the whales were seen as competition by the fishing industry. But opposition by conservationists and animal-rights activists, as well as U.S. limits on imports, limited the market for Icelandic orcas. Today, the Icelandic government limits the number of killer whales that can be captured each year.
It鈥檚 still too many. The artificial environment of captivity causes stress and anxiety for orcas, resulting in aggressive behaviour toward other whales and humans. For example, three whales 鈥� Tilikum, Nootka IV and Haida II 鈥� kept by Oak Bay鈥檚 Sealand of the 91原创 were not compatible, as they came from different family groups. Tilikum, a male, was often harassed by the two females.
In 1991, Keltie Byrne, a 20-year-old Sealand trainer, fell into the pool and was drowned by the three whales. Sealand closed the next year, and sold its orcas to SeaWorld. In 1999, Tilikum killed a man who trespassed onto SeaWorld鈥檚 property in Orlando, Florida. In 2010, he pulled trainer Dawn Brancheau into the water and killed her.
It is not in an orca鈥檚 nature to threaten humans. There are few documented cases of wild orcas attacking people, and no fatalities. Yet in addition to the three fatalities in which Tilikum was involved, many instances have been documented of captive orcas turning on their human handlers. It isn鈥檛 hard to conclude that keeping orcas imprisoned is not good for the animals, and can be dangerous for humans.
SeaWorld says its California customers 鈥渨ant the orca experience to be the activities the whales do in the wild.鈥� But how is that possible? The orca is a powerful predator that ranges for hundreds or thousands of kilometres. It cannot live naturally in any human-built enclosure. It needs the freedom and resources of the seas.
SeaWorld has not said if orca performances will end at its theme parks in Texas and Florida, but they should. It is thrilling to see killer whales doing what they do in the open ocean; it is inhumane to confine them in concrete ponds so we can watch them do tricks.
