3 Things Orcas at SeaWorld Never Get to Experience.
Whaling Moratorium
The Question of Science
Kayaking Couple Gets the Most Amazing Surprise From a Pod of Humpback Whales.
We share this planet with some really spectacular, amazing animals. While we have wildlife sanctuaries (and, unfortunately, zoos and marine parks) where we can go to see these beautiful creatures, nothing quite beats seeing an animal in their natural habitat.
Even though they almost got knocked out of their kayak, for the couple in this video, we’re pretty sure being this up close and personal with whales at least knocked their socks off. How could it not? Encounters with marine life are especially moving because even though we share one planet, we live in totally different worlds.
With the whale population decreasing due to environmental factors and overfishing, it’s important that we keep whales in the ocean instead of in captivity.
It might be more difficult to see whales in their native habitat, but as this couple shows, if you ever get the chance, it’ll blow your socks off, too.
It is natural to see a wild animal, like a killer whale, and be absolutely captivated by them. These creatures exist in a world entirely different from ours and have intellectual and emotional abilities that are so advanced we don’t even understand them yet.
This, unfortunately, has lead to the development of facilities like marine parks that attempt to better understand these animals – or at least, this was the initial intention of marine parks. Today, given all we know about how captivity negatively impacts orcas, keeping them in places like SeaWorld seems to be solely profit driven.
SeaWorld has become the poster marine park dedicated to convincing the world that the environment they’ve manufactured for orcas is comparable to their wild home — if not better. In fact, statements released by SeaWorld even seem to demonstrate that they believe orcas are “safer” in captivity than their natural home.
Sure, orcas in captivity might not have to worry about ship strikes or collapsing food resources, but is it really worth missing out on all the natural experience that make orcas…well, orcas?
When you take a look at what exactly the captive orcas at SeaWorld are missing out on by living in glorified bathtubs, those trade-offs suddenly aren’t so clear.
1. Exploring and Traveling
On any given day, whales and dolphins can travel an average of 100 miles a day, spending their time playing, socializing and hunting. SeaWorld would like the public to believe this is an exaggeration and that their needs can still be met swimming circles in a tank the size of a bathtub.
In truth, all whales and dolphins may not travel 100 miles per day EVERY DAY, but many certainly do. In captivity, they’re not even allotted the luxury of being able to feel the current or move freely without colliding into a concrete obstruction. SeaWorld has attempted to “improve” this aspect of their orca’s lives by adding wave “treadmills” into the pools. Basically, this means that the pools contain jets of streaming water that give the whales the feeling of swimming against 30 miles per hour water currents. While this is undoubtedly an improvement from sitting in stagnant water, anyone who has spent time running on a treadmill can testify to the monotony that occurs after a few hours. Orcas are incredibly intelligent and need to be mentally stimulated by their surroundings just as much as they need the exercise.
2. Family Bonding
Wild pods of orcas consist of kin from various generations. Typically lead by the oldest living female, a social hierarchy within each distinct pod is ever present, with each member of the pod playing a unique role that is essential to the success of the pod. Research has discovered just how incredibly strong the bonds are between orca pods, with many rarely straying far from their family; specifically mothers and calves and mothers and adult sons.
Not only has SeaWorld repeatedly separated mothers and calves shortly after birth, but many of the mother whales also abandon or reject their babies because those that were born in captivity have no understanding of what it means to be a mother. SeaWorld runs an aggressive breeding program and forces their whales to reproduce long before they have reached the age that they would breed in the wild. This causes females a huge amount of stress, heightening the chance that they’ll reject their calf. Sadly, mortality rates and calf abandonment in captivity are incredibly high.
3. Hunting
Being apex predators, orcas are at the top of their food chain. In the wild they’ll feed on fish, squid, birds and even other marine mammals including seals, sharks and whales. Members of a pod work together to hunt using a number of strategies that are passed down through generations. Because orcas are so widely distributed, most pods are incredibly unique and distinct from one another and their hunting techniques vary depending on the food sources available to them. Meal times are so much more than simple chances to eat for orcas, it is an opportunity to bond as well as utilize complex problem solving and communication skills. Not to mention, orcas play an important role in balancing the marine ecosystem and their eating habits play a huge role in this.
In captivity orcas are commonly fed species of fish they may not hunt in the wild, and those they are fed are frozen, lacking nutritional value and water content in comparison to fresh fish. Because of this, supplements are commonly provided in the form of vitamins and gelatin. Meals in captivity are not complex collaborative missions but mindless and even demeaning experiences for orcas as they have to perform nonsensical tricks in order to even get fed a handful of frozen fish.
How Can You Help?
SeaWorld has time and again conveniently disregarded the 30+ years of research scientists have acquired regarding wild orcas and instead pass off the exploitation of their animals as “research” or as being beneficial to “conservation.” But when you look at what life is really like for these animals in captivity, it begs the question of what are we learning from the unnatural behaviors orcas exhibit in tanks and how does holding them captive benefit wild populations?
These three experiences that SeaWorld orcas miss out on illustrate the simple fact that a captive orca isn’t really an orca at all, it is a commoditized being that bears only physical similarities to their wild counterparts. This isn’t something that we should wish on any living being.
The first step to ending the exploitation of captive orcas is to stop the breeding programs at all SeaWorld parks. There is no research or education in breeding these animals for our entertainment. Green Monsters, the tides are changing and we need your help! Take the pledge to never visit a marine park and urge SeaWorld to stop the abuse of these highly intelligent beings by ending their breeding programs!
All animals deserve the chance to lead the natural life they were intended to, it is up to us to ensure this happens for orcas – and every other animal!
Lead image graphic by Elizabeth Lee
International Whaling Commission Scientists Slam Japan’s Excuse for Continuing to Kill Whales.
Japan’s new whaling scheme for Antarctica met yet another obstacle after the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC’s) Scientific Committee decided the proposal to kill 333 minke whales each year for the next 12 years was not grounded in science.
Despite this and an adverse decision by the International Court of Justice at the Hague (ICJ), Japan’s government defiantly proposes to go forward with the killing. The IWC itself will not meet until 2016.
Whaling Moratorium
Whit Welles/Wikimedia
The IWC in 1982 established a long-term moratorium on commercial whaling – the moratorium went into effect in the 1986 Antarctic whaling season. Several countries complied with the ban, hanging up their harpoons for good, including Russia (then the Soviet Union), one of the biggest whaling countries.
But Japan chose a sneakier route, establishing “research whaling” with a quota of whales to kill for science, with the meat and other products sold on the market in Japan. The government took over the whaling operation, which has been heavily subsidized by Japanese taxpayers every year. Mounds of whale meat are stacking up in freezers in Japan, as the public no longer has much of a taste for it.
The Question of Science
Mike Baird / Flickr
Critics have long pointed out that the results of Japan’s scientific whaling have failed to result in any significant peer reviewed scientific papers.
Recent quotas (before the ICJ ruling) had grown to more than one thousand minke whales and up to 50 endangered fin whales each year. Japan has repeatedly hinted at going after humpback whales as well. But many of Japan’s quotas have not been reached due to interference by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the whale slaughter.
After years of complaints, demarches against Japan, and resolutions against the so-called scientific hunts by the IWC, the government of Australia, later joined by the government of New Zealand, took Japan to court. The ICJ decision in 2014 led to Japan abandoning their scientific lethal hunts in the 2014-15 Antarctic season.
But Japan is now back and presenting a new scheme to kill 333 minke whales (about one-third of the quota previously set) to the IWC Scientific Committee, which recently met in San Diego, California. The full IWC is now meeting every-other year, so Japan plans to go whaling before the full IWC can review and comment on the new scheme.
In its deliberations on the Japan proposal, the IWC Scientific Committee raised a number of issues and concluded that insufficient information was available for a complete review of the scientific whaling.
Is lethal sampling necessary to meet Japan’s scientific objectives?
Not enough information, concluded the Scientific Committee. Many scientists of the Committee contended that Japan’s goals for the science can be met by nonlethal means.
According to AFP, Japan’s government is rejecting the Scientific Committee’s concerns. “Joji Morishita, Tokyo’s commissioner to the global conservation body, responded … telling reporters that the country would answer the queries from the IWC but its intentions would not be altered.
“’There has been no change to our plan,’” Morishita said.
In other words, it is lethal business as usual for Japan with whales in the Antarctic, despite international approbation, opposition from a majority of the IWC, a legal decision against Japan by the ICJ, and now concerns raised by the IWC Scientific Committee.
Japan’s lethal whaling is a farce and a lie, and has been since its inception. It is an insult to science to claim they are doing any worthwhile research. The world court has judged it illegal under international law.
Over 500 scientists from 30 countries submitted a letter to the IWC Scientific Committee urging rejection of Japan’s lethal whaling scheme.
Japan’s Antarctic fleet will leave around September to cruise to the whale-killing grounds in the southern ocean, shortly after the new dolphin hunting season begins in Taiji on September 1st.
Please sign our petition and send a protest note to the nearest Japanese Embassy or Consulate.
Lead image source: Michael Dawes/Flickr
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| Humpback whale Drip feeding |
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Kayaking Couple Gets the Most Amazing Surprise From a Pod of Humpback Whales.We share this planet with some really spectacular, amazing animals. While we have wildlife sanctuaries (and, unfortunately, zoos and marine parks) where we can go to see these beautiful creatures, nothing quite beats seeing an animal in their natural habitat.
Even though they almost got knocked out of their kayak, for the couple in this video, we’re pretty sure being this up close and personal with whales at least knocked their socks off. How could it not? Encounters with marine life are especially moving because even though we share one planet, we live in totally different worlds.
With the whale population decreasing due to environmental factors and overfishing, it’s important that we keep whales in the ocean instead of in captivity.
It might be more difficult to see whales in their native habitat, but as this couple shows, if you ever get the chance, it’ll blow your socks off, too.
