A Letter to the Activists

We have something in common, you know: a love for and interest in orcas. There must be something about themTheir enormous size? The sharp black and white color? Intelligence comparable to humans? As activists, you want these beautiful creatures set free to the vast oceans. I can understand and respect that, however, I disagree. It is not by spiteful or ignorant means that Ive come to this conclusion (you better believe I saw Blackfish and read Death at SeaWorld), but after months of research, the benefits of keeping orcas in captivity outweigh those of setting them free. My hope for you is that after you read this, maybe your entire view of captivity wont be changed, but maybe you would give consideration to the other side. I would like to start out refuting the angry statement that killer whales are called killer for a reason. The assumption here is that they are so called because they are murderous and dangerous, but that is not how the name came about. The name killer whale comes from Spanish whalers from the 1700s who referred to these creatures as whale killers. It is still unknown how the wording got flipped (Kirby, 2). Now I shall enlighten you with evidence. First, I shall discuss performing. In 2012, PETA filed a case against SeaWorld claiming that the captive wild caught orcas deserved protection under the 13th amendment. One of their statements is, There is no question that SeaWorld enslaves animals even though the judge in this case didnt see the 13th Amendment as the remedy to that. They continue to uphold this case, because women, children, and other minorities used to be refused constitutional rights. What I have to say is this: according to a blog post by Julie Toma, If the whales were incapable, they wouldn't do it. She furthers her point by saying that these behaviors are positively reinforced, and they encourage mental and physical growth. If they did not perform, they would resort to boredom behaviors as seen in zoos everywhere. Also, an abrupt discontinuation of shows would provoke depression behaviors from the orcas. I think we can both agree that depression is not our goal for them. To stem off of that, in the movie Blackfish, it would seem that the captive whales are fed scant amounts of food (this was highlighted in the scene about the moments leading up to Dawns death). After my own research, I discovered that as a matter of fact, killer whales at SeaWorld eat 2%-4% of their body weight in food per day. This might seem like a small number, but orcas in the wild eat on average 220 pounds of food and, in Tilikums case, this would mean SeaWorld feeds him 240-480 pounds of food per day. Of course the calves get more (10%) because theyre growing.

As far as lifespan goes, only a little research is needed to cast doubt on popular claims, and full research debunks the entire argument. A popular thing to find is that killer whales in the wild can live up to 90, whereas captive orca lifespans are less than 25 years. Even a minimal amount of research would show that female killer whales in the wild live, on average, 50 years; however some have been estimated to be about 90. As for wild males, they live, on average, 29 years. Seems much less extreme now doesnt it? Here, I shall invite you to study the chart at the end of this letter; as I already have, I shall tell you what it contains. There are 76 names on this list of captive orcas both dead and alive. Of these 76, 32 are deceased. Of these deceased, 28 were captured from the wild, and 8 were captive born. As for the 44 living, 12 were captured from the wild, and 31 were born in captivity (1 was unknown). What does this tell me? Indeed, whether an orca is alive or dead in captivity is a direct result of the environment. So why cant captive whales just be set free? As Julie Toma pointed out in her post, Look up the story of Keiko, the whale from Free Willy. I did just that, and what I found out was that yes, Keiko was set free after conditioning in a seapen, was suspected to have caught pneumonia, and died. You see, captive whales live in a sterile environment. Imagine if you lived in a sterile bubble your entire life, and suddenly someone went up to you and *pop*. If you contacted any sort of disease, you would most likely dieas is what happened to Keiko. To contradict the argument that the wild is the orcas home, I have only this to say: to approximately 31 whales, no it isnt. Captivity is their home. It is where they were born, it is where they were raised, and it is where their family is. After reading this, I hope you can at the very least consider the other side. I have proven many activist arguments to be questionable, if not completely false. If you have a response or question for me, feel free to contact me through shamusfuture.weebly.com, and please post on the forum while youre there. Thank You, Megan Lemieux

Name Adn

Gender m

Origin Captive born alive

Status Loro Parque

Park

Baby Shamu f II

Captive born

deceased

SeaWorld San Diego

Bjossa

North Eastern Pacific Icelandic North Eastern Pacific Captive born Icelandic Icelandic Icelandic Icelandic North Eastern Pacific North Eastern Pacific Captive born Captive born North Eastern Pacific Captive born Captive born Icelandic North Eastern Pacific Icelandic

deceased

Vancouver Aquarium

Bingo

alive

Port of Nagoya Aquarium

Corky II

alive

SeaWorld San Diego

Earth Freya Gudrun Haida II Hoi Wai

m f f f f

alive alive deceased deceased deceased

Kamogawa Seaworld Marineland Antibes Seaworld Orlando SeaWorld San Antonio Ocean Park Hong Kong

Hugo

deceased

Miami Seaquarium

Hyak II

deceased

Vancouver Aquarium

Ikaika Inouk

m m

alive alive released, deceased alive deceased deceased

SeaWorld San Diego Marineland Antibes

K1/Taku

n/a

Kalia Kalina Kandu V

f f f

SeaWorld San Diego SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld San Diego

Kanduke

deceased

SeaWorld Orlando

Kasatka

alive

SeaWorld San Diego

Name Katina Kayla Keet

Gender f f m

Origin Icelandic Captive born Captive born alive alive alive

Status SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld San Diego

Park

Keiko

Icelandic

released, deceased alive deceased alive alive alive alive alive

Reino Aventura

Keto Kim II Kiska Kohana Kshamenk Kyuquot Lara

m m f f m m f

Captive born Icelandic Icelandic Captive born Unknown Captive born Captive born North Eastern Pacific Captive born Captive born Captive born Captive born Captive born Captive born Captive born North Eastern Pacific Netherlands Captive born

Loro Parque Marineland Antibes MarineLand Loro Parque Mundo Marino SeaWorld San Antonio Kamogawa Seaworld

Lolita

alive

Miami Seaquarium

Lovey Luna Lynn

[7]

f f f f m m m

alive alive alive alive alive alive alive

Kamogawa Seaworld Kamogawa Seaworld Port of Nagoya Aquarium SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld San Diego Marineland Antibes

Malia Makaio Makani Moana

Moby Doll

deceased

Vancouver Aquarium

Morgan Nakai

f m

alive alive

Loro Parque SeaWorld San Diego

Name Nalani

Gender f

Origin Captive born North Eastern Pacific Russia North Eastern Pacific Icelandic Captive born Captive born North Eastern Pacific North Eastern Pacific Captive born Captive born North Eastern Pacific Icelandic Captive born North Eastern Pacific Captive born Captive born Icelandic Captive born Captive born Captive born alive

Status SeaWorld Orlando

Park

Namu

deceased

Seattle Marine Aquarium

Narnia

alive

Seaside Dolphinarium, Nakhodka

Nepo

deceased

Marine World Africa USA

Nootka IV Nyar Orkid

f f f

deceased deceased alive

Sealand Victoria SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld San Diego

Orky II

deceased

SeaWorld San Diego

Ramu III

deceased

SeaWorld San Diego

Ran 2 Sakari

f f

alive alive

Port of Nagoya Aquarium SeaWorld San Antonio

Shamu

deceased

SeaWorld San Diego

Sharkan Shouka

f f

deceased alive

Marineland Antibes SeaWorld San Diego

Skana

deceased

Vancouver Aquarium

Skyla Spooky Stella Sumar Taima Taku

f m f m f m

alive deceased alive deceased deceased deceased

Loro Parque Marineland of the Pacific Port of Nagoya Aquarium SeaWorld San Diego SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld San Antonio

Name Takara Tanouk Tilikum Trua Tuar Ulises Unna Valentin Vigga

Gender f m m m m m f m f

Origin Captive born Icelandic Icelandic Captive born Captive born Icelandic Captive born Captive born Icelandic North Eastern Pacific Captive born alive

Status SeaWorld San Antonio Izu-Mito Sea Paradise SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld Orlando SeaWorld San Antonio SeaWorld San Diego SeaWorld San Antonio Marineland Antibes Marine World Africa USA

Park

deceased alive alive alive alive alive alive deceased

Wanda

deceased

Marineland of the Pacific

Wikie

alive

Marineland Antibes Windsor Safari Park, Sea World Orlando, Sea World Ohio, SeaWorld San Antonio

Winnie

Icelandic

Deceased

Yaka

North Eastern Pacific

deceased

Marine World Africa USA

Sources
http://www.peta.org/blog/case-forever-known-tilikum-v-seaworld/ http://thezooreviewer.blogspot.com/2013/12/guest-editorial-former-seaworld.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_captive_orcas http://seaworld.com/truth/ Cowperthwaite, Gabriela, dir. Blackfish. Writ. Eli B. Despres. 2013. Manny O Productions. DVD-ROM. Kirby, David. Death at SeaWorld. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2012. N. pag. Print.