Killer Whales In Captivity Research Paper
Alexis Welch
St. John
Eng 201A
31 March 2015
What Good Can Come From Captivity?
(Harper) Imagine being taken from your family at a very young age and held captive for the rest of your life. You are confined in a space about as big as your average bedroom and forced to eat, sleep, and play in there. Everyday you have to put on shows to entertain others with little to no rewards. You have no friends and family to relax with and no spouse to mate with. Who are you? You’re an average Killer Whale taken into captivity and forced to perform for others at Amusement Parks. Killer whales that are held in captivity have many negative impacts on their lives. When they are not in the wild their majestic dorsal fins can collapse, their death rate increases, and the chances of a trainer being hurt is escalated. …show more content…
The dorsal fin is the top fin on an Orca that typically stands around six feet tall on your average male (Jaime). The dorsal fin of the whale stays up right because the whale is submerged under water in a weightless environment (Jaime). Also, they remain up right because of the current of the water against the dorsal fin when they swim (Jaime). However, when a whale is in captivity, they do not have the wide open waters to swim freely in. A typical tank where an Orca is held at Sea World is only forty feet deep (Jaime). Taking the shallow tank size and the two to three shows these animals have to perform daily into consideration, it leaves the Orca’s spending most of there time above the water and with limited space to swim. This leaves the iconic fin on a Killer Whale droopy, limp, and far from
St. John
Eng 201A
31 March 2015
What Good Can Come From Captivity?
(Harper) Imagine being taken from your family at a very young age and held captive for the rest of your life. You are confined in a space about as big as your average bedroom and forced to eat, sleep, and play in there. Everyday you have to put on shows to entertain others with little to no rewards. You have no friends and family to relax with and no spouse to mate with. Who are you? You’re an average Killer Whale taken into captivity and forced to perform for others at Amusement Parks. Killer whales that are held in captivity have many negative impacts on their lives. When they are not in the wild their majestic dorsal fins can collapse, their death rate increases, and the chances of a trainer being hurt is escalated. …show more content…
The dorsal fin is the top fin on an Orca that typically stands around six feet tall on your average male (Jaime). The dorsal fin of the whale stays up right because the whale is submerged under water in a weightless environment (Jaime). Also, they remain up right because of the current of the water against the dorsal fin when they swim (Jaime). However, when a whale is in captivity, they do not have the wide open waters to swim freely in. A typical tank where an Orca is held at Sea World is only forty feet deep (Jaime). Taking the shallow tank size and the two to three shows these animals have to perform daily into consideration, it leaves the Orca’s spending most of there time above the water and with limited space to swim. This leaves the iconic fin on a Killer Whale droopy, limp, and far from