Preview

Orca Whales In Captivity Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
763 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Orca Whales In Captivity Analysis
I picked my essay about orca whales in captivity, specifically in SeaWorld. I made some researches about that and looked at several documentaries about whales in captivity as well in wild life. I found a very interesting article in Los Angeles Times, which I want to analyze. The first SeaWorld Park opened in 1964 orca whales were not popular; they were even hated and also hunted. Half a centaury later people came to SeaWorld and learned about these animals and started to like orca whales, which led to, that visitors don’t think orcas belong in human care. The California Coastal Commission, which is a state agency, wants to ban breeding orcas in SeaWorld. SeaWorld declared they are ending the breeding program with orcas and the theatrical shows …show more content…
When saying that the animals shouldn’t be released because they will die is in my opinion an assumption or even an excuse, because they are not giving statistics, which really proofs that statement. In the article they also give an example that “Keiko – the free Willy whale” was a failure to release him, but as far as I know this whale did not die because he was released – he died because of illness. The author also gives supported arguments by naming different organizations, which gives evidence to believe him. I would wish that the author had more proof about what SeaWorld is doing in the future, or more evidence what makes it believable. The author is not using big words but he uses his language appropriate for the subject and also explains clearly what he is talking about. The author himself is not taking a point of view but he is pointing out, that SeaWorld should stop breeding whales and maybe not keeping them in captivity anymore; but he also give credit to SeaWorld because they are doing rescues for certain animals too. He wants his audience to think about the problems which already exists for example there are already more than 3000 species endangered and the world is threaten by “the sixth extinction” so the real problems are not zoos or aquariums. In conclusion, the article is well written, the author is using appropriate language and gives his audience a reason to think about the main problems in his last sentence. All in all, his article is informative and he gives both sides of the issue, but I personally miss more evidence that proofs the statement that SeaWorld stops breeding whales and take out the show from the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    With such deliberate placement, the writer seeks to exemplify insight of the article by providing historically iconic dates in cetacean captivity, particularly those which have made an impact in media coverage of the topic. By searching through news articles of these dates, the student is immediately able to locate cover stories and breaking news videos of various attacks. Along with dates, statistics can also be found within the entry. Several times throughout the pages, the whale Tilikum appears in association with three deaths in the past years he has been held in captivity, and his being the largest whale in captivity. This means that Tilikum has a violent past, and can easily overcome a trainer. Another statistical factor that is referenced is that of Mean Duration of Captivity, or MDC. “Based upon the MMIR data, and represented in Appendix A, we have calculated the mean duration of captivity (MDC) to be less than nine years. This is regardless of whether an orca was extracted from the ocean, or born at a theme park.” This statement emphasizes that orcas live shockingly short lives while held in captivity, due to less-than-ideal living conditions. The statistics provide the student with a grasp of exactly of much or how many ways the actions of the parks have an effect on the animals living in captivity. It provides concrete evidence on which we can rely for an image of things such…

    • 1318 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The documentary entitled Blackfish directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite uses a few rhetorical approaches to reveal the disturbing hardship that orca whales experience in captivity. The film follows the shocking story of a killer whale named Tilikum and the three human deaths that he is responsible for. Cowperthwaite uses interviews with concerned former trainers and whale experts as a device to explore the difference between SeaWorld’s public image and its intense reality. Researchers find that the wild orcas can be described as highly socialized and intelligent creatures; these gentle animals are then compared to the whales pictured in footage from SeaWorld’s marine parks. Whales kept at SeaWorld are mistreated, restrained to dark cages, and live in small concrete pools that cannot be compared to the hundreds of miles that they would routinely swim on a daily basis. To this day, many admire SeaWorld for its broad assortment of marine animals. As a documentary, Blackfish takes on the immense task of trying to alter the audiences’ perceptions of SeaWorld. While Blackfish employs all three forms of rhetoric to accomplish this mission, it predominantly attracts the emotion of its audience using a combination of stock footage and interviews.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ethos In Black Fish

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the documentary Black fish director Gabriella Cowperthwaite (2013) is showing the viewers how horrific SeaWorld really is. Gabriella Cowperthwaite (2013) displays to the viewer by using pathos, she uses clips of men who are being paid by SeaWorld to take baby orcas out of the wild (Cowperthwaite, 2013). The documentary even shows the viewers the baby orcas being taken from their mothers and the mothers not being able to do anything about it. Gabriella interviews one of the men John Crowe that was a driver that SeaWorld hired to take the baby orcas out of the wild and John states “We only captured the little ones because of the shipping costs. I lost it I didn’t stop working though, it’s just like kid napping a little one with the mother standing right there” (Cowperthwaite, 2013). Gabriella Cowperthwaite wants people to recognize and understand what is going on. SeaWorld lost a lot of currency after this documentary, because people now understand what was truly going on behind all the flips, tricks, and how they received the orcas and how they transported them to their…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Although there have been many animal advocates protesting against SeaWorld, there are other people who don’t mind the Orcas being at SeaWorld. “Shamu the show and the marine parks’ collection of orcas have been inextricably linked to SeaWorld since the San Diego park’s origins more than a half century ago” (San Diego Union-Tribune 1). The killer whales have been the face of SeaWorld for many years. The Orcas are one of the main reasons people go to Seaworld. Shamu is the famous name that all the Orcas are known as, because of the captive killer whale that appeared at shows in SeaWorld San Diego in the 1960’s. “She was the fourth orca ever captured, and the second female, after her death, the name Shamu continued to be used in SeaWorld…

    • 203 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Keeping these types of animals in captivity is inhumane and dangerous for the whales and the humans. At the beginning the documentary a family of orcas are shown in a peaceful environment, calmly swimming side by side. This causes the audience to make a warm connection with the orcas…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    88% of orcas in captivity have died prematurely. In order to prevent this from happening to future orcas, I feel we should not captivate wild orcas (or animals in general) for the pleasure of others. If an animal is injured or needs help, they should go to a sanctuary. Animals should never be cruelly snatched from their home. While getting all orca captivities to release them back in to the wild is a bit of a long shot, creating coastal sanctuaries is not. These sanctuaries are where captive orcas can rehabilitated and retired. They could be sea pens or netted off bays or coves in temperate to cold water natural habitat. The sanctuary would offer the animals respite from performing and the constant exposure to a parade of strangers. Expert caretakers would continue to train retired whales for veterinary procedures, but would not get in the water and would remain at a safe distance. Hopefully these sanctuaries will become empty over, with all the rehabilitated orcas released into the…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Blackfish Film Analysis

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There isn’t a reason to put people/trainers in harm, because orcas are always going to be wild animals that need their own space. As humans, people should understand how dangerous behaviors toward these innocent mammals shouldn’t be allowed, and not to directly come in contact. Sea World is to blame, and people need to stand together and have a say or voice in this world, on what is wrong and…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Seaworld Captivity

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Imagine you are in a boat right off the shores of Greece. You happen to look up and out of the corner of your eye you see something. As your gaze adjusts, you notice it's a killer whale, being torn away from his home. A large net encloses in in, attached to a large ship. Now, imagine you are sitting in the stands at SeaWorld, surrounded by hundreds of people, people waiting so eagerly to lay eyes on this year’s rendition of “Shamu”. When you look into the cement “pool”, you see him. You see the majestic, beautiful, free, wild animal now in captivity. Only, this time, he looks tired, old, neglected, abused, and lifeless. This is exactly what SeaWorld is doing to killer whales. They take these wild animals out of their natural habitat and force them into captivity.…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After Seaworld Analysis

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Aquatic and wild animals seem to be a huge contribution of our society and entertainment, but rarely we see incidents recently recalling killer whales at SeaWorld. Reading the article “After Seaworld, ‘Blackfish effect’ on circuses and zoos?” by Kelly Wallace, shows the viewpoint on the topic of the movie called “Blackfish.” The film is about Seaworld and the famous killer whale Tilikum. The history of him and his seaworld experience was introduced. He ended up killing his trainer Dawn Brancheau, and some people even blamed her for it. This is a topic that is rarely discussed in society, but it seems as if people have a misunderstanding or don't know enough about it to have an opinion. The shocking news, is that this is not the first time…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are two sides of every argument, in particular SeaWorld. Should animals be held captive for research and entertainment or should they be only held for rehabilitation purposes and released? SeaWorld currently holds twenty-two Orcas in each of its three…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the stride of greed in this world human beings have been thriving off of almost anything to get what they believe is obtainable. Within the human endeavor to acquire currency some actions taken by SeaWorld are morally wrong and discerning. The ethical dilemma of the exploitation of wild orcas at SeaWorld has become a controversial topic with the idea of freeing the orcas to be the most morally understood solution. SeaWorld has repeatedly displaced orcas from mothers for different attractions or to ship to other parks. This occurrence is followed by the mother producing disturbing long range calls to attempt to locate her baby, described by a neuroscientist in Blackfish. The conditions these majestic orcas endure can only damage their…

    • 1855 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The death of a trainer on the 24 of February, 2010 is what brought this to attention. She was dragged down by an Orca during a show and she drowned in front of hundreds of people after he broke several of her bones. There has never been any record of Orcas killing people in the wild. But this was the third person that this Orca has killed. Why did this happen? What caused this animal to react in such a shocking way? A deeper look into SeaWorld and its treatment of the animals revealed to the world the shocking truth. In 2013 a documentary called Blackfish was released and the story of a SeaWorld Orca was told. It follows the life of the Orca that killed the three people, Tilikum. His life an endless cycle of abuse, tricks, abuse tricks. We get to see the tiny tank he has called home most of his life and we finally understand his aggravation which caused him to kill those people. If you were taken away from your family. Confined in an area with enough…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Blackfish Essay

    • 1976 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Who does not love to see dolphins and whales flipping and doing tricks? Although the animals look happy and unharmed, there is a dark truth behind the captive marine life in amusement parks and zoos. Yes, attending zoos and marine life amusement parks are a part of childhood; but recently researchers have discovered just how cruel the environment is for the marine life in captivity. After studies of comparing the quality of life of marine animals in the wild and in captivity, there are multiple examples shown in Blackfish, PETA, and the Animal Welfare Institute that show that animals prosper and live longer in their natural habitats. Due to the cruelty endured by the captivated Orcas, all the SeaWorld parks should be shut down and the Orca whales should be set free to prevent further demise to their species.…

    • 1976 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    I do not think whales should be in captivity because whales are way too big to be in takes at seaworld the whales can’t even move around in the tank, imagine you are living in the entire ocean and then you just get pulled out and get put in a tank where you can’t even move. I think that they just want a bigger crowd because it means they would get more money. Whales should not be in captivity because the tanks are way to small, Trainers don't not feed the whale enough, and people don’t have the best interest in the whales.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What's Wrong With Zoos

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As humans inhabit more and more of the earth’s land, some species of wildlife are more likely to be found in captivity than in their natural habitat. But is that a good thing? Keeping animals captive might not be in our best interest. Caging theses animals up for zoo can be compared to imprisonment for animals. It makes profits for zoos and aquariums while these wild animals suffer. They take away from these animals being free, just so they can entertain humans. Lastly it takes away these the freedom of animals, preventing them from being truly what they are, and that is wild animals. So these animals shouldn't be captive to zoos and aquariums.…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays