Research paper

Should Orcas Be Held In Captivity? Orcas, also known as “killer whales”, are the largest specie of dolphin. You can go to just about any marine park, such as Sea World, and watch these mammals entertain. A lot of people are completely unaware of the suffering and emotional stress that Orcas endure in these parks. Should these mammals be held in captivity just for the public’s entertainment and money? Over time, there have been at least 145 orcas captured from the wild and sold to marine parks. Of those orcas, 125 are now dead. At Sea World alone, 44 orcas have died. It is shocking to learn about the cause of these deaths. Some of these orcas died from slamming their heads against a concrete wall over and over until eventually dying of an aneurism and some could not handle the emotional and physical stress of being thrown into a mini tank and separated from their families. In an article by Aviva Hope Rutkin, she states: If you look at, say, the brain of an orca [and] the brain of a human, it would be difficult to say that the human brain was capable of more emotional depth than the orca brain, because — again — what you see in the orca brain is an elaboration on the limbic area that the human brain doesn’t have (Rutkin, 2013). You would think that a place such as Sea World, where they make billions of dollars, would at least have a decent place where these orcas would reside when not doing shows. Think again. These very large mammals are thrown into a tank that is basically the size of a bath tub to them. There’s not just one orca in a tank either, there is many. The orcas also don’t like each other, so in return they will rake each other with their tooth which creates large painful gashes going down their bodies. In a report by Vanessa Williams she states: From the moment an orca is taken into captivity, this free will and freedom of movement is virtually obliterated. From this moment onwards, humans will mastermind the captive orca’s life (Williams, 2001). While living in these parks, if the orcas want to be fed they have to perform stupid tricks. When it is feeding time, they are given frozen dead fish. In the wild, orcas eat seals, fish, squid, and sometimes even other species of whale. These marine parks are cruel to these beautiful animals and if an orca doesn’t fit in, or isn’t learning new tricks, they will just put them in holding tanks. In a report by Vanessa Williams she states: Orcas which fail to adapt to captive conditions or cannot get along with pool mates are sometimes kept in a 'back pen' until the marine park can find a suitable buyer. Junior, a young male, spent years languishing in a back pen at Marineland, Ontario. Despite being listed in a 1992 inventory of orcas held (part of a report to the Canadian
Committee on Marine Mammals), and being filmed in the indoor warehouse pool on at least two occasions (in January 1990 and again in April 1994), Marineland was incredibly reluctant to admit to his existence. Junior spent the final four years of his life in this indoor pool, deprived of natural light and the company of other orcas, and forced to endure the noise of overhead fans and the barking of sealions. He finally died there, lethargic and reportedly psychotic, in the summer of 1994, aged only around 13 years (Williams, 2001).

Orcas will spend their entire lives with their families and they even have their own dialect. These mammals grief just like a human would if their child was taken from them. They scream and cry for days, and will actually still try to communicate with them. Places like Sea World will breed their orcas, and then separate the families. Orcas are their own beings and they have their very own families, we the people do not own them. They are capable of feeling more emotions then humans but they are very much like humans. Some people say that it’s okay because it’s for “educational purposes”, when in reality after the orcas are in captivity they are no longer the same beings. To see an orca you must see one in their natural habitat, not in a swimming pool. The only difference between them and us is that we have a voice and they don’t.