Killer whales, otherwise known as orcas, are the top predators in their food chain and the largest members in the dolphin family. Yet, they are popular circus-style performers. Orcas can span up to the size of a school bus, weigh (on average) 6 tons and are used to swimming 100 miles a day in the wild, compared to that freedom, their tanks at marine parks are bathtubs. This lifestyle is limiting the whales by happiness, life span and is endangering people due to captivity related stress.

February 24, 2010, Orange county Sheriff’s Department- case # 10-1671



Detective Revere interviews Sea World Paramedic Thomas Tobin.
DR: Did you see any blood in the water?
TT: Well that’s part of is, she was, uh, scalped and there was no blood.
DR: Okay.
TT: So, pretty much we knew the heart wasn’t beating.
DR: Once they were able to pull her away, how did he let go of the…
TT: He didn’t.
DR: He never let go of the uh…
TT: The arm?
DR: The arm.
TT: He swallowed it.

Dawn Brancheau, 40, was performing a routine Shamu show with Tilikum, the 12,000-pound killer whale at Sea World Orlando, (a popular marine park) on February 24, 2010. At the start of the show, Tilikum was behaving and was very into what he was doing, but throughout (the show) he began to be less obedient and wasn’t with Dawn anymore. When Dawn started the “Dine with Shamu” part of the show, Tilikum seized her arm and pulled her into the tank. Dragging her around the enclosure, the workers attempted to corral Tilikum and get a hold of Dawn, but by the time they did, she was dead. Tilikum has killed before, and even after the fatal attack on Brancheau, he still performs to this day. Just the same as humans, there is always a story behind the murder.

Moreover, Tilikum was captured in 1983 off the coast of Iceland and was already very large. The first incident occurred at Sea Land of the Pacific. He attacked and killed a female trainer there in 1991. Tilikum was bullied by the older female whales he was kept with. The tank they stayed in at night was 20 feet long and 30 feet deep, the other whales would rake him with their teeth (a way of showing dominance), and there would be nowhere to run. After his first attack, he was sold to Sea World, just to repeat events. Why does this happen? The blame falls on captivity. Most of his life, Tilikum has lived in small tanks and been bullied by other whales. This pain never would have been endured in the wild.

Additionally, killer whales have more going on inside their heads than meets the eye. According to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans on killer whale brains, they have another whole piece in their brain adding on to the function that develops emotions in humans, allowing the possibility that they feel just as many emotions as humans do, and maybe more. With this knowledge, entertain the thought that Orcas feel and think the same way we do, and know that they spend their lives forced to perform for crowds in small environments. Furthermore, Sea World has separated mothers from their babies on many occasions. When in the wild, mothers stay with their children until death. The whales can think for themselves, and possibly feel more than humans do. Taking a human child from their mother for money is unimaginable, but it’s acceptable for whales that could be feeling even more pain than humans? There is no logic in how Orcas are treated.
Life spans of killer whales differ greatly from captivity to the wild. “They tend to live up to 50 years, but there are cases of some of the females surviving much longer, perhaps even to 80 and beyond. In captivity, the picture is very different. The figures are known precisely. According to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), there have been 136 killer whales captured in the wild and held in captivity since the first one in 1961, of which 123 have now died, and the average survival time is four years.” Captivity is not the way these beautiful creatures were meant to live. They are meant to thrive out in the open ocean in pods, with family, of up to 40 whales. Furthermore, The whales put together at Sea World are not family, therefore they are often incompatible and can end up hurting each other. “Some whales travel miles to work and perform without a steady place to live, or group of animals to live with." If captivity is a “better life” for whales, then why is it so different than how they live naturally?

Often marine parks say that captivity is safer for Orcas, “People use polluted seas as an excuse to hold whales captive, but whales have adapted and evolved to their oceans for millions of years, the real solution to pollution is to tackle the point sources of it, not take the species out of the sea." Whales know how to live in the wild, it’s their home, and extracting them from their home is not the answer by any means. Education is also another reason parks keep captive whales, but there are plenty of opportunities to appreciate wild whales. People can learn about their natural habitat and how they are meant to live by going on whale tours and visiting reserves. That way, people can learn about real, wild, whales. Also, in most cases, people can pay less at whale watching reserves than at large corporation parks.
Whale Captivity needs to be made illegal and ocean reserves should be utilized to truly recognize the beauty of a free whale. Killer whales aren’t meant for this life that has been chosen for them, the way nature intended them to live is free. Orcas are bound in slavery to entertain humans, in the future we will look back on this time, and it will be viewed as barbaric. Sometimes humans need to remember, that you cannot and should not, control everything. Stop supporting whale shows, so innocent people can stop paying the price.