Living in a Bathtub: The Sad Reality of Orcas Living in SeaWorld

By Wren Davies

Picture this: It's 1970 and you are a young orca swimming with your pod in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Washington, in the United States. Suddenly, the water begins to speed up, you hear human voices and realize that you are separated from your family. You look for a way out but realize you're trapped. You can hear your mother squealing in distress, so you lift your head and hope to be rescued from the nets. You fight with everything you have, but it's no use; the people force you into slings, and then into a small water tank where you are transported to SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. You are put into a tiny tank, the equivalent to a bathtub for a human, and are forced to perform shows for food. You never see your family again, and you are alone apart from a couple of other young orcas that have reached the same fate as you. Your dorsal fin collapses due to the stress and confined space. You are bored and hungry and all of your survival instincts are gone, but you hope that maybe someone will realize your situation and rescue you.

Orcas have been kept in captivity since 1961 and have been at SeaWorld since 1978. They have been used in the famous Orca Encounter show, and the breeding program. Their tanks are 86 feet by 51 feet long and are 34 feet deep, which isn't even double the size of an adult orca, especially considering they travel over 100 km a day. SeaWorld ended its breeding program in 2016 after the release of the documentary Blackfish, which is about a captive orca called Tilikum who killed three people in his life, two of which were at SeaWorld, and questions the psychological behavior of these animals in captivity. After Blackfish came out, SeaWorld lost over 100,000 visitors, a drop of 84% since 2014. Today, these marine mammals are forced to do two shows a day for food. The shows are sometimes cancelled due to the orcas not co-operating. There are currently at least fifty-four orcas kept in captivity today, eighteen of which are SeaWorlds across the U.S. They are dubbed as the world's loneliest orcas and animal activists have said that they are not living but just existing in the tanks.

Works Cited

The Heartbreaking Real-Life Capture of Orcas | Seaworldofhurt.com, www.seaworldofhurt.com/orca-capture/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2025.

"Home." Whale Dolphin Conservation USA, us.whales.org/our-goals/end-captivity/orca-captivity/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2025.

"Other Captive Orcas - Historical Chronology | a Whale of a Business | Frontline." PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/etc/cron.html. Accessed 6 Apr. 2025.

Rhodan, Maya. "Seaworld's Profits Drop 84% after 'blackfish' Documentary." Time, 6 Aug. 2015, time.com/3987998/seaworlds-profits-drop-84-after-blackfish-documentary/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2025.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Columns

Image
By Megan Wong   Have you ever wondered where iconic architectural pillars came from? Well, the most common ones used today are considered the Classical Orders of Architecture which originated in ancient Greece and Rome. The five styles are called the Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite orders. They were used to define the style of the people living in certain areas of Europe and the era it was created in. Ionic Order The Ionic Order was created in ancient Greece by the Ionian Greeks in the 6th century. The column is primarily known for its two volutes as it gives the impression that the column is two-sided. It is also considered to be a more feminine version of the Doric column where the volutes and dart ornaments represent the female anatomy of ovaries and eggs. Others say that the volutes resemble scrolls to represent communication at the time. The order was created in Ionia, which we now know as Turkiye, and created some problems for architects at the time ...
Read more

Archery Club

Image
By Anna Segelken Templeton’s new Archery Club had its first meeting on Friday, October 4th. Ten people came out to shoot some arrows and have some fun. As president April Vander Ster says, archery is “good for training certain muscles, and for endurance and such, but I think more importantly, it’s something that can help with your mental health”. Members can expect an environment of calm, concentration, and community. I had the pleasure of trying out some archery, and it made me feel powerful, grounded, and connected to the past. Archery has been practiced for centuries, with evidence of the bow and arrow dating back approximately 72,000 to 60,000 years. Though the development of firearms rendered archers obsolete in warfare, the practice of archery has remained for hunting and sport, both competitive and recreational, like this club. The Archery Club will continue to meet during FIT on Fridays, in the small gym. Vander Ster is eager...
Read more

Getaway Car

Image
By Phoenix Nguyen   No, nothing good starts in a getaway car. The ties were black, and the lies were white; in shades of grey in candlelight. I hated it. I hated how we were. I hate that I was chasing make-belief status. I knew you tried to change the ending, but alas, Peter still lost Wendy. You never saw it coming, so I too blinded myself. ‘Tis was another fine evening in June. The chill of the northerly wind having given away in the late afternoon to a lovely warm stillness and clarity in the air. Far different from the atmosphere inside the car, far different from the cages and chains in my throat trapping those fierce claps from bursting my heart open, fluttering words up my throat, throwing up the butterflies that were pacing my mind since forever. Wise men say love is a rebellious bird, coming and going, passing by unbeknownst to us. If such is true, then I ought to be the wintriest place for any bird, for I have never experienced th...
Read more