The Campus Carrier editorial board shares their opinion on the recent SeaWorld news.
On March 17, SeaWorld took to Twitter and announced, “Breaking News: The orcas currently in our care will be the last generation of orcas at SeaWorld.” This was a delayed response to “Blackfish,” a 2013 documentary detailing the horrors orcas are put through at SeaWorld. People became infuriated with SeaWorld’s mistreatment of their killer whales.
According to Discovery News, the president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, Wayne Pacelle, has said, “A zoo or aquarium or marine park … can lead to abnormal behaviors, stress-related illnesses and shorter lifespans.”
SeaWorld has captured orcas from the wild for several decades. According to Smithsonian magazine, SeaWorld confined them to unnatural social groups for the convenience of their owners. Bored and restless, they were forced to perform tricks for food that trainers withheld as punishment.
The Twitter announcement brought news of change. People began to praise SeaWorld, but after the initial excitement wore off, it was time to ask what they are going to do next. On the SeaWorld Cares website, there is an overview of their three step plan. They will not breed any more killer whales, they will introduce natural orca encounters rather than theatrical shows, and they will form a partnership with the Humane Society of the United States.
While their Twitter page and website puts SeaWorld in a caring and morally conscious light, what is going to happen to the orcas already in their clutches? According to the New York Times, Joel Manby, the president and chief executive of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, said the orcas would not be released into the wild because most of the orcas were born at SeaWorld. Manby said if they release the orcas into the ocean, they would likely die.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights activist group, is supportive of SeaWorld’s new steps, but their president Ingrid E. Newkirk said, “to do right by their [animals] now, SeaWorld must open the tanks to ocean sanctuaries so that these long-suffering animals may have some semblance of a life outside their prison tanks.”
From Xavier University, assistant professor of communication arts Leslie Rasmussen takes a public relations perspective. A project to increase the size of the orca’s tanks in San Diego, the Blue Whale Project, had been proposed. This would cost SeaWorld $100 million. However, when the California Coastal Commission stopped the breeding of killer whales in California, the CEO of SeaWorld eluded that they would not move forward with the project.
This is where the public relations problem comes in, Rasmussen says. If they don’t move forward with the project, people will see that they don’t really care about the orcas, just about an eventual $100 million empty tank.
Rasmussen believes that SeaWorld appears to be very accommodating and engaging in corrective action, but that it is very much preemptive.
People from across the world have joined the fight for orcas, and Newkirk sums it up well by saying, “SeaWorld has taken a step forward, but more must come.”