Discussion for article #247522
At least it’s something of a step in the right direction, although not nearly far enough. What I don’t want to see is for them to cease the breeding while working around laws that forbid live capture in the wild like they used to do. It’s heart rendering.
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Not trying to be a snot here, but I think they’ve got to to a lot of reimagining indeed if the’re going to offer scheduled “natural orca encounters” and call them “shows.”
It’s a nice gesture, but it won’t do much good.
The fact remains that these animals have killed or maimed quite a few handlers through the years. Personally, it always freaks me out when I see folk swimming with predators like these as if they were a pet.
And as long as they continue to use them as “entertainment”, the risk will remain, and with it the dislike evoked in many by treating them as such.
It’s what I’d say is the difference between going to a zoo and looking at the animals in what hopefully approximates their natural habitat, vs going to the traveling circus and seeing animals perform tricks and acts for entertainment. One (zoo) is educational and can be beneficial for the species as it teaches the masses what the animals are like and how they need our help to survive. The other (circus) involves clowns (…I loathe clowns…), can be very abusive towards the animals, teaches folks nothing about the animals involved other than maybe Jimmy can have a pet tiger and have it do tricks, is fairly demeaning towards the animals, and can be very risky towards the handlers depending on the animals involved.
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I think the Leviathan pictured is Tilicum; killed humans on three occasions.
Only two are confirmed. The third was a drunk guy that was found on Tilikum’s back after hours when he snuck in to the park. It’s hard to know what happened there.
A “natural orca encounter” pretty much has to occur in the ocean. At least, the last time I checked, orcas were not native to large artificial pools of salt water. While it’s true that orcas are mammals, and pretty clearly intelligent and teachable social mammals at that, it’s not clear to me how they go about convincing the dolphins to show up at a particular place at a particular time.
Sea World is well aware (but I suspect most people are not) that orcas fall into three groups based on their foraging patterns and social structures. There are resident populations that feed on fish (the Puget Sound resident population is a well-studied example). Resident populations tend to be larger than the other groups and form apparent strong family ties. Transient groups (migratory might be a better term) that feed on seals, dolphins and whales. These live in smaller groups of four to six, which probably reflects the patchy nature of their food sources. In the Pacific Northwest these groups do not seem to have interbred in at least 10K years. Finally there are generalist populations that feed on both schooling fish offshore and on marine mammals (and perhaps sharks as well).
These groups would appear to have different potentials for “natural” orca encounters and different potential hazards for the “audience”. Resident orcas are not apparently dangerous to humans in the natural habitat. But we know from white shark attacks (and simple observation) that a human in a wet suit bears more than a passing resemblance to a seal or sea lion. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to be diving around “transient” or “generalist” orcas.
Migratory species seem to learn about resource locations and timing and would seem to me to be more amenable to “learning” that the silly humans will feed them at a particular place and time. On the other hand, these are (arguably) the more dangerous group and they are accustomed to ranging over large areas.
Frankly, like you, I don’t see how they pull this one off.
NPR has a slightly more detailed story which makes it clearer that SeaWorld will be phasing out Orcas entirely, though it will likely take decades since they can’t release their current animals into the wild. They apparently will be building a larger enclosure and the “natural encounter” is likely to be of the huge glass wall variety, or perhaps a tunnel (that is my guess, not from the NPR story).
Side note - the Discussion page for this article is titled, “Discussion: SeaWorld To End Killer Wale Shoes”. Good God they made them walk in shoes? Those monsters!
TI have heard the anguished cries of a mother Orca (for days and weeks) as the “handlers” took her baby Orca away… It made me ashamed of the human race… we jail and torture these mammals without concern for the damage.
Outside of captivity, there has never been a recorded violent encounter between Orcas and humans. With respect and sympathy to the trainers, nobody is happy in prison. The remaining Orcas will die alone. These are creatures with a highly developed sense of community and highly emotional… fuck you sea world and your corporate reich