Orca Captivity

One major reason why orcas should not be held in captivity is because orcas are a family oriented type species. Orcas are extremely social animals. Orcas are very close to their family. For example, when SeaWorld orca catchers came to capture orcas in the year 1977, John Crowe, one of the orca catcher’s, said, “When we took the baby orcas and left the adults, the adults huddled in a circle and made noises to the baby orcas that were being taken away.” He also stated, “We dropped the net to let the other adult orcas go, but they stayed and huddled around the boat.” When killer whales are in captivity, they are not with their family. They are involuntary forced to live with other orcas from a different family and are

The latest data show that orcas are more than three times as likely to die at any age in captivity as they are in the wild. This translates into a shorter life span and is probably the result of several factors. First, orcas in captivity are out of shape; they are the equivalent of couch potatoes, as the largest orca tank in the world is less than one ten-thousandth

Some people argue that keeping orcas in captivity is not a problem, yet they do not realize some of the limitations and dangers orcas suffer when kept in captivity. One reason is that these unpredictable, thirty-foot long creatures are usually kept in a tank that is too small for them, compared to the ocean where they can swim freely. In captivity, space is limited. According to one expert, “orcas can swim up to 100 miles per day- a phenomenal amount, in comparison to the exercise they receive in captivity” (Cronin). While in captivity, an orca has to keep swimming in circles or float, unable to exercise adequately in a confined space. The small tanks also prevent orcas from living in their natural group sizes, or pods. “In the wild, killer whales typically travel in pods of between five and 30” (Melissa). In captivity, fewer than five whales are kept together, an imbalance that makes the whales more aggressive towards one another. This can lead to dangerous, territorial situations in which captive

Orcas in captivity suffer from more than just physical imperfections. Dosed with drugs to help the killer whales deal with stress, they suffer terribly in marine parks. Animals and humans share the same immune system. Just as stress reduces our immune system, it does the same to the killer whale. Therefore, stress has been an indirect cause of death in captive killer whales. Killer whales in captivity experiencing stress tend to beat their head against the walls of their tanks until it bleeds. At least three captive whales have killed themselves with this repetitive motion brought on by stress. Have you ever heard of this happening in the wild? Not only does it not happen, an Orca in the wild would never bring bodily harm upon itself. Denial of their right to live in their true habitat where they belong causes the killer whales much stress, frustration, anxiety, and sadly aggression. In the wild Orcas, do not attack humans as they have in marine parks. As Barry (2010, Para, 12) explained, "Isolation among marine animals is highly stressful, which leads to abnormal behavior." Marine parks such as Sea World have what they call petting pods, where the children can pet and feed the Orcas. Orcas are given tranquilizers to help them deal with the stress and anxiety of human contact. People might not be so eager to pet these wild mammals if they knew everything the Orca had to go through just so they

In the Article, “The Encyclopedia of Tourism and Recreation in Marine Environments” it explains the welfare of marine wildlife held in captivity. Frohoff explains that over the past decade the welfare of all captive marine wildlife has burgeoned with growing bodies of research documenting the pain, fear, sentience, suffering, and emotion of the appropriate treatment of marine animals. We need to take into consideration on what is humane, justifiable, responsible, legal, and ethical marine tourism for captive animals. The tricks and trainer behaviors that we as the public enjoy seeing can have a fatal consequence not only for the animals themselves but also for the trainers conducting the behaviors and the public. We have made these animals public figures, so we should solve the question of how to correctly take care of these animals. The rise in death counts between the animals, trainers, and public is an exceeding number that needs to be taken into consideration. The article claims and important perspective on the welfare of the Orcinus Orcas and all marine wildlife in captivity. We as the trainers and captors need to solve what is humane, justifiable, responsible, legal, and emotionally ethical for these intelligent animals because then it would lead us to take better care of the animal and there be less worry and

People say that keeping orca’s in captivities is not a problem, yet they do not realize that, orcas are also human beings. There are several reasons, why keeping these thirty-feet long creatures, in captivities is a problem. One of them, which are the tank, which is too small, compared to ocean where they can swim freely. One the other side, in captivities, the space is limited. Comparatively, to how they swim out in the wild “orcas can swim up to 100 miles per day- a phenomenal amount, in comparison to the exercise they receive in captivity”(Cronin). While being in captivity, orca has to keep swimming in circles or floats. Out “In the wild, killer whales typically travel in pods of between five and 30”(Melissa). In captivities there are only few whales, so it makes them more aggressive toward one another. This sometimes can be lead to danger by killing each other for fighting to gain power of the tank.

In bondage, numerous orcas experience the ill effects of poor physical and psychological well-being. In the wild, they can without much of a stretch travel 50 to 100 miles a day. Be that as it may, in captivity, a regular tank is just twice their size, compelling the creatures to swim in little

Orcas are very intelligent creatures. They are easy to teach and the orcas are eager to learn. Being in captivity the orcas suffer many psychological side effects that also affect them physically. Orcas can become depressed, experience stress, anxiety, and depression. Having orcas in captivity is a danger to not only the trainers but the people who visit these animals. There has been documented and undocumented deaths and injuries reported and its higher than most people can imagine. It is not safe to be around these wild animals and it is made worse by being in captivity and

Captive orcinus orcas live in a relatively small space compared to their natural habitat. An orca would have to swim back and forth in it’s tank many times each day to equal the amount of miles it would swim in the ocean daily. “Captivity is, in essence, poor habitat for orcas, causing early death”(Captivity). Due to all the problems with killer whales being held in captivity, the whales experience a much shorter lifespan in captivity compared to their lifespan in the wild. Also all whales that have been held in captivity cannot be released back into their natural habitat because they may not be able to find their pod and they will not have the skills needed to survive.

The topic at hand is the captivity of orcas in institutions like SeaWorld. This issue

Since the beginning, Orca captivity and displacement has been a highly controversial issue. With some in support of educational value behind venues of captivity such as Sea World, and others opposed to the neglectful treatment and confinement of these behemoth mammals. Killer whales, more commonly known as orcas or blackfish in popular culture, are known to inhabit all oceans on the earth from tropical regions to both arctic and Antarctic areas. In nature, the Killer whale has been designated as the world’s largest apex predator, lacking any predatory threats from above. Accompanying their vaunting presence in the natural food chain, these complex species have been scientifically designated as mammals that

First, Orcas lack proper exercise while kept in captivity. In the wild, they swim up to 100 miles per day – a outrageous amount in comparison to the exercise they receive in captivity. An orca at seaworld would have to swim the distance of the main pool 1,900 times times in one day to swim 100 miles (“8 reasons”). Seaworld has

Unlike these wild orcas, captive orcas are unable to share the same experience with their families. Many marine parks tear the pods apart, creating artificial pods, and those orcas then don’t get the same social experience with their pod members like a wild orca would. It’s very easy to tell the difference between captive orcas and wild,

Orcas are not actually in the whale family, but are classified in the dolphin family as the largest and most powerful predators of this group. They reside in pods of up to 40 members and each pod will communicate in their own different language that only members of that pod can understand. While in the wild, Orca females can live up to one hundred years and males up to fifty years of age. But when the whales are held

Many people believe that the baby orcas at seaworld should be free in the ocean not in tanks that are too small for them. In my opinion I think they should be let go into the ocean where they belong with their families living in their natural habitat because that is where they belong in a large body of water not in small concrete tanks. In the article “Orca babies need their families, not concrete tanks and humans”, I read that they were writing about how orca babies need to be with their families and not in small tanks in contact with humans recently at sea world a baby orca named “kyra the last orca to be born at seaworld died just at 3 months of age”, in other words orcas should be left alone in the ocean to grow up with their families not