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Sea Pens

Satisfactory Essays

In the article entitled “SeaWorld tanks or sea pens? Dispute over which is best for orcas continues,” the Los Angeles Times is mainly focused on a dispute over releasing killer whales, SeaWorld thinks orcas would be safer in a large tank while animal activists and SeaWorld critics want orcas given a sense of freedom in a sea pen. First, the Los Angeles Times explores how marine biologists agree that these whales will most likely never be freed and if a compromise is made, the closest they would get to freedom would be a limited environment: “But marine biologists — including SeaWorld critics — agree that the orcas probably will never be released to the open seas. Even if the killer whales don’t spend the rest of their lives in the theme park, the closest they would get to freedom would be retirement in ocean coves. …show more content…

They say that long-captive orcas can’t withstand these conditions.” In addition, the Los Angeles Times mentions “Blackfish,” a documentary featuring one of SeaWorld’s orcas, Tilikum, and a petition used to free Tilikum to a sea pen: “A petition on change.org has collected more than 220,000 signatures. It calls for SeaWorld Orlando in Florida to release an orca featured in ‘Blackfish,’ Tilikum, to a sea pen.” Moreover, the Los Angeles Times describes how maybe one reason SeaWorld wasn’t inclined to free Tilikum is because one free orca’s story, Keiko’s, didn’t turn out so well: “Keiko was captured off Iceland in 1979 and trained to perform at theme parks…. the killer whale was transported to a sea pen in Iceland in

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