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Re: Seaworld
| quote: | Originally posted by KaiLee
So my parents thought it would be a grand idea to go to Orlando this weekend and visit Seaworld. The problem is I hate zoos and all forms of places that force animals to live in captivity and perform for the amusement of human beings.
So the question is......is Seaworld really that bad or is it actually decent? |
That's exactly the reason why I quit going to Sea World. Dolphins and whales are kept in small tanks and then forced to entertain. That was all I needed to see to make the decision to never return.
Sorry to be the downer by posting this guys, but I don't smoke. 
The public display industry captures many species of marine mammals from the wild, especially whales and dolphins. The Humane Society of the United States believes that these animals should not be taken from the wild simply to entertain and amuse people, for a number of reasons.
Life in the Wild
The very nature of these animals makes them uniquely unsuited to confinement. In the wild, whales and dolphins live in large groups (called pods), often in tight family units. Family bonds often last many years. In some species, they last for a lifetime.
Whales and dolphins travel long distances each day, sometimes swimming in a straight line for a hundred miles, other times remaining in a certain area for hours or days, moving several miles along a coastline and then turning to retrace their path. These marine mammals can dive up to several hundred meters and stay underwater for up to half an hour. They spend only 10 to 20% of their time at the surface.
The sea is to whales and dolphins much as the air is to birds—a three-dimensional environment, where they can move up and down and side to side. But whales and dolphins don't stop to perch. They never come to shore, as do seals and sea lions. Whales and dolphins are always swimming, even when they "sleep." They are "voluntary breathers," conscious of every breath they take. They are always aware, and always moving. Understanding this, it is difficult to imagine the tragedy of life in no more than a tiny swimming pool.
Life in Captivity
Life for captive whales and dolphins is nothing like a life in the sea. It is almost impossible to maintain a family group in captivity. Tanks only allow a few strokes in any direction before coming to a wall. Because tanks are shallow, the natural tendencies of whales and dolphins are reversed—they spend more than half their time at the tank's surface.
This unnatural situation can cause skin problems. In addition, in captive killer whales (orcas), it is the probable cause of dorsal fin collapse, as without the support of water, gravity pulls these tall appendages over as the whale matures. Collapsed fins are experienced by all captive male orcas and many captive female orcas, who were either captured as juveniles or who were born in captivity. However, they are observed in only about 1% of orcas in the wild.
In a tank, the environment is monotonous and limited in scope. Sonar clicks, the method by which individuals define their surroundings, have limited utility in such an environment. These animals, who are perpetually aware, have nothing like the varied stimulation of their natural environment. In perpetual motion, they are forced into literally endless circles. Life for these animals is a mere shadow of what it was in the wild.
The Problem
What must life be like for these complex, gregarious, three-dimensional creatures who suddenly find themselves in a comparatively bland, isolated, two-dimensional enclosure? And what of the capture process itself? It violently disrupts social groups, splits up families, and snatches individual animals from the water; it is a completely unnatural event. Capture stress can be very severe and even fatal. And the act of capturing betrays the trust of dolphins in particular, who often come to play at the bow of the capture boat, only to be netted and hauled aboard, an incredibly traumatic ending to an innocent and joyous behavior.
At first look, a whale or dolphin show may seem exciting, even for the animals. But when you look past the show to the high mortality rates and stress-related causes of death in captive whales and dolphins, the effects of captivity suggest a far harsher reality. The public display of whales and dolphins in marine parks and aquaria is waning in Europe and Canada, but it is still prevalent in the United States and is increasing in developing countries, particularly those in Asia.
Although seals and sea lions may breed readily in captivity, only a few species are held in numbers large enough to sustain a breeding population. Whales and dolphins, on the other hand, do not breed well in captivity. Some species have never produced surviving offspring, while the calves of others suffer high mortality rates. Therefore, many of the marine mammals on public display in the world still come from the wild.
Whales and dolphins, known as cetaceans, are housed in cement aquariums very different from their natural habitat. The most commonly kept cetaceans are killer whales, beluga whales, and dolphins.
In the wild killer whales, also known as orcas, live in pods of two to fifty whales and swim up to 100 miles in a day and dive to depths of 500 feet. Some killer whales stay with their families for life as they travel in pods and sometimes join other pods for hunting or socializing. They prefer deep water and usually spend 10 to 20 per cent of their time at the surface. Each pod has its own dialect for communicating.
In captivity, the killer whale is very limited, unable to swim the lengths and dive to the depths they do in the wild. In an aquarium they will spend up to 50 per cent of their time at the surface, which is probably the reason they sometimes suffer from dorsal fin collapse. Dorsal fin collapse is the result of gravity pulling on the fin when it does not have the support of the water.
The chlorine can also cause skin and eye problems for cetaceans and the sonar clicks used in the wild are not as effective. Whales end up swimming in circles with little stimulation, suffering psychologically, mentally and physical. There is a high mortality rate both for whales captured from the wild and those born in captivity.
Like killer whales, belugas travel hundreds of miles in the wild. Constrained in an aquarium the swim in circular patterns, unable to live and swim naturally. They too form social bonds and swim and live in pods with other beluga whales, which is not possible in captivity.
All cetaceans have a unique set of behaviours that includes foraging, breaching, and fluke waving. Foraging refers to the hunt for food, breaching involves leaping clear out of the water, and fluke waving is the unique raising of the tail vertically out of the water. These behaviours are difficult, if not impossible, for whales and dolphins to perform in captivity.
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See ya Sunday.
