Seaworld
This is a very touchy subject that deserves more than a few paragraphs. So bear with me as I’m going to try and lay some ground work as to what possibilities might rectify this highly controversial problem.
SEAWORLD. Today, mentioning SeaWorld is like shouting SHARK!! at the beach. No one wants to hear it and everyone wants it to go away.
I want to make something very clear. I do not condone in any way the captivity of sea mammals. Whales and dolphins are extremely intelligent with families that stay together for life. They tend to their sick and raise their young. They have languages that I believe are far more advanced than any human language. Their environment covers more than 70% of our planet. And whales, dolphins and pinnipeds are absolutely the undisputed rulers of their domain.
Now that the public knows very well that these extraordinary mammals shouldn’t be kept in captivity any more than we should be locked up in a tiny closet away from family and friends for the rest of our lives. What should be done about this??? First and foremost, they should all be released back into the pods they came from and any further capturing should be totally outlawed and met with a very heavy fine and a prison sentence.
Now let’s go back in time. Just a little way, when it all began. When SeaWorld was the largest animal attraction in the country and considered heroes. Whereas now, in the present, their stock has dropped considerably and they’re now considered the big bad villains.
It’s kind of ironic though. SeaWorld and Marineland of the Pacific once considered heroes for initially introducing us to the world of whales and dolphins taught us, as they learned themselves, just how smart and loveable they are. Are now being hated and referred to as villains. Yet, if not for the whales and dolphins in captivity, the general public might still think they’re just fish. After all, it’s not like we can drive our cars across a desert or into a forest, camp out next to a nice fire, sing songs and wait for a particular animal to stroll past. Whales and dolphins live in the oceans, where we don’t belong. It’s an alien world to us. Much larger and far more dangerous with no campsites or fire pits. And even today, only a very small portion of the world’s population has ever seen a whale or dolphin in person. Yet they’re adored and loved by nearly everyone.
It wasn’t long ago when killer whales (orcas) were thought to be the most ruthless savages in the ocean. I have books that were written in the middle to late 60’s that actually say, “the killer whale is extremely deadly and should be avoided at all costs. They will attack and sink any boat they come across. And with a ferocious never quenched appetite, they will devour any living creature they come across including humans”.
Less than 45 years ago the Navy was teaching this to their sailors. Professors teaching animal behavior were teaching this notion to their students. And look where we are today. The world isn’t flat anymore either.
If not for seeing them from a seat above a small man-made swimming pool, we would never have imagined how intellectual and friendly their joyful personalities are, even when they’ve been taken away from their families and placed in captivity. It really takes a large and strong-minded brain to adapt from living the life of the most widespread and free animal on Earth to living out their lives in a strange and unfamiliar world in nothing more than a small fish bowl without ever seeing their loved ones again. I can’t speak for anyone else, but as for me, I think I would have cracked in less than one day. So, don’t think for one second that I’m not saddened to the point of my heart breaking every time I see them trapped in a very alien world where they don’t belong or chose to be in.
However, even though the Shamu and dolphin shows bring in the vast majority of visitors and money each year, SeaWorld does much more with their facility. Their rescue programs have saved many whales, dolphins, and every specie of pinnipeds, from sickness, stranding’s and injuries along every coastline. They’ve transported many of them back to their oceanariums where they’ve given them new life only to return them to the sea where they belong. Many times, in the very same location where they were rescued or have waited for a family of others to pass by. There’s also a special program designed just for schools. Students get a up close look as to how medical check-ups are performed, how they’re fed and given vitamins and medications. This leaves a profound and ever-lasting impression while encouraging students to enter the field of Marine Biology, Oceanography and Marine Mammal Behavior. SeaWorld is also highly vested in saving our environment and continuously plan gatherings to clean the ocean and beaches of trash that WE leave behind. These are just a few of the good things SeaWorld engages in day after day that really goes unnoticed. This of course doesn’t justify keeping dolphins in captivity or worse yet, keeping the murderers in Taiji Japan in a very lucrative business of capturing the ones they can sell and killing the rest.
It seems everyone wants to join the bandwagon to close SeaWorld’s doors forever. Shut them down and make a new mall to take its place. Well, that’s not going to happen. SeaWorld is part of a huge conglomeration of corporations that are not going to just lie down and quit. Of course, like everything else in the world today, it all comes down to money. What I want to discuss here is not the never-ending battle with them to close, but how we can work together with SeaWorld to actually free the captive dolphins and more importantly, stop all the buying and selling of all sea mammals. Which should put an end to the capturing and massacres taking place today in Taiji Japan and the Faroe Islands in Denmark. It’s always better to have allies rather than enemies. And if there’s even a small chance we can change SeaWorld’s direction, isn’t it worth a try? After all, when it comes down to protecting sea mammals, who better than SeaWorld could we have to help inforce this? It’s very possible to once again, make SeaWorld the heroes they once were.
I believe open tanks where the dolphins can come and go as they please works. It’s been done before in the Virgin Islands by the late Dr. John Lilly. And there’s no reason it can’t be done again. It’s well known dolphins enjoy interacting with humans and there’s many documented cases that proves this. Pods of dolphins have surrounded people lost at sea when sharks have been in the area. They’ve been known to guide boats to safety through treacherous coral reefs. And the incredible event when pods of dolphins show up like clockwork every year along the Mauritanian coast of Northwest Africa. To this day, the Imragen Tribe have depended on fishing for their survival, and even more so on the help of the dolphins. To this day, the Imragen tribe will wait along the shoreline for the migrating Mullets. Once sighted, they beat the surface of the water with sticks to call in the dolphins, who faithfully come and herd the fish into the waiting nets. The dolphins always help and gain nothing from this interaction. These are just a few of the many relationships between dolphins and humans that have been recorded for hundreds of years, and still continues today. The dolphins must know how important their help is to the Imragen tribe each year and if we could show them the same gratitude for playing with us in an open bay for everyone to enjoy, they just might return on a continual basis. Which of course, would be much more exciting than watching them swim back and forth in a captive environment the size of a fishbowl, and a small one at that.
Another resource could be longer and more extravagant whale and dolphin sightseeing tours. Some taking multiple days going out to sea to observe the larger pods of Sperm whales, blue whales, humpback whales and super pods of dolphins numbering in the thousands in what some believe to be a sort of large family reunion. Witnessing dolphins, humpback whales, fin whales and more, feeding on migrating schools of anchovies or herring, stretching for miles. Tourists could actually take part in researching the whales alongside the scientists, documenting how many whales were seen to the size of the migrating schools of fish. Entire classrooms could be taken out for a weekend, like the week-long camping trip we used to take in grade school.
Then there’s the empty tanks. As of now, SeaWorld has medium size tanks where people can don a wetsuit and under strict supervision, swim with the various species of fish. The larger now empty tanks could be set up the same way for more advanced divers to be in the presence of larger fish and nonaggressive sharks and rays. There are many ideas that could become a reality for interaction between people and our ocean environments. Watching dolphins jump through hoops like a daily chore is somewhat exciting because they are still dolphins. However, seeing wild dolphins swim into an open cove and interact with the trainers or diving 25 to 30 feet below the surface and sliding your hand along the sandpaper-like skin of a shark, or look up to see a 15-foot wingspan of a Manta Ray as it glides overhead is absolutely priceless! Although these ideas seem far-fetched, just remember, not long ago, the idea of riding on the back of a killer whale or sticking your head inside its mouth would have not only been considered impossible and ridiculous but borderline suicidal.
In conclusion, if we put our minds together with SeaWorld rather than against, maybe a solution can be found that will thrill visitors with an exciting connection with marine life while keeping SeaWorld’s very important rescue programs, children’s educational programs and the many other attributes going strong. And of course, last but not least, the freedom for all whales and dolphins. These ideas will neither be easy nor happen overnight but once everyone is onboard and at least agreeing to think about it, a win win solution could be had by all.
I can’t leave out the other side of the coin which deals primarily with the countries that are responsible for the brutal mass killings going on right this very minute and their governments which promote this senseless slaughtering and wiping out entire pods or families of whales and dolphins. Of course, if SeaWorld were to ban all whales and dolphins from captivity, this would all end here and now. But until then, we must stand up and fight with the resources we have. I fully admire and give the highest respect to the people that protest this action on a daily basis throughout the streets worldwide, and the very brave men and women who put their own lives on the line, risking imprisonment or the very least, ordered to leave the country and never to return, so they can film and broadcast live footage of the carnage as it’s happening. And I’m thankful their numbers are growing every day. At the same time, reality tells me these governments are less than slightly disturbed by these fortunately, non-violent protests. I think the protesters could use a little boost to help make all their efforts come true. And a combination of protesting and financial losses could turn things around much quicker. Everyone knows we can write letters to our government and to their government. As another form of protesting, I pray it doesn’t stop. However, if we as individuals and the countries that stand behind us were to seriously stop visiting Japan, Denmark and the Faroe Islands, which depends highly on tourism as a main source of income. Sadly, in today’s world, money is practically everything. Money has the loudest voice on Earth and everyone it seems, is shouting at the top of their lungs. I’m not demanding or even requesting that you should stop buying Japanese products. That’s absurd and quite impossible. But it’s very easy to choose another destination for your vacation. That’s all. Soon enough, the governments will clearly see the tourism lessen. And this will give the hard-working protesters more ammo in their pockets. As an added bonus the messages sent out around the world would show the number of tourists that continues to drop. This in turn, would encourage other countries to follow suite. And with that, hotels will be empty, restaurants will slow down. All merchants’ will feel the pinch. And following right behind will be the loss of jobs and increased welfare. Like an avalanche this chain reaction will only get worse. And when it finally reaches the government, and it certainly will, then and probably only then, will they make the necessary changes. Once the government sees they are losing more money from the decrease in tourism, than they’re making by selling whales and dolphins, will they finally put an end to their barbaric actions. Just imagine, if everyone were to change their vacation to any other destination just once. Over a period of one year, the results would be dramatic!
I encourage all feedback. Good or bad, the more we talk about this, the sooner we will solve this life or death problem once and for all.