Blackfish
I want to know how many of the anti-captivity or anti-zoo or anti-orcas in captivity people had that viewpoint before seeing Blackfish.
You all are jumping onto a bandwagon of righteousness without questioning the (incredibly biased) source, or bothering to research the other side.
I had someone on here message me that we could just release the orcas in captivity into the wild, and as long as they are released in the right place, they will be fine. That is utterly and completely incorrect.
Normally, I wouldn’t waste the energy to be bothered by this. People have the right to their own opinions, no matter how much I may disagree. But with this issue in particular, there are laws being considered and vast public opinion being changed based on a biased, utterly incorrect “documentary.” It hurts and will hurt living, breathing animals. And not just some animals, but many.
People, analyze what you are saying and reblogging. Read the accounts and rebuttals from people actually involved in the care and training of these animals. If you care so much for the orcas and other animals in captivity, so thorough research. Humans have so much influence over these animals’ whole worlds. You owe it to them to at least make sure your information is correct, not just based on one documentary.
I was against captivity long before Blackfish was released. So are a lot of the people here on whale tumblr.
I am against captivity because I trust orca scientists and their peer-reviewed papers, not an entertainment corporation that stands to profit off the whales.
Me too. I was actually convinced by David Kirby’s journalistic expose on Seaworld’s corporate malfeasance Death at Sea World, which was published a full year before Blackfish. I mean, Blackfish is great, don’t get me wrong, its cool to raise awareness and I was glad to see someone make a documentary about it. But there is so much more depth to why it is totally inappropriate to keep killer whales in captivity than you can get into in a 2 hour documentary.
What do you propose we do with the whales currently in captivity?
One of the most frustrating and irritating parts about orca captivity is there really is no perfect solution when it comes to figuring out what to do with the captive whales. Clearly, they are not doing well in their current environments, but moving them to other environments (release, sea pens, ect.) also present challenges that are not easily overcome.
Most have been too mentally/physically damaged by their time in captivity (e.g the whole lack of teeth thing) so they cannot be released into the wild. There are a few orcas that could potentially be candidates for release into the wild, such as Lolita or the recently captured orcas in Russia, but the vast majority would not survive.
Sea pens/ocean sanctuaries are another popular solution (and I really do like this idea), but these too have their issues. Sea pens for one or two orcas are definitely in the realm of possibility, but a large sanctuary with multiple whales and multiple pens is logistically and financially tricky and I honestly don’t think that’s something that will happen in the near future.
At this point in time, in my opinion, the cheapest and most viable solution to ending orca captivity is halting breeding and allowing the captive orcas to stay where they are until they die, with perhaps some improvements in tank size, enrichment programs, and overall whale social structure. I don’t like this solution, I really truly don’t (because the whales are still going to suffer) but I don’t know of any other alternatives that are feasible at the moment.
I hope that with time somebody will figure out a way to make ocean sanctuaries work because that would really increase the animals’ quality of life. Perhaps if there was some cooperation among marine parks and scientists, this would be possible.
The sad thing is that orcas should have never been in captivity to begin with. Simply being in human care has stripped them of what it means to be an orca. They are no longer able to function normally, and because of this, it makes finding a perfect solution pretty damn hard.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/1OkwlNF.
