In Fairness, My Last Word

In the interest of fairness, I went to Sea World’s Website to check them out, and I did learn a few things. Since 1965 they have rescued and rehabilitated over 17,000 stranded, sick, or injured animals, and they do conduct an endangered species breeding program. You may be interested to know that Tilikum (I’ve been misspelling his name), also affectionately known as Tily, was caught in November, 1983 near Iceland—remember the US Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972? Apparently other nations don’t feel shy about violating it and then selling the whales to us (while the Marine Mammal Protection act put a stop to Pacific Ocean captures, it didn’t end those occurring near Iceland). Tily is currently the largest orca in captivity, weighing in at around 13,000 lb., or about six-and-a -half tons. At this moment, there are 42 captive orca whales (according to Wikipedia), and Tily is the sire of 15 of them per the most recent head count.

Blog posts at Sea World’s site are full of comments about the recent incident, but what interested me was that a number of people, including youngsters, stated how inspired they had been by the work being done there. One young person wanted to become a veterinarian, for example. I can honestly say I can applaud much of what the people at Sea World are doing. It is not cheap to rescue and rehabilitate wild animals, but that is not what is happening with the orca population there—or if whales are being rehabbed, that does not seem to be the main thrust of the program. Also, I wonder how much it costs to keep 29 orca trainers employed, not counting the staff required to take care of the animals. That can’t be cheap either. Trained killer whale shows are big business, and many people don't want to admit it.

I would sincerely like to know what kind of conditions these animals live in? Are they happy? Do they engage in a healthy social life, or are they isolated from each other-and if so, why and how often? These are questions I can’t answer without going there and seeing first-hand, and frankly, that won’t be happening, because I can’t afford it!

I could not find out how many shows are done weekly at Sea World in Orlando, Florida, but the (on-line only) purchase of a ticket to Sea World guarantees you one visit anytime within one year from the date of purchase. With that ticket you can visit a second time free within seven days of your initial visit. The price of an adult ticket on-line is $78.95, and a child’s ticket is $68.95. If you buy a ticket good for two parks, it will cost $109.95 for one adult and $99.95 for one child. The bonus is that with a multipark ticket, you get unlimited admission, plus free round-trip transportation between Sea World and Busch Gardens. Wow! That’s a pretty good deal, but at the same time, only available to people with the time and money to go there, and that leaves a lot of us out.

You might be interested to know that there is an effort being mounted to return Lolita, the solitary remaining whale at the Miami Seaquarium, to the wild in her native waters off Puget Sound. According to researchers, she still vocalizes in the unique language shared by the Puget Sound orcas—which NOAA has listed as endangered. Apparently the Board of the Seaquarium has not yet ratified the agreement put forward by the Orca Network ( http://www.orcanetwork.org/) , and based on what happened with Keiko, I question whether it is the right way to go. She should not have to remain isolated where she is, however, and I doubt many people would disagree with that.