http://theorcaproject.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/keto-tilikum-express-stress-of-orca-captivity/ Do you believe (as many on another board) that the joy of seeing killer whales up close means the fact that their lives are reduced so much, that more whale calfs die in captivity than it the wild and the fact that only 2 of seaworld whale pools are deeper than their big male is long is a good compromise? Pesonally I think we need to stop breeding them and put these adults who can't be retrained to the wild into sea pens to live a better life.
Anyone who thinks they can take an animal that's been confined in a small pool alone, and put it in a sea pen with other orcas...I don't even know what to say to people who think that, except something that'd probably not be allowed to be said here. You can't even take a house mouse out of your house and put it 'in the wild' (backyard). It will die. It's a little more rational to require that going ahead, into the future, orcas have pens where they can see and interact with other orcas. The idea that you can just take an animal and plop it down in a totally different environment and it will be 'happier' there, or even be able to survive, function, feed...animals are happier, less stressed, and healthier being left in the environment they are accustomed to. The trick is, going forward, make the captive environment one where they can see and interact with other orca. People better be ready, though, to see that when they are together, they fight and can be a little bit au naturel. But that is going to be exceedingly expensive, and most likely, will eventually put the end to captive wild orca, which may be the intention.
That photo of the orca with blood gushing from her blow hole is shocking. That anything like that should happen for our entertainment!!!!!
IMO welsummerchicks hit the nail on the head. One can not go and "free" these creatures. Here is a question? Does keeping Orca's in captivity increase societies interest/awareness enough to benefit orca's in the wild? If yes, groups should focus on having the proper tanks and so forth. (Keeping in mind any orca's in captivity will not be living a natural life.) If one thinks wild life photography and well done documentaries can sufficiently educate and inspire people to be "aware" of wild orca's then.. Stop breeding in captivity and when the existing whales die, outlaw the captive keeping of orca. I personally would much rather see a well done documentary on a given species of wild life than see some caged half crazy specimen in a modern day circus side show. (Thanks Royd... Know I got that Free Willie song stuck in my head...) ON
Welsommer and I often disagree, but on this I think we have pretty identical viewpoints. It might be possible to provide larger tanks or tanks with some more natural elements included for orcas that were raised in captivity, or have lived in captivity for many years, but a complete change? Seems like it would be much more traumatic.
Oh so hang on a minute. That whale with the bleeding blowhole was injured during a fight with another whale. Maybe it's not such a hot idea to put them together in small pens so they have 'company'! And....how about this - maybe when they're out in that idyllic 'wild' they rather regularly get into fights, but maybe because they have more room, they don't quite as often, get fatal injuries fighting. This is a little bit like my friend who kept her (I don't know, maybe 4 or 5) horses in a set of 20X20 pens, and decided to put two together, in one 20X20 pen, because she wanted to get another horse and didn't have another pen. So a mare and a gelding went in one pen, and the gelding got his leg broke from the mare and had to be put down. What she told ME was that she wanted them to 'have more company'. Maybe some ideas about animal keeping aren't harmonious with the facilities they have. And maybe in sea pens, you'd have one living and 20 dead whales.
While I agree that there are problems with captive whales, I don't think moving them from captivity to the wild or into sea pens are viable options. One of the main points of the article was social interactions and family structure. Returning whales to the wild would mean that each whale able to be returned would have to be acclimated to the ocean of birth and reintroduced to the same pod. This is nearly impossible; and to fail to do so means that all the negative social interactions mentioned in the article come into play. An unconditioned, unsocialized whale introduced to a wild pod is not going to have an easy time, and may even be killed by wild whales. It has no clue what wild whales do, and is handicapped. Sea pens are hardly a better option. You would still have the social issues of confined animals, and the feeding issues. You would also bring in other problems such as an immuno-compromised (according to the article) animal introduced to an uncontrolled environment, safety issues with sea pens and water quality issues. Anyone seeing and experiencing wild orca know that they are not friendly tame beasts. They did not earn the term "killer whale" for being fuzzy, sweet little animals. They are intelligent, aggressive pack hunters with a defined pack structure.
