Sea World's Thoughts

Sea World is not at all thrilled with Blackfish. They think that Blackfish lies about the truth of what Sea World actually does to benefit the orcas. Well, that is all a matter of opinion. Blackfish has actually brought the sales of Sea World down and some artist are along with Blackfish. Grechen Wilson is one of the artists that still performed at Sea World. A lot of people spoke out about her tweet saying, "I did my research... I can't wait to see my FANS and Saturday!" People were upset and saying if she had done her research then she would not be performing. Gretchen came back with "Wouldn't it be nice if this much effort could go into saving unborn babies?"

Sea World says that Blackfish is "dishonest, deliberately misleading and scientifically inaccurate." Sea World is having to fight the critics but only time will tell.They continue to say that they care for the animals but my thing is "Well, if you care for them, don't you think it is about time to set them back to the wild where they belong."

Blackfish is a film that can quickly change your mind about Sea World. Sea World doesn't want you to see it because of the controversy it has.Well, maybe its time for Sea World to start on some changes and actually start releasing the orcas.

Lolita

Keiko and Tilikum may be some of the most famous orcas but there are others. This orca was before Keiko and Tilikum and she a tragic story. Her name is Tokitae, but her stage name is Lolita. The reason her name changed was because the owners did not want people to know where she came from.

During her capture, the wranglers used bombs and speed boats in order to round up the orcas. The captures were off the shores of Washington. Besides Lolita, there were 5 other orcas captured and sent to different parts of the world, but Lolita was the only one to survive. The captures were deadly. What I mean is that many of the orcas died and the wranglers slit open the dead orcas and placed rocks in them that way the orcas would sink to the bottom hopping that the public does not see. Eventually, those dead orcas washed up on the shores and a legal case started. Now, no one can capture orcas off the shores of Washington. That is very hard to imagine losing your family and being taken away.

The plan for Lolita was to be a friend to another orca at Maimi Seaquarium named Hugo, but only the owners knew that they both came from the same pod. Hugo and Lolita communicated at a distance because the owners were worried that they may hurt one another, but really I think they just wanted to be together so they wouldn't be alone. Hugo would bang up against the wall to a point were he has hurt himself. Once he grew into his adolescence years that when he become determined to be with Lolita but killed himself in the process. The report on his death was the cause of a brain aneurysm. This left Lolita alone again.

Lolita continues to perform at Maimi Seaquarium. She is the oldest orca living in captivity.She was captured "on August 8, 1970 in Penn Cove, Whidbey Island. She was one of seven young whales sold to marine parks around the world from this roundup of over 80 orcas conducted by Ted Griffin and Don Goldsberry, partners in a capture operation known as Namu, Inc." Future orcas started to become aware of what was going on and started to come up with ways to avoid capture. Lolita's pod was too late to realize this. Today Lolita still lives in her small tank and the Seaquarium says that they do not have the money to make a bigger tank.

""Lolita is believed to be about 22 feet in length, weighs about 8,000 pounds, and is in good physical and mental health in spite of the fact that she has been held without other orcas since Hugo died in 1980. She is maintained in natural seawater drawn from Biscayne Bay and chilled to about 60° F, which is optimum for her in the Florida environment."

Despite Lolita's tragic experience, she is still calm, but she desires that companionship of others. There are others that are trying to free Lolita but no deal has been made yet. Lolita's tank is not appropriate. people can reach out and touch Lolita if they wanted to. That is not safe.

Keiko's Journey Home

Although adults had to deal with troubles on how they would deal with Keiko, the children was an important part of supporting Keiko. They would send letters wanting to help Keiko and pressure the adults to make that dream happen. Keiko had health issues which delayed his freedom. Things changed when a location was available that would help rehabilitate Keiko. The construction of a huge tank would take about 2 years but the construction had to be quick in order for Keiko to get better.  For Keiko's move, many experienced people had to be involved, that included his 2 trainers that had a close bond with him and experienced veterinarians.

Now, I know I have already talked about Keiko and the films he was in, but this film informs the people how Keiko truly lived. This film, The Free Willy Story: Keiko's Journey Home can be watched on YouTube. I wanted to write about another film, Keiko The Untold Story of the star of Free Willy, but I could not find a place to watch it. The film is narrated by Ranea Russo.

Keiko was captured around Iceland where it seems that most captured orcas are caught. The film also gives some information about orcas and how Keiko would have learned with his family's culture. He is then captured and sent to Canada. After being trained in Marine land, he is sent to Mexico were he grows tremendously. The film of Free Willy was recorded in this location in Mexico. After the movie, changes began about wanting to free Keiko.


When the time came for Keiko to leave, people/fans came to say good bye. Keiko had a beautiful, last performance. Now while all this is happening, there are issues with timing of air lifting Keiko to his new home. A new timing had changed and Keiko can sense that something is up and takes up time to prevent leaving. Finally, Keiko is set up to leave, but people wonder if Keiko remembers the time he was taken from his family. During his transportation to the airport, there are people lined up and watch him leave as late as 2 am. Keiko is one of the calmest orcas that people have had to deal with.

Keiko is then taught little by little on how to hunt, and how to adapt to currents. You can tell that Keiko is much happier in a bigger environment were he is diving and jumping higher than before. Keiko also becomes more vocal in communication. Due to this, scientist study Keiko's vocals in order to help find his family that he can return to. Keiko continues to grow bigger and his virus is going away. People believe that since he has been in a larger environment, less stress of entertainment, and natural sea water, his health has gotten better. Keiko then starts to learn spy hopping which is apart of orca hunting skills.

This 1st part of the film describes how Keiko lived his life. I think there is another part that features Keiko finally being returned to the wild.  Keiko is the dream I see that I want to see happen to the rest of the orcas in captivity. They should be freed to live their lives the way they are supposed to be. I hope that you wish to see that happen and to give the orcas hope that they will one day return or experience the new life in the wild. I want to keep the connect that orcas and people have in the wild.

Blackfish

Blackfish is a wonderful documentary that talks about the killer whale, Tilikum. Now, I have already talked about Tilikum before but this documentary goes more in-depth and an understanding how people feel about the issue of keeping orcas in tanks. Gabriela Cowperthwaite directs the film and she has done a fabulous job of showing the world this problem.

When I was younger, I used to want to dream of becoming one of Sea World's orca trainers. My mind quickly changed because of this documentary. I became more aware and realizing that things are not what it seems. Killer Whales are still my favorite animals but they deserve to be free and not spending years in a tank.

Blackfish shows the views of former trainers of Sea World and their opinions. I have had the same dreams they had but stuff happens. The trainers admit that they have felt embarrassed by what they have had to say or do. The trainers do not own the whales, the company does which makes it hard for trainers to do anything because they can't do anything. Its like you take care of an animal for so long and when the real owner comes to take them away, you can't do anything to protect them because the real owners have the papers to prove they own them. I don't believe that trainers are to blame. They have created bonds just like with any other pets. When whales come to Sea World, trainers do not know of any history that came with the whales. Sea World blames the trainers of what orcas do to the trainers themselves.

The video also talks about Tilikum's trainer, Dawn Brancheau. The film shows some parts of the case that affects Sea World and the trainers. The film also shows clips on how people caught orcas. Cowperthwaite interviews the people that caught orcas, and how they felt about catching the orcas.


Tilikum endured so much as a young orca. He was trained in a vicious way that may have started to develop a psychology problems at Sea Land. There was a film in the 70s called Orca which gives a different view on orcas, The are the exact opposite and are one of the friendliest and smartest animals in the world but just like any other wild animal, they can be dangerous. People need to be aware of this and not taken for granted.

Blackfish opens your eyes to what the world is like. The people that work for certain companies have to make hard decisions because they don't want to leave the orcas alone.  It is a very hard ethical decision that people/trainers have to make. As a trainer, you believe it is wrong to keep using an aggressive whale so you leave, but when you have worked with this whale for so long and knowing that the whale will still be in that situation is hard to make the decision to quit. You can watch Blackfish on Netflix. I hope you get a chance to watch this and keep an open mind. My wish is that Sea World only uses the orcas in order to rehabilitate them and then release them.

Killer Whales Discovery Documentary

Time to move on from what is going on with Sea World to something else. I want to talk about this documentary that came out in 2010 by the Discovery Channel. This documentary, Killer Whales, gives information on orcas. Ok, yes, I gave facts about orcas before but this goes into more information. This film shows how they hunt and how they interact in the world. You learn how they hunt and how intelligent they are.

You can watch Killer Whales on Netflix.

An orca hunting on the beach.

Orcas are strategic when it comes to hunting. They sometimes take the chance to come on land! Normally, they only use this technique when hunting for sea lions or seals. This documentary shows you how they live in the wild. These beautiful creatures belong in the wild and not in tanks. How will we be able to see the wonder of nature if people keep them tanked up.

Orcas are like people when telling stories or wisdom. Orcas pass on their skills and techniques to the next generations. They are able to "adapt to any prey they desire." Although orcas are a part of the dolphin family, they hunt their cousins, the dolphins. Orcas seem to have developed some knowledge to go to Africa at a specific time of year. Why you may ask? The dolphins gather there in order to get the sardines and that is where orcas will head there for the dolphins. This documentary shows how smart these orcas are when they work together.

Orcas spy hopping for their next meal.

The documentary also talks about orcas having a different language. Even though they use echolocation, they have different sounds for specific orcas. Its like they have their own culture as well. When hunting, they use a technique called spy hopping and they communicate with the other orcas on how to get the seal off the ice. They worked out a problem and executed it together. How amazing is that! The documentary even talks about who is stronger, an orca or a shark? You gotta watch it and see how cool that is.

Although this documentary is mostly about orcas hunting, you learn so much. You even get an understanding as to why orcas don't really hunt humans. Orcas learn through generations about what to eat and they may have learned that humans are not that tasty. Orcas are also playful creatures. They show just how wonderful they are and how smart that may even surpass humans. I recommend watching this film that way you get an understanding of how orcas are. You can watch Killer Whales on Netflix.

Rumors of Drugging Orcas!!!

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As if we couldn't be even more surprised, we hear that Sea World trainers are giving orcas anti-anxiety drugs. I wonder if they think it works. This article talks about the drug used and how it can affect the orcas. The drug, Valium, is a benzodiazepine (ben-zoe-dye-AZE-eh-peens). Diazepam affects chemicals in the brain that may become unbalanced and cause anxiety. Valium is used to treat anxiety disorders, alcohol withdrawal symptoms, or muscle spasms

Another drug, Tagamet, which is used for treating and preventing ulcers of the stomach and small intestine, and treating gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). An ex-Sea World Trainer, John Hargrove says through out his time working with the orcas, he has seen them regurgitate their food out of boredom. Hargrove has been to other Sea Worlds and has seen the same symptoms. Hargrove is set to testify at the hearing of the bill in California to ban the entertainment of shows using orcas on Tuesday, April 8, 2014.

Besides regurgitation, orcas have been known to pick off the paint on the tanks. Sometimes when the orcas would peel the paint, they would hurt themselves in the process. If the orcas hurt themselves badly then Sea World would hold the orcas from performing until they healed but then the orcas would go right back at peeling the paint.

Some more news on Sea World using drugs. They have admitted to using them. "Trainers at SeaWorld have been documented administering psychoactive drugs to some of their marine mammals, according to new documents obtained by Buzzfeed."

“They do not cope with being kept in these tanks. They survive to some degree, but they don’t thrive to any degree,” founder of the Orca Research Trust, Ingrid Visser, told Buzzfeed. “They show stereotypical behaviors that are abnormal, repetitive behaviors like head bobbing, chewing on concrete, and self mutilation by banging the side of their heads on the side of the tank, and there isn’t a single orca living in captivity where you cannot see one of these behaviors, and in many of them you see multiple examples of these behaviors.”

Not all animals or humans show these behaviors so why give orcas this kind of medicine. Medicine is suppose to heal not make things worse. Obviously, the drugs are not working and the orcas are becoming worse than before. This is a sign that they should be released and not meant to be in tanks for the rest of their lives.

News in San Diego!

Director of Blackfish, Gabriela Cowperthwaite.

Finally! Some news to prevent orcas from performing in Sea World. Unfortunately, it is only in the state of California. What I will say is that it is a stepping stone. The California state legislature came up with the idea after watching the documentary, Blackfish. Don't worry, I will eventually talk about Blackfish later on.

Marine mammal scientist, Naomi Rose.

Assemblyman, Richard Bloom, will be joined by the director of Blackfish, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, and Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute. They will work together in writing the bill. People will have their disagreements about the bill, but it would only effect their business or themselves.

"The proposed law would end performance-based entertainment for all killer whales in California, captive breeding programs and the export and import of genetic material, and the import and export of orcas within the state.

Also, the proposal would retire all captive killer whales to sea pens if available and would allow retired orcas to be on display, but not perform. The bill would limit the amount of human interaction for trainer safety, according to Bloom's fact sheet."

  We hope the bill will effect the Sea World locations in Orlando, Florida and San Antonio, Texas. There has been talk that ticket sales have slowly gone down since the premier of Blackfish. The ticket sales could be in retaliation to ban the orcas. Let's hope that it works.

Tilikum

Besides Keiko, the next famous orca is Tilikum. Tilikum has been in the eye of the news media for several years now. Tilikum is still living at Sea World Orlando. He is the largest orca living in captivity. Just like Keiko, Tilikum has a collapsed dorsal fin. Not many orcas have the collapsed dorsal fin in the wild but lately there have been plenty in captivity. Tilikum is mainly focused in the documentary, Blackfish, but I will talk about that in another post. Tilikum has been involved with 3 deaths during his captivity. Although he has been involved with the deaths, Sea World will not return him to the wild.

Tilikum with 2 other female orcas performing at Sea Land.

A former trainer at Siylend Pacific province of British Columbia, Canada, Colin Baird, used to train Tilikum and that "he was very easy to work with." The accident when another trainer, Keltie Byrne, slipped and fell into the tank and the 3 orcas kept her from reaching the surface. Baird says it was and accident and that it was not the orcas fault. Baird does not blame Tilikum for the deaths. Baird understood how Tilikum was and would leave him alone if he had to.

"They have personalities, for the lack of a better word, individual personalities, and they have good days and bad days just as we do," Baird said. "There were some days, Tilikum would have a certain look in his eye -- then I would just say, 'Nope, not getting in the water with him today.' "

Colin Baird with Tilikum during his time at Sea Land.

Baird moved on to Keiko and helping him return to the wild. Baird grew attached to Keiko and took it hard when he learned of Keiko's passing. Keiko was the last orca that Baird trained. The news of Tilikum would continue with the next 2 deaths at Sea World. Baird worries for Tilikum everday and wonders what will happen to him.

 "I felt badly for Tilikum, and wondered what his coming days were going be like in terms of, was he going to be secluded off to some pool just used for stud?" Baird said. 

Sea World was interviewed about how they are keeping things straight. The interview makes it sound like Sea World is perfect and things are improving. Others say that Sea World is keeping Tilikum just for breeding. I would have to believe that as well. Since the death of Sea World trainer, Dawn Brancheau, Sea World only uses Tilikum at the end of the show. He is not trained by any other trainer.

Dawn Brancheau and Tilikum before her death at Sea World.

Tilikum is a great animal just like any other orca and they need to be returned back to the sea. As far as I know, there should not be anything wrong with Tilikum and Sea World says that they are there to rehabilitate and help sea animals, but obviously they like the orcas too much to let them go.

Free Willy

This is Keiko in the wild.

I am sure that besides learning about Orcas from Sea World, the only other way is from watching the Free Willy movies. That is how I became interested in orcas. Yes people, Willy was a real orca, but Willy was just his acting name. His real name is Keiko. There are 3 movies with Keiko and the last film uses a different orca but I really just want to focus on the movies that star Keiko. The actor,
Jason James Richter who plays Jesse in the movies, will always thank Keiko for this opportunity. He was not afraid when he was will Keiko. He states, "I remember it being one of those moments of pure and utter fascination as a child..." This is how I felt and still feel to this day. Although Richter does not do much acting now, he still remembers his time with Keiko.

The 1^st movie, Free Willy, is about Willy living in captivity. He lives in a dolphin tank and will not listen to any of his trainers. The only one that Willy accepts is a troublesome young kid named Jesse. They relate because they feel they are alone. Those two learn to figure out what to do with Willy along with Jesse’s friends and new family. This movie has a great example of how Sea World is using the orcas in the tanks. My opinion is that the tanks should be bigger and only used to rehabilitate the orcas and returned to the wild. I hope people will watch this movie and understand that you can feel what the orcas need and not just some sideshow attraction.

The first Free Willy movie came out in 1992.

This movie came out in 1995.

The 2^nd movie, Free Willy 2: the Adventure Home, is all about family. Willy is free and reunited with his pod. You learn that he has a brother and a sister. I know this may sound a little “girly” of me but I relate because I too have a brother and sister (note: at the time I watched this movie I did have a brother and sister, now I have 3 more sisters). I am all about family which I am sure you are as well. This movie overcomes family issues and what happens in an oil spill. Oil spills not only hurt the waters, but the land and animals. When watching, you will see the oil company plans to use the trapped orcas and sell them to marine parks. This kind of gives you an idea as to what companies will do for money. The orcas were not harmed during the movie. 

This movie came out in 1997.

The 3^rd movie, Free Willy: the Rescue, is about poaching. Even though there is poaching on land there is also poaching on the sea. Jesse returns and becomes friends with a whaler’s son named Max. Jesse uses this to his advantage in order to learn the poachers. Max does not want to be like his father, who is one of the hunters, because Max like whales. The lessons learned in the film are father/son relationships, poaching is never aloud, and when you believe something is wrong you need to do something about it.

Although the acting may not be that great like if you were using Brad Pitt or Emma Stone but you learn so much. These movies are great for kids and hope they learn to value life. The final movie finally helps set Keiko free. Keiko was released to the wild after many dilemmas. More info on Keiko will be discussed later. Michael Jackson also helped with singing songs for the movies. The Free Willy-Keiko Foundation was founded in order to help free Keiko and hopes to do the same for other orcas.

Documentary The Whale

You learned some facts about the orcas from last time. When you see orcas in the news, you see that they are very dangerous, and you should not be around them. What you don't know is that most of the problems came from Sea World issues. You hear that orcas have killed trainers over time, but what the media does not mention is that there is no record of orcas attacking humans in the wild. In an article, Why Killer Whales Don’t Eat People: Where Science and Legend Meet, it discusses a little bit about why orcas do not attack humans in the wild. In Sea World, the orcas do not simply attack humans for food but when your in a "bathtub" for most of your life, you tend to get a little crazy and that is how the orcas feel.

A great example of an orca not attacking humans in the wild is the documentary, The Whale. The orca that is in the video was just a young orca. The orca was a male named Luna and it was separated from its pod. Normally orcas are very social and must stay with their families especially if they are young. There are different types of orcas and Luna was known as a Resident orca which meant they only eat fish. Luna surprising lived about 4 years with the people of Nootka Sound. They interacted with him by petting him, and even talking to him. Although he was never reunited with his pod, Luna made a family with the town. The people and Luna played together and sometimes it seemed that Luna even helped out with some of the logger workers. Luna would even let the people pet his tongue! How incredible is that. Humans and orcas side by side and not in a contained "bathtub." There was no issues besides what other people had ideas for.

As time went on, some people that really did not welcome Luna became very concerned for his safety and thought it would be best to not interact with him because Luna might hurt himself with one of the boats. Yes, some people started to believe that same idea but orcas cannot live without socialization. Luna would try his best to meet people and those people knew it was hard to push him away.

Sea World started to get involved and claimed that they would return Luna to his family but the natives of the land decided to make their own plans. They had a calling that told them that Sea World should not take Luna. After much planning and having Luna stay away from Sea World, the towns people were able to keep Luna away from Sea World but then charges would come about. Up to 1,000 dollars of fines if people would interact with Luna. It was heartbreaking for people and Luna. Eventually, there were only few people who would interact with Luna only to make sure he was safe from accidentally hurting himself. The documentary is great for all ages which teaches us that not only do we need to respect the wild life but to know that our species can be safe with each other. It is a great emotional experience and it tells of a wonderful life this young orca had without the life in a "bathtub."