Seaworld - Orcas in Captivity

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The SeaWorld in Orlando is home to the famous orca whale known as Tilikum. Tilikum was captured in 1983 when he was two years old and was already 11.5 feet long. Tilikum now weighs 12,500 pounds and is over 22 feet long, he is the largest orca whale in captivity. He has been at SeaWorld for over 20 years now, and for those 20 years he has lived in a tank that contains 0.001 percent of the amount of water he would cover in a single day while swimming in the wild (“Over 30 Years and Three Deaths: Tilikum's Tragic Story - SeaWorld of Hurt”). While being in captivity, Tilikum has killed three people. The first person Tilikum killed was in February of 1991, before he was at SeaWorld, he was at a small park called Sealand. A trainer at Sealand named Keltie Byrne tripped and fell into a pool with three orcas, one of them being Tilikum. Tilikum pulled her to the bottom of the pool and then all the orcas proceeded to toss her around and drown her. After this incident, Sealand closed and Tilikum was put up for sale, and that’s when SeaWorld purchased Tilikum because they wanted him for breeding. While at SeaWorld, Tilikum as killed two people. The first person was Daniel P Dukes, in 1999. Daniel was not an employee at SeaWorld, he was a drifter who had snuck into the park after hours (“Man In Whale Tank Was Drifter”). The next morning his clothes were found outside Tilikum’s tank and his naked body was found draped over Tilikum’s back. Dawn Brancheau was the second person Tilikum killed at SeaWorld, Dawn was a highly experienced trainer who worked at SeaWorld. Tilikum yanked her into the pool by her pony tail and fractured her bones, broke her jaw, and dislocated her body parts all before he drowning her. After she died, they were able to pull her away from his grasp, but he never let go of her arm, he swallowed it. After Dawn’s death, Tilikum was held in isolation for a year before returning to performing.

SeaWorld has an excuse for almost everything that goes on and they continue to get away with the way they treat these animals and what goes on inside the walls of the park. Even after everything that has happened, they continue to receive business and attention. The parks are are based off a majority of lies and the mistreatment of animals. Hopefully in the future, places like SeaWorld will no longer be in business. If these parks didn’t exist, there would be no record of deaths by orcas and these animals could be living happily in the wild.

Works Cited

"5 Reasons Why SeaWorld's Orca Breeding Program Is Seriously Bad News." The Dodo. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.

"8 Reasons Orcas Don't Belong at SeaWorld - SeaWorld of Hurt." SeaWorld of Hurt. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.

Blackfish. Dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite. NFP Marketing & Distribution, 2014. Film.

By Simon Worrall, National Geographic PUBLISHED Sun Mar 29 08:19:23 EDT 2015. "Former Trainer Slams SeaWorld for Cruel Treatment of Orcas." National Geographic. National Geographic Society. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.

"Over 30 Years and Three Deaths: Tilikum's Tragic Story - SeaWorld of Hurt." SeaWorld of Hurt. Web. 6 Dec. 2015. .

"Man In Whale Tank Was Drifter." Tribunedigital-orlandosentinel. 8 July 1999. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.

"SeaWorld Fights to save Its Whale Shows." Web. 15 Dec. 2015.