Well, I've never been to the Sea World in Australia and so I can only speak from knowledge about the care and housing in the United States. I won't watch the movie Blackfish (I've seen parts of it) because I know the people involved in both sides and I've been quite involved with pro-captivity and anti-captivity. I think Blackfish is educational, to a point, but to people who've never been to Sea World they are taking the movie at face value and forming opinions about Sea World without ever having been there. Something to keep in mind, Sea World isn't responsible for the initial captures back in the late 60s/early 70s. Sea World San Diego opened originally as a restaurant with fish. If I remember correctly, it was supposed to be some sort of underwater-type restaurant where you could enjoy watching a variety of different species while you dined. It was already opened for a couple of years before the first whales were captured. Why they chose to move from a restaurant to a marine park, I don't know.
I agree with you about the breeding. I don't think they should keep breeding the dolphins and orca they have due to crowding problems all 3 Sea World parks have. I think they should let the current animals live out their lives and when they're gone, that's it. The problem with that, though, is that in the wild, orca have a lifespan similar to that of humans. There's been documented cases of a couple of individuals in the Southern Resident Pod (where Tokitae/Lolita from Miamiseaquarium is from) living 100+ years. I think one of them is still going strong. Nobody knows, yet, the lifespan of a captive orca as the two oldest, Corky2 in San Diego and Tokitae in Miami are about the same age and still going strong. I think overcrowding is a big problem. Even though Sea World houses their orca in pools that are larger than the standards required of them, it's still not big enough for the number of animals they have. I wish the captures had never happened. I've seen orca in the wild and Sea World is nothing in comparison.
I'm not saying people shouldn't watch Blackfish. I'm just saying to keep an open mind if you choose to watch it. Don't watch the movie and automatically think Sea World is a horrible place. The movie was made with the intent to shock it's viewers and make them see their side of things. PETA and Dr Paul Spong (whom I happen to think is a wonderful person) have been after Sea World for years to release its captive animals, but nobody seems to want to talk about what that would mean for the animals themselves. I am no longer pro-captivity for cetaceans, but I'm anti-release because it would kill the animals and that's not acceptable. To put them into sea pens isn't much better than keeping them in marine parks because they'd still be penned up and they'd also be in water with bacteria they don't have the immune system to fight off. They wouldn't be able to engage in any of their normal behavior in sea pens any more than what they can do in marine parks. I wish the show aspect of the parks would stop. It's turned into such a joke anyway with the costumed wetsuits the trainers wear and the dancing the trainers have to do. If they could figure out a way to turn the marine parks into more educational venues without the shows and without the constant breeding then I think that would be a good idea. Unfortunately, with the number of orca there are between the 3 parks and the amount of room, that's not really a viable option. Plus, the shows sell. New babies sell. Sea World would probably end up going bankrupt and then what would happen to the animals then?
I apologize if this has gotten off the track of the original discussion of the movie Blackfish. I just get very passionate on the subject as I've spent many years within Sea World and I know what goes on there and how the animals are cared for and I know the trainers and I just don't want people to get the wrong idea about the place based solely on the movie, which seems to be what is happening and what the movie wants to happen.
