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Monday, May 4, 2015

My life lately and my orca study

Lately we have been hosting someone at our house for a few nights, we have been cleaning, Matt has been having to room with me, we've gone out to Deep Lake and to get milkshakes with the Johnsons, I have been studying, and the list goes on. 

Today I'm going to talk about Orcas, SeaWorld, and Captivity, so if you don't want to read about that....just don't. :) :) 

So first, let me go into a little history:

Last summer I found this video on Youtube, and I felt incredibly inspired by it and I was like, "Wow, a killer whale trainer...what an awesome job! But I dunno, it seems really dangerous." (Note: I still like this video, but I do know that it was very much staged and it just has a phony feel to it. But whatever.)  


So, naturally I dove right into studying. I looked up Orca documentaries and I came across the movie, "Blackfish." (I think that's how it went, I'm not positive though how I came across that movie) 


I was like, "Hm, looks interesting I'll watch it." 

So, those who have seen it know that it starts really eerie, so I was a little tense in the beginning, but eventually I started getting into it. I was amazed at what I was learning. 
After the movie, first I felt incredibly depressed and I was like, "I'm NEVER going to work as a SeaWorld trainer." 

That night I felt really, really sad because of what I'd learned and  I wrote in my journal, writing about Tilikum (the orca at SeaWorld that Blackfish is about) .
And I wrote about how it really made me sad, and I wrote a prayer asking God to help Tilikum be free. (At the time I thought Tilikum was the only abused orca). 
I also drew an orca in my journal and it had tears coming out of it's eyes....it really is a depressing picture. 

I started studying more about orca captivity and just SeaWorld in general, and what I uncovered was just...wow. I couldn't believe it. 
My studying started snowballing from there. I learned that SeaWorld wasn't the only place that had captured orcas, and performance animals. 

Days after I watched Blackfish, I watched other documentaries about orcas. One about an orca named Luna, and one about their hunting, intelligence, and so on.
I was astonished to learn about their intelligence. It still just amazes me. 
Then I found videos on orcas from Dr. Ingrid Visser, and I was inspired by her. She is a marine biologist who has done tons of research on orcas and is totally against orca/dolphin captivity. 

Somehow along the way of studying I kept seeing the orca name "Lolita" pop up, so I looked who that was up. 
And Lolita the orca is in way worse shape than Tilikum. 

I found this video and it just left me depressed: 



I love what Ingrid Visser says: "It's not just a mission of PASSION, but it's also a mission of COMPASSION."

Here are more videos on Lolita and her tank: 





And I wrote a report about Lolita, and I'm going to post it once I finish editing it. :) It took me 4-6 hours to write, because I had to do tons of research and watch videos and search for OLD pictures....so, it took a lot of work. 

Going back to SeaWorld now. 

So, recently I went to SeaWorld's Facebook page and website and it makes me annoyed to see them talk about how they do everything they can to care for their orcas and so on when I'm thinking, "that's not what their actions show." Obviously they know they aren't doing their best if  SeaWorld had some anti-captivity people at the SeaWorld sign and SeaWorld turned on their sprinklers illegally in the middle of a drought to get rid of the people. (I'm pretty sure that's how the story goes).  
Also, after Blackfish was made, Seaworld decided to make their own 45 minute video about "THE TRUTH ABOUT SEAWORLD." Looks like they are trying to protect themselves...they wouldn't do that if they knew they were right......... 

Here's an interview from the video:


I felt really annoyed watching this interview of this guy because he was so arrogant sounding. Just how he moves his head, sighs, blinks a lot to show he's annoyed, and talks...it's just really unpleasant to watch.  And he goofed up on his part...some of his facts are NOT true.  Like, he said that some of the trainers were trainers decades and decades ago, and yes that may be true that they STARTED working decades ago, but most of them quit somewhat recently! 
And even if he's right, another thing he says is, "Some of them did not leave in the best way," well, how would he know if he's only worked there for 5 years? That doesn't make sense. Like, at all. :)

He also says things about how SeaWorld has the "Perfect amount of food, perfect water quality, and perfect water temperature." 
And as much as I've studied about Seaworld, I have to disagree with these things. 
And he says that no one cares more for the orcas than the trainers...and I agree that the trainers love the animals. I have no doubt that they love the animals....but I don't really think that they care about their care. 
Because if they did, this wouldn't happen:



Perfect water and water temp, eh? 

Hm. 


Couldn't agree more!

So, in conclusion, DON'T BUY A TICKET TO SEAWORLD OR ANY PLACE WITH PERFORMANCE ANIMALS.

That's Tilikum the Orca, by the way.



2 comments:

  1. I agree. As cool as it would be to see Orca's perform, or to work with them, it's just cruel and wrong.

    BTW, you'll be happy to know I watched Blackfish, and you're right, it was depressing and eye opening. I look forward to more posts about this. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yup. :)

    Finally! Yay! :D

    Yeah, I probably will do more. :D :D

    ReplyDelete

 

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