Don’t go to the horror show
This summer, we launched a series of powerful and thought-provoking adverts to make holidaymakers think twice before visiting whale and dolphin shows or swim-with-dolphins experiences while they’re abroad. Now, throughout October, or #Orcatober as we’re calling it, we’re exposing the horrors of captivity to remind people why they shouldn’t support these cruel circuses.
Looking back at our successes over the years, it’s heartening to see how far we have come in shining a spotlight on the inhumane and archaic practice of holding whales and dolphins captive for human entertainment. Thanks to you, over the past decade we’ve convinced one travel company after another to stop promoting whale and dolphin attractions. Yet despite our efforts, UK tourists still go to these shows.
As another summer holiday season fades to a happy memory for us, let’s not forget the horrors of captivity that continue to play out overseas. Behind the scenes of this so-called ‘entertainment’, there are victims who continue to suffer at the hands of an industry driven purely by profit and greed.
What looks like a celebration, turns into isolation. @Paul Wigmore
Frightening facts
Looking back over the modern commercial era of captivity, one thing stands out for me: we still have so much to do. Prepare yourself for some harrowing facts:
- It’s been over 60 years since the very first orca was captured from the wild for human entertainment
- Today, there are still at least 55 orcas in captivity around the world
- Since 1961,166 orcas are known to have been snatched from their families in the wild and condemned to exist in a concrete tank, performing tricks for the paying public
- Of those orcas,133 are now dead
- On top of this, 46 orcas born in captivity have also perished - not including those stillborn or miscarried
- Until the recent boom in captive facilities in China, SeaWorld in the US held the greatest number of orcas across its three parks. Currently, SeaWorld holds 18 orcas and at least 44 have died since they first started displaying them
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Sinister snatches
A timeline of orca captures shows how the industry moved around the world in its insatiable quest to acquire individuals for public display. In the 1960s and early 1970s 47 orcas were ripped from the ocean and now all bar one, Corky, held at SeaWorld San Diego, have died. As the North American captures were outlawed, the capture crews turned their attention to Iceland, where 54 orcas were taken from North Atlantic waters in the 70s and 80s. Today, only three remain alive. Across the Pacific in Asia, Japan has stolen 20 orcas from the ocean - all are now gone.
Morgan the orca was taken from her family and was never released after medical treatment. Now confined to a tank at Loro Parque, Tenerife, she’s been attacked by other orcas, self-mutilated, and ground down her teeth from chewing concrete bars in frustration. © Tamara, Haleigh, Yves, Aelia and avampiretear
China’s chilling captive industry
Not long after I started working on WDC’s End Captivity campaign, it became obvious that the landscape was shifting. China was quickly establishing itself as a major player in the display of captive whales and dolphins. With access to a seemingly unlimited supply of wild-caught dolphins from the barbaric Japanese drive hunts in Taiji, and wild populations of orcas and belugas in the Russian Far East, China’s marine park industry exploded. Today there are approximately 100 facilities in China, and one in every three captive whales or dolphins in the world today is held there.
From the terror of capture to the illusion of entertainment. ©Life Investigation Agency (left) ©China Cetacean Alliance (right)
But, no matter the country, region, culture or even the size of the facility, the suffering these beautiful, sentient beings endure on a daily basis is disturbingly similar.
The grim reality of these horror shows
Stripped of everything that makes life in the wild worth living - like foraging, socialising and the ability to travel large distances - these powerful, emotionally-complex individuals succumb to boredom, stress, frustration and aggression towards each other and sometimes their trainers.
Boredom manifests in destructive behaviours like chewing on the paintwork or metal bars in the tank, causing significant tooth damage, leading to infection and sometimes death. With all decision-making and choice removed from their lives, orcas in particular display abnormal and eerie resting behaviour, often lasting for hours. This unnatural behaviour, so far removed from their active, wild lives, takes a devastating toll on their engagement levels and mental well-being, deviating significantly from behaviours observed in their wild counterparts.
Behind the spectacle, orcas suffer in silence, often lying still for hours in their barren tanks. © Heather Murphy
Despite the industry’s own argument that a captive environment is safe from natural and human-caused threats and provides ‘world-class veterinary care, restaurant quality fish and clean, unpolluted water’, orcas live significantly shorter lives in captivity compared to the wild. Most captive orcas die in their late teens or early 20s, and very few make it to their 30s. Globally two-thirds of orcas born in captivity since 1986 have died, many of these within their first year of life. In the wild, a female orca could live well into her 80s.
Corky – a lifetime in confinement
One captive orca who has somehow defied all the odds and endured this nightmarish existence for decades is Corky. Torn from her family off the west coast of Canada when she was just a few years old she has survived in a tank at SeaWorld for over 50 years. In that time, she has had seven pregnancies, with her oldest calf living for just 46 days.
Today, her brother (adoption orca Fife), sister and wider family continue to swim wild and free in the waters off British Columbia. Years ago, when recordings of their vocalisations were played to Corky, she was floating amongst her Icelandic orca pool mates and visibly shook. Even after many years of being held captive and away from her real family, she still knew these sounds. And to this day, she still makes the calls she inherited from her mother. The unbroken connection and her continued calls to her lost family serve as a sobering reminder that these incredible beings are far more than performers, they are emotional beings who feel pain just like you and me.
The show must not go on
I totally get that this may have been a depressing read but that is the reality of a condemned life. This half-century experiment of keeping such sentient, powerful individuals in glass cages has failed. As knowledge of the suffering involved in captivity continues to become mainstream, I remain optimistic that the direction of travel for our tireless campaigning work is positive. None of this success would have been possible without the dedication and passion of you, our loyal supporters.
Please help us today with a donation
If you are able to help, every gift, whether large or small, will help make this generation of captive whales and dolphins the last.