The title of today’s Yahoo Finance article says it all: “SeaWorld is getting crushed after reporting a disastrous attendance drop”. A drop of 494,000 guests in this year’s second quarter, to be exact.
The 7.6% decline in attendance is not being attributed to the Blackfish effect – at least, not according to SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby, who muses that it is instead caused by a decline in Latin American visitors to the Florida facility. However, all the years of negative publicity, and the truth coming out about how SeaWorld treats orcas, more than likely played a part.
SeaWorld’s report caused their stock to tumble a drastic 14.2% and falling, putting it at levels 50% below those of the past two years.
It seems that not even green-washing has helped the company, including announcements of more “naturalistic” settings and a stamp of approval from the Humane Society. People are likely seeing beyond the façade and realizing that there is simply no way to keep orcas in captivity that is not cruel.
Meanwhile, SeaWorld continues to bash seaside sanctuaries and refuses to consider any retirement options for any of their “assets”, wanting instead to force cetaceans to perform until the day they die. Their shrinking attendance numbers could reflect the public’s rejection of the idea of squeezing every last dollar out of the lives of dolphins and whales.
The news comes on the heels of a court denying SeaWorld’s attempts to have a lawsuit thrown out, with plaintiffs claiming that they were mislead by the company’s claims about orcas and their (mis)treatment of them. The lawsuit is being supported by the International Marine Mammal Project.
All in all, this was one bad week in another bad year for SeaWorld.