SeaWorld’s Finances Plummeting (Again)
On Monday, Sept. 19th, SeaWorld was forced to cancel its shareholder dividend payments indefinitely, suffering from lost revenue due to lowered attendance to their orca circus parks in San Diego, Orlando and San Antonio.
According to The Street http://news.thestreet.com/phil... , CEO Joe Manby issued a statement: "After careful and thorough deliberation, the (SeaWorld) Board has determined that, consistent with the financial discipline pillar of the company's strategy, the best way to support the long-term development of the business and deliver value to shareholders is to suspend future dividends at this time.”
The announcement of no dividends led to another drop in value for SeaWorld’s stock, which went down 9.4% in trading after hours on Monday. Shares have fallen 28% over the past 12 months. On Tuesday, SeaWorld’s stock rallied but was still down 3.7%.
SeaWorld’s CEO Manby expected to see recovery of stock prices and attendance after announcing in March that SeaWorld would no longer breed orcas in captivity and a switch to more “natural” and “educational” shows with captive orcas. However, such recovery has failed to materialize. Manby announced the changes with the Humane Society of the United States.
It is important that several organizations, including the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society http://savedolphins.eii.org/ne... , objected that the new plan for captive orcas did not go far enough. The remaining orcas in SeaWorld’s possession would be kept for life in the small concrete tanks that are inhumane and cause early deaths of captive orcas. Furthermore, CEO Manby and SeaWorld have repeatedly trashed the idea of retiring their orcas to sea pen sanctuaries and failed to include beluga whales and other dolphin species that also suffer from forced breeding and insipid circus shows.
SeaWorld’s finances continue to hemorrhage, and CEO Manby should recognize that SeaWorld must end the holding of captive whales and dolphins and retire them to seaside sanctuaries.
Sign our petition to make SeaWorld stop making false claims about orcas.
