Wildlife Advocates Ask Court to Unseal SeaWorld’s Orca Health Records
By Mark J. Palmer
International Marine Mammal Project Seeks Public Disclosure of Court Records in Anderson v SeaWorld
The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP), a project of Earth Island Institute, filed a motion today, December 7th, 2022, in federal court asking that sealed portions of the record in Anderson v SeaWorld be made public. The aim of the IMMP motion is to share with the public, the scientific community, and environmental organizations the expert witness reports and deposition testimony about SeaWorld’s health records for captive orcas.
“We believe that this important information about the health and welfare of captive orcas should be shared publicly and with the scientific community,” stated David Phillips, Executive Director of IMMP. “For too long, SeaWorld has been allowed to hide this kind of health information from the public and has instead pursued a false claim that orcas are happy and thriving in captivity. The truth is the opposite, and we believe these expert witness reports will prove it.”
In 2015, a class of plaintiffs who purchased tickets for orca souvenirs from SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, Inc., at the SeaWorld San Diego theme park, sued SeaWorld seeking injunctive relief and restitution for SeaWorld's alleged deceptive advertising, claiming that their captive orcas were “happy” and “thriving” in small tanks. IMMP was not a plaintiff in that case, but IMMP Executive Director David Phillips and Associate Director Mark J. Palmer consulted on the proceedings for the plaintiffs.
Plaintiffs in the Anderson case alleged that: captivity at SeaWorld reduces the average life expectancy of orcas; male orcas in captivity suffer abnormal rates of dorsal fin collapse; SeaWorld harms its captive orcas through forced separation of related orcas; and captivity harms orcas both physically and psychologically. Expert witnesses for the plaintiffs wrote extensive reports and provided deposition testimony in support of the plaintiffs' claims, but significant portions of those reports and deposition transcripts remain under seal.
In 2020, the case was dismissed when federal district court Judge Jeffrey White held that the two plaintiffs in the case did not have standing to sue SeaWorld. As such, the issue of whether SeaWorld lied to the public was never tried. But the sealed record contains information that SeaWorld has kept from the public about the health and welfare of its captive orcas, which is relevant to assessing how captivity harms these species.
Captive orcas do not belong to SeaWorld, but are permitted to be held in captivity by the federal government under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. IMMP believes that unsealing these records in the Anderson case will help scientists and policy makers better understand the risks orcas and other cetaceans may face in captivity. There is also scientific and conservation value in being able to compare wild orcas with captive orcas, such as studying how much food orcas need to survive. Environmental and animal welfare organizations alike will benefit from having access to information about the impacts of captivity on cetaceans.
Earth Island Institute and IMMP are represented by the law firm of Hanson Bridgett LLP in San Francisco, California. The case is in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California before Judge Jeffrey White.
******************************
Can you help with a donation to support freeing captive orcas and other cetaceans? Your donations are critical the success of this lawsuit and other campaigns IMMP is pursuing, such as Congressional legislation to phase out captivity for orcas, beluga whales, pilot whales and false killer whales. Please donate today. Thank you for your generosity.
