Your Questions Answered from “Orca Hour: From Free Willy to SeaWorld”
There were many great questions asked by viewers of our special online presentation, Orca Hour: From Free Willy to SeaWorld, on August 27th. To view the Orca Hour video, go here.
Below are responses from our International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) team for the questions that our presenters did not have time to address during Orca Hour. Thanks to all who attended Orca Hour and to the dozens of people who submitted questions!
1.
- Please include how we can help action-wise as well as financially.
- How do we continue to pressure SeaWorld to remove cetaceans from its parks, breeding programs and business model?- - - How do we ban captivity and breeding practices in these horrific institutions?
- How can we help beyond donating?
- How can we best help Orcas?
There are indeed many things people can do (in addition to donating, which remains vital to IMMP’s work, of course).
We encourage you to spread the word. Reach out to your family, friends, schools, clubs and other of your affiliations. Explain to them the importance of ending captivity for cetaceans. You can invite them to visit our website for further information, especially our ongoing blogs:
IMMP Campaign to Free Whales & Dolphins from Captivity
Take Action: Sign IMMP petitions.
One important step for everyone: Do not buy tickets to any facility that features captive cetaceans. Captivity exists because it is lucrative – if people stopped buying tickets, the motivation behind catching, training and exploiting whales and dolphins would end.
Keep pressure on SeaWorld to end dolphin and whale captivity and to retire its performing cetaceans to seaside sanctuaries where they can live out their lives in a natural setting, rather than tiny concrete tanks. Send a postcard to SeaWorld’s current CEO here: http://savedolphins.eii.org/ne...
Contact your legislative representatives to urge them to pass laws to end captivity of cetaceans. Canada recently, after years of effort by animal activists in that country, passed a law to phase out captivity, prohibiting any new imports and any breeding in captivity. We can and should enact similar legislation in the US Congress.
Finally, your contributions to our work are important to our continued efforts to protect whales and dolphins and their ocean homes. Please consider donating to the work of IMMP and other organizations opposed to cetacean captivity.
2. Is there anything concrete we can do to help Lolita be released into a sea sanctuary?
Lolita deserves her freedom after enduring fifty years in captivity. Many organizations (including IMMP) and local Indian tribes have pushed to return Lolita (Tokitae) to her home waters in the Salish Sea. However, she is “owned” by the Miami Seaquarium, which so far has no interest in relinquishing her, as she is their premiere attraction. (We put “owned” in quotes, because under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, orcas and other cetaceans are part of the public trust, owned by all Americans, and held by aquariums under permit.) They have been offered a million dollars to give her up, and they have refused.
The US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) would have to approve the move of Lolita, but NMFS so far shows no interest in doing so.
The only possibilities we see are if Congress passes a law (difficult to do), or there is a change of heart on the part of NMFS or Miami Seaquarium.
3. Why aren't all the orca whales like Keiko released from captivity to be back with their families into the wild?
Since Keiko’s journey was such a success, why do you think other orcas haven't been given the same chance? (to be free)
The answer rests in human greed. Orcas are not being returned to the wild because they bring in a lot of money to the companies that “own” them.
The captivity industry did not support the Keiko effort, and to this day claims it was a “failure” because Keiko died in the wild. What they do not tell you is how many orcas died in captivity during the time that Keiko was being rehabilitated and released by our Free Willy/Keiko Foundation. The answer: Seventeen orcas died in various captive facilities during the Keiko effort.
There are limitations on returning orcas and other cetaceans to the wild. Some experts believe that aging female orcas in captivity, such as Lolita and Corky, are too old to be moved. Many existing cetaceans were born in captivity, and it is not clear that they could survive well in the wild on their own. More study is needed about these options.
But seaside sanctuaries provide a good alternative to captivity in small concrete tanks. The setting is more natural, and the area is spacious compared to current tanks. Furthermore, the cetaceans would be fed and receive veterinary care for the rest of their lives. They would no longer have to work for their food seven days a week, but could instead spend their lives living as whales and dolphins. And, in seaside sanctuaries, the cetaceans could be evaluated for possible release to the wild. IMMP and many other organizations are working to establish sea sanctuaries for whales and dolphins.
4. What have we learned from Keiko's recovery and what would we do differently now?
The most important learning from the Keiko rescue and release was the recognition that it can be done safely and greatly improve the lives of all captive cetaceans. We learned that there isn't a single captive whale or dolphin that wouldn't be benefited by being relocated to seaside sanctuaries rather than concrete tanks.
What we would have done differently would have been to significantly increase the research into the locations, dialects, and genetic identification of Icelandic wild orca pods to give us a greater chance of identifying his familial pod.
5. Was IMMP involved in the release of the 100 whales Russia captured and released? If so, any updates?
Yes, IMMP helped coordinate the campaign to release the 10 orcas and 87 beluga whales held in the notorious Whale Jail in Russia, working with local Russian activists and international organizations, scientists and celebrities. We collectively and successfully urged the Russian government to release the captive animals, torn from the wild and intended for sale to China. http://savedolphins.eii.org/ne...
The releases went forward, though protocols urged by international experts were not fully followed. To date, two orcas from the Whale Jail have been photographed swimming with wild orca pods. Satellite tags showed many of the beluga whales swimming in areas known to be inhabited by wild belugas.
We have heard that a few beluga whales, after their release, returned to the area of the Whale Jail. Due to weather concerns, the last 50 beluga whales were released short of the Sea of Okhotsk where they had been captured. A beluga whale, believed to be one of the released belugas, was found dead this year. Unfortunately, COVID-19 restrictions have hampered any follow up research on the health of the released animals.
6. Would love to hear more on marine mammals' intelligence.
Of course, we could do a whole webinar or ten about this subject. The brain of the familiar bottlenose dolphin (“Flipper” was a bottlenose dolphin) is larger than that of a human. Male orca and sperm whale brains are the largest in the world. It is hard to know exactly what the size means – a lot of the cetacean brain is devoted to echo location, beaming out sounds like sonar and interpreting the echoes that come back.
We know cetaceans are extremely intelligent. Bottlenose dolphins can identify themselves in mirrors, something that only humans, great apes, and elephants are capable of doing. This shows that dolphins are self-aware. A recent study found that dolphins use signature whistles, which act like their names – they use the whistles all their lives to identify themselves to their pod mates. They have a highly developed cooperative culture, intricate communications and life-long devoted family ties.
Most scientists rate dolphins and whales as the most intelligent animals on Earth or the second most intelligent after chimpanzees (which unfortunately are also seriously endangered).
Dolphins throughout history have demonstrated elevated emotional intelligence as well. Reports abound describing their compassion towards other dolphins as well as other species, even putting themselves in harm’s way to protect and rescue humans and other species in danger of drowning and attacks by sharks.
7. What are the risks that big mammals have in an aquarium?
Because dolphins and whales are so intelligent, the sterile and repetitive conditions of captivity contribute to serious stress and boredom.
Captivity deprives large, intelligent cetaceans of their freedom in the complex ocean environment, to which they have been adapted for millions of years of evolution. Concrete tanks are small and sterile, providing no relief from the boredom. In addition, removing cetaceans from the wild breaks the family bonds of their family pod, with which most cetaceans would normally live for their entire lives. In captivity, they are put in small tanks with strangers.
Cetaceans are deliberately kept hungry all day in order to do the tricks for performances with a reward of a dead fish. The tricks they do are repetitive, and they must repeat them seven days a week, several times a day.
There are many consequences from the constant stress. Animals engage in repetitive behaviors that are not normal, like swimming in circles, logging at the surface for hours, and even ramming their heads into the sides of pools in extreme cases. Many cetaceans break off teeth by chewing on the concrete of tanks or on the metal gates that separate the different pools. These broken teeth require drilling out the pulp (without pain killers, which might cause the cetacean to stop breathing) and require constant care due to infection.
There are also behavioral problems: Cetaceans may attack their tank mates or even their trainers. To date, three trainers have been killed by orcas in captivity (something that never happens in the wild), and there are numerous reports and videos of other attacks and injuries on people by captive cetaceans.
The boredom and stress compromise the animals’ immune systems, such that infections are very common and cause a lot of the deaths of cetaceans in captivity. Generally speaking, most cetaceans do not live as long in captivity as they do in the wild, despite being given food and veterinary care. In addition to antibiotics, cetaceans are treated with anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, and antacids to combat the many stress-related ills that plague them in captivity.
8. Are the orcas only moving in on shark territory in Australia or is this happening in other areas as well?
The movements of orcas are not well understood. Some roam quite widely (there is one group, called “transient” orcas, that moves along the Pacific coast from the Gulf of Alaska to Baja and back on a regular basis). It is likely that orcas move to where the food is, which itself moves around, both seasonally and from year to year. So, likely the orcas moving into some areas in Australia is related to their food availability and preferences, but does not suggest a trend that all orcas in the wild would necessarily follow.
THANK YOU FOR TUNING INTO ORCA HOUR AND FOR SUPPORTING OUR WORK TO PROTECT DOLPHINS AND WHALES AT IMMP. PLEASE CONSIDER A TAX-DEDUCTABLE DONATION!
