SeaWorld Says It Has to Keep Orcas in Captivity to Save Them

[demmiblue]

Source: Mother Jones

SeaWorld Entertainment has had a rough year in the wake of Blackfish, the explosive 2013 documentary about its killer whales, most notably Tilikum, a 12,500-pound male who has fatally attacked two trainers. The film sparked protests at SeaWorld's three marine parks and attendance has been steadily dropping. Kids have petitioned to cancel field trips, musicians like Willie Nelson have nixed concerts, and brands like Taco Bell and Southwest Airlines have cut ties with the company. Lawmakers in California, home to the flagship SeaWorld San Diego, even proposed banning orca captivity in the state. The company's stock price has been sinking; in August, it fell nearly a third in one day.

In response, SeaWorld has launched a full-on PR counteroffensive. One of its main talking points is science: While slamming Blackfish as unscientific "propaganda," the park asserts that its killer whales provide a rare opportunity to do crucial research. "We create a controlled setting for science that is impossible to replicate in the wild," its website states. "Whales in SeaWorld's care help science better understand and conserve wild killer whales." It also notes that the park recently pledged to spend an additional $10 million on orca research.

That's a drop in the bucket of SeaWorld's total budget: Last year, 24 million people visited its 11 parks nationwide, bringing in $1.4 billion. Orcas are undeniably the main draw. SeaWorld trained the original Shamu and owns around half of the roughly 50 orcas living in captivity. Convincing the public that a SeaWorld ticket can help save wild Baby Shamus may be essential to keeping the company afloat.
While slamming Blackfish as unscientific "propaganda," SeaWorld asserts that its killer whales provide a rare opportunity to do crucial research.

Yet independent orca researchers say these arguments don't hold water. "If SeaWorld didn't exist, would our understanding of wild killer whales be significantly reduced? I think the answer to that is no, it would not," says a veteran marine-mammal researcher who works at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "It's a bit like having Walt Disney tell us about mouse biology," says Ken Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research and a pioneering orca researcher.

Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/12/seaworld-killer-whale-orca-science-blackfish

[Socal31]

1. Oh STFU Seaworld.

Blackfish will be your demise.

[Shrike47]

2. Liars. Fucking liars. Not a phrase I use lightly but appropriate here.

[merrily]

3. Yeah, I'm going with the independent scientists.

[MoonRiver]

4. So is SeaWorld claiming it is a tax exempt charitable institution?

If not just STFU you lying, torturing, slave master bastards!

[pscot]

5. The company has problems

Attendance is down, earnings have tanked and they're facing an investor class action lawsuit.

The Complaint alleges that the defendants failed to disclose in its Offering documents and throughout the Class Period that: (a) the Company had not provided proper care for, and had mistreated, its Orca population, leading to trainer and audience safety issues; (b) that the Company had continued to feature an Orca that had killed and injured numerous trainers; and (c) that decrease in attendance at its parks was caused by factors other than the improper practices revealed by the documentary film Blackfish.
For more information, click here: http://zlk.9nl.com/seaworld-seas.

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20141030-919192.html

[jmowreader]

6. South Park isn't supposed to be an instructional video

This reminds me of the old Uncle Jimbo sketch (Uncle Jimbo is South Park's resident ammosexual - he even owns a gun shop with a three-way mirror so you can see how a gun looks on you before you buy it) where he claimed he hunted deer by aerial bombardment to save them from starvation.