SeaWorld boss steps down after film hurts attendance

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

Jim Atchison, the chief executive of SeaWorld, has resigned.

The aquatic amusement park has struggled to attract visitors in the wake of a 2013 film, Blackfish, which criticised its treatment of killer whales.

SeaWorld acknowledged in August that the film had hurt revenues at its San Diego, California park.
...
In its more recent earnings report, it said attendance had dropped from 8.4 million visitors in the third-quarter of 2014 compared to the same period a year earlier.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30438924

[Scootaloo]

1. Good

These are animals whose minds are almost on a level of our own - they have culture. They have languages. They have family structures beyond just generational breeding. it might not even be a stretch to say some species of cetacean have some analogue to tribes or nations even. And they can express this in their nearly-unlimited territory throughout the world's oceans.

So we wrestle them out of the water, plop them in a fishbowl, and have them dance for anchovies.

[NYC_SKP]

2. They really need to do away with the Killer Whale shows altogether.

Shame on them.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. I agree.

I went to the one in Orlando in 1984 and I was sad for a long time afterward.

To cage magnificent animals like those orcas, or even the dolphins, for money is, really sad, selfish and disrespectful to nature.

[Ash_F]

4. Not going to Seaworld

Nope.

[christx30]

5. I won't watch Blackfish, because I know it'd be depressing

as hell. But I won't go to Seaworld at all. I'll stick with going to Six Flags, where the only creatuers to get exploited are the knowing, paying customers.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. I had wondered what the fuss was about, until I saw it

and then I thought "that's a company that should go bankrupt, and no-one should keep orcas in captivity again, anywhere".

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Good. At least we agree that the torture of orcas is immoral.

[Kennah]

7. "The Cove" was pretty depressing, so I think I'll have to watch "Blackfish"

[jb5150]

8. Everyone needs to see Blackfish .....

It needs to be required viewing by every human on this planet. I would not give Sea World one thin dime of my money ....

[Frank Cannon]

10. I agree. It certainly opened my eyes.

I went from someone who just thought the situation was unfortunate to actually HATING SeaWorld. That industry needs to die.

[BootinUp]

11. Even when I was young I always had a weird

feeling about the killer whale shows at Seaworld. In other words I knew it was a bad idea.

[secondwind]

12. Not a fan of Sea World, never been there... don't like dolphin shows, or circuses, etc n/t

[Feral Child]

13. Nothing could tempt me

to visit that place.

For-profit zoological exhibits have a horrible history in this country from Barnum up til present.

[Sunlei]

14. They do what all the animal abuser entertainments and agriculture does, expand in other countries.

Sea World expands in China.