Blackfish, Sea World, and Moral Duty

I grew up an avid lover of sea life. I also grew up in central Florida. That meant one thing, of course: Sea World. It was a tradition. Every month or so my grandparents would take me and my siblings to Orlando, where we would watch sharks and feed dolphins and have a generally great time. But the high point of the day, of course, was the orca show. It's hard to deny the urge to cheer as you watch a 20 foot long, six thousand pound animal leap from the water, returning to its surface with a splash that leaves the first ten rows of the stadium soaked. These trips were the first time I met Tilikum, the 12,000 lbs subject of the new documentary, Blackfish.

Blackfish takes a hard, often painful look at the business of entertainment killer whales. I highly suggest seeing the film for yourself, as it is an extremely well crafted, informative documentary that manages to also serve as a tense thriller, but I am going to talk more about the ideas presented than the film's cinematic aspects. Through analysis of years of evidence and expert testimony, the film draws the general conclusion that keeping orcas in captivity for the purpose of entertainment is not only dangerous, but inhumane, and ultimately unacceptable.

I grew up a Sea World kid. My love for whales kept me coming back month after month after month. That same love has driven me to work with whales in some capacity for almost my entire life, and I plan on keeping it that way. Unfortunately, the more you learn about orcas, the more you begin to understand the severity of the cruelty on display at Sea World and marine parks like it.

As most people know, orcas and other dolphins are highly intelligent animals. Their problem solving skills are incredible, and new studies suggest that orcas in particular have the highest brain to body mass ratio of any animal other than humans. Beyond simple intelligence, orcas  also appear to have the most complex, deeply engrained social structure of any animal, typically living in highly stable, close family groups. This amazing degree of social organization is bolstered by a communication system that shows all the signs of being a form of language, with separate communities having completely different vocabularies, and the pods within those communities having their own dialects. What's more, orcas' neuroanatomy allows for extremely deep emotional lives, with not only a part of the brain assosciated with empathy, but also an extra emotional center that humans do not even possess. These facts have led me, and many others in the field, to suggest that dolphins in general, and orcas in particular, are more accurately thought of as "non-human persons," with the same moral standing that we would give a human being.

Orcas are not made for captivity. They are very large, very social animals that can travel over a hundred miles in a day over an extremely wide range. Their reliance on tight family with the same vocabulary probably leads to difficulty communicating in captivity, where the whales are all from different communities all around the world. There is strongly believed to be an increase in violent "bullying" behavior among captive killer whales, as the less dominant animals have nowhere to retreat to when violence does break out. This is in addition to the known stress related health problems and reduced lifespans of captive orcas.

It is not possible to keep orcas in captivity in a humane way; not only because there is no tank in the world large enough to be humane, not just because there is no way for us to create a satisfactory social unit out of the mismatch of whales currently being held in captivity. The very act of keeping orcas in captivity is, in and of itself, inhumane.

The most popular defense of marine parks is what I call the education argument. This argument states, that while keeping orcas in captivity may not serve the captive animal's best interests, it's worth it to educate people and get them interested in protecting orcas in the wild. The general idea of this argument is very utilitarian: while it's bad for the few, it's ultimately good for the many.

There are serious doubts in the scientific community as to whether or not visiting zoos and aquariums actually effects a visitors attitude towards the environment, and, as Blackfish shows, the information given out at Sea World is often very far from the truth. But beyond that, the moral basis of thi argument itself is objectionable. The idea that it is acceptable to imprison and mistreat an extremely self aware, intelligent, empathetic, and sentient creature because someone watching them might decide they want to help their wild counterparts is ludicrous and insulting. Put into human terms, it is the equivolent of saying the mistreatment and permanent imprisonment of a member of a human demographic for public exhibition is morally acceptable because it might inspire someone, somewhere, to try and make a difference.

The other defense that is often used is that of scientific inquiry. Again, there are those who doubt the validity of behavioral studies done on captive orcas, considering that it is tantamount to doing human behavioral studies in a psych ward for deeply disturbed individuals and hoping to see the norm of human behavior. Beyond that, however, there lies another moral argument. Again, if put into human terms, which I'm suggesting is necessary when discussing killer whales, is it morally justifiable to imprison and mistreat a person without cause or consent if their suffering could lead to scientific progress?

Like I said, I grew up a Sea World kid. I already loved whales before visiting the park, but I'm sure going to Sea World had some impact on my decisions to continue to pursue a career with whales and dolphins. Do I think that this is the experience of the majority of Sea World attendees? Absolutely not.
Would I give up my life-long passion for whales and dolphins if it meant that the orcas that are currently imprisoned were given a chance at a better life, outside of a concrete fishbowl?

In a heartbeat.

If you are a parent, and want to get your kids excited about marine life, I urge you to take them somewhere like the San Juan Islands, where they can watch orcas and other whales how they were meant to be seen: in the open water, with their families, and most importantly, free.

-Michael Weiss