Sea World

Double post today, because I've got time on my hands.

Dawn Brancheau, a 40-year old trainer, was killed during a show at the Orlando Sea World when one of the orcas, Tilikum, attacked her. Numerous media reports focused on Tilikum, noting that he had been involved in several human deaths before, and expressing shock at the menace he posed to his human handlers. The implication is that this was a problem whale with a taste for human blood. Tilikum was simply an orca being an orca.

Not all the coverage has been that shallow, of course. The BBC has a post on the larger question that the attack raised: is it at all ok for whales and dolphins, who live in complex social groups in the wild, to be kept in captivity?

From the article:

No-one knows what triggered the latest incident, and experts agree that it is almost impossible to determine why the orca, called Tilikum, reacted as it did.


But it does highlight the tensions that occur when we choose to interact closely with these huge animals. It is also debatable what to do with those orcas, also known as killer whales, that remain in captivity.


"They are highly social animals that tend to live in cohesive groups, so it's quite an artificial environment to capture them and put them in a small area," says Dr Andrew Foote, an expert on wild orcas from the University of Aberdeen, UK

"The tragic events are a reminder that orcas are wild, strong and often unpredictable animals," says Danny Groves, of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

Once again, I'm conflicted about this. I'm involved in research on cetaceans in captivity, and much of the work that has been done has contributed enormously to our knowledge of these animals. The research is often focused on the welfare of the animals: how they live, how they interact, and how they communicate. The more we know, the more we can use that knowledge to keep them alive and healthy in the wild.

This research is heavily dependent upon profits aquariums make on their shows. In other words, the money that allows us to study them comes from exploiting them.

They are conscious and self-aware, some of the most intelligent species on the planet, and we restrict them to tiny pools and amuse them with pool toys and fish in exchange for flips and funny noises. They must be bored out of their minds.

But the data we get is so very compelling. We learn more about their cognitive capabilities all the time, and our hazy picture of their consciousness is slowly coming into focus. The more we understand them, and the way they think (they do think, and anticipate, and contemplate themselves), the more we can advocate for better treatment. But the final outcome of that better treatment, to my mind, might be to release as many captive animals as possible. 

I think we've committed a crime against our closest intellectual relatives, and I know that I am entirely complicit in it. We comfort ourselves by softening the blow - providing enrichment, plentiful food and healthcare, and a clean, if cramped, living environment - but a prison is still a prison, too narrow for their minds. 

I wouldn't advocate releasing them now (I'm just that complicit), but I think there will be a time when we come around. Maybe around the same time I become a vegetarian, and therefore morally perfect.