The Dolphin Blog
People around the world work to end dolphin captivity
By Michael Mountain
February, 2011. We open this blog one year after Tilikum the orca killed one of his trainers at SeaWorld, Orlando, one of the world’s biggest marine circuses.
Orcas, also known as killer whales, are the largest of all dolphins. In the ocean, they are bound together by strong family ties. Males stay with the mothers often for their entire lives as the family travels for thousands of miles through open waters, meeting up with other families for orca “conventions” that involve much play and exchange of customs and cultures.
No orca in the wild has ever harmed a human.
In captivity, they are kept in virtual isolation, in tanks that would be like living your entire life in a bathtub. Many of them go crazy and end up attacking their human captors. Tilikum, the orca who killed trainer Dawn Brancheau last year, had already killed two other people. Now he is held in complete isolation in a small pool – solely to be used as a stud for artificial insemination.
Right now, SeaWorld is fighting a federal government citation for the “Willful” act of knowingly placing its employees at risk. The outcome will be very significant to the whole entertainment / captivity industry.
There are many other issues affecting dolphins. They include the ongoing massacres of hundreds of dolphins at a time in Japan and other countries; other marine circuses that keep dolphins; dolphins used in experiments; and the so-called “dolphin assisted therapy.”
And so to the dolphin blog . . .