Jenna's little "Marine" World

While Many extremists believe that killer whales in captivity are being "abused", and are "depressed", the truth is, that this group of people do not know the animals that well based on their personalities, and so on.

 There was a time when people used to believe that orcas were "man-eating terrors" of the deep that the US Navy and other Military forces would be brought in to shoot at any orca that comes into contact with fishing boats of any kind. However in the 1960's, an orca called Namu was one of the first animals to be collected and taken into captivity and later became the first orca to ever have in-water contact with man. Although he died a year later, he inspired so many people to begin to learn about killer whales for their biology, and anatomy and beyond.

Several years after Namu, another captive orca came on the scene. This captive orca unlike the several previous specimens before her, was born in captivity on September 25th, 1985 and her name was Kalina. To the whole world, Kalina became known as "Baby Shamu" because not only was she the first killer whale to born at any SeaWorld park at the time but she would be the first captive born orca to be successfully raised in the care of man and survive for more than a few weeks. Her birth would bring a major break through in the understanding of the reproductive biology in killer whales. Kalina however would grow up to have four calves of her own-Keet(1993), Keto(1995), Tuar(1999), and Skyla(2004) which made the chances of a future orca collection from the wild very rare or low.

While people have been training animals for thousands of years for public services, marine mammal training has been know for since the late 1950's. People have been training killer whales for over 4 decades.SeaWorld trainers use food as a primary reinforcer during the training process. Other reinforcing stimuli for the orcas include touching; squirting them with a water hose; rub-downs; giving them ice or floats to play with; and other visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli. Each animal may not respond in the same manner to the same reinforcer. Therefore, the trainer must learn which reinforcers are appropriate for each individual animal. If the animal does not perform a behavior properly, the trainer will not blow the whistle and will then repeat the hand cue to have the animal try again. If the behavior is then performed correctly, the whistle is blown and a reward is given. In some cases the trainer may elect to cue a different behavior rather than the one that the animal did not perform correctly and come and try it again later. An animal is never punished for missing a behavior. If a behavior is regularly missed, the trainer will go back and review how the behavior was originally trained to see if something else can be done to make the animal perform the behavior more easily. Normally, an animal can perform basic behaviors after a few months to a year of training. Complete show behaviors require about several years of training. The length of time for training depends on the type (or difficulty) of the behavior being trained. Some animals, like people, learn more quickly than others. So this however is a form to the animals of volunteering.

 "A lot of the behaviors are just coordination between the whales and us. They push, we steer. We also teach them that we're very fragile in comparison to them. We take slow approximations with most behaviors and reward them when they're close to what we want. There's just a lot of practice." --Ken Peters (SeaWorld San Diego trainer at Shamu Stadium)

Many extremists claim that trainers at marine parks and aquariums know very little on the animals they work with.

However in reality, they do know so much of their animals from not only the biology, anatomy, background, and personalities of their animals, but also they like the educators at those parks are always available to answer any questions that guests have regarding the ecology, behavior, and training methods of marine mammals such as orcas for example. Even some trainers are more than happy to answer any emailed questions that regard how the orcas are trained, cared for, and as well as their natural history. Although engagements to visit them at the parks to assist them in a daily service to the whales are very rare.

Who Says we can't learn from the men and women who care for these 5-ton killer whales??

Like with cats, dogs, and all other animals, orcas receive plenty of medical care to monitor their health in case if the animals show signs of serious health problems that can become life-threatening if lest un-treated. If the orcas show signs of any health problems, them the vets can do is give them anti-biotics or but them on certain medications to prevent the condition from growing worse. (To learn more about laws that focuses on marine mammals in human care, visit the Marine Mammal Law page.)

Every two to four weeks trainers take body measurements on each whale, including body length; girth at several points; and dimensions of the flippers, flukes, and dorsal fin.

 

 

Killer whales are trained to hold still and remain calm throughout procedures such as obtaining sonogram data. This is to check to see is an animal is pregnant or is ready to undergo an artificial insemination.

Several times a day, a killer whale at SeaWorld can have its teeth cleaned and flushed with a water pic. This would check to see if the whale's teeth are healthy and if they show signs of any concern, then they can undergo an x-ray exam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the protected environment of a marine zoological park, scientists can examine aspects of killer whale biology that are different or impossible to study in the wild. It does take years of training to complete a succesfull vet exam on a killer whale and this shows you that is can not be easy as it looks.

What do orcas like Corky II, Trua, and Takara all have in common? Well they all like to interact with human guests behind their exhibit areas with toys, hand signals, and even mirrors which gives them a chance to show their much playful side.

They will often spend time with their fellow tank mates and are allowed to skip shows if it is needed. At SeaWorld, you will rarely see an orca by itself and might be seen with favorite toy, playing with younger tank mates or spending time with their handlers.

You might hear from extremists about marine parks being these "greedy empire-like businesses". In reality, as much as every zoo and aquarium would love to house killer whales to teach people about them, only a very few places in the world house them because caring for a killer whale can be extremely expensive and facilities pay thousands of dollars to provide the food, health care, habitat needs, and enrichment that are all needed to give a captive orca all of its suitable needs. In order to pay for all the needs of their orcas, they have get that money from ticket prices, food and merchandise receipts, and direct donations.

Many extremists on certain web sites around the orca community will campaign around by saying "FREE THE ORCAS FROM CAPTIVITY......." or "THEY ARE DYING TO AMUSE YOU!!" as ways to falsely inform people about their ideas on captive orcas and their scenario lives and so on. Extremists believe that orcas are still being collected from the wild. However, no animal has not been collected since 2003(which was in Russia). Some of these collection were bittersweet, but that was a long time ago when obtaining an orca from another zoological park was limited and so they had to go out to the ocean to collect more animals for that kind of purpose. Today, about 50% of all the world's 41 captive orcas were born in captivity (most of the births occurred at SeaWorld parks) and releasing a captive animal that has been dependent on humans for much of it's known life is not an option.

 For example, many extremists believe that some captive orcas like Lolita(Tokitae) and Corky II "should" be returned to their ancestral home in the Pacific Northwest but however, both orcas have spend a long period of time in the care of man for many years. Killer whales are so social animals that they don NOT accept foreigners or any outsiders into their pods.

 Corky II for example cannot be released because of not only her lack of teeth that would be needed to hunt down fish, but also she has suffered from liver, kidney and bladder problems that would make her potential release impossible. Lolita on the other hand cannot be released because her dependency on humans is very strong and has learned how to completely trust them.

Although much of it is now cleaned, the Pacific Northwest still has PCB's from the oil spills and pollution that it has endured throughout the years. In fact, captive orcas may expose diseases to wild populations that may effect their immune, and reproductive systems in a bad nature thus it would be a huge threat to that population. Also that the oceans can contain are animal wastes and bacterial viruses that may harm the animal in a yet life-threatening matter.

We may teach an orca how to hunt for its own food and communicate with other orcas, but we CANNOT teach them how to use sonar or navigate in ocean. Keiko for example was part of a rehab program for many years and was later released off the waters of the North Atlantic. He was never truly accepted into a wild pod so he wondered into the waters of Norway, seeking for human affection that he knew his for much of his known life. Keiko however,had a weak immune system and would never recover from the pneumonia he would later contract from Norwegian waters. He died in 2003.

Orcas at SeaWorld are ambassadors to their wild counter parts; but most extremists don't view it that way. If these people go to SeaWorld just for only one day but fail to learn, appreciate, or understand the animals they either encounter or see at the park, then it is the extremists who are the ones that have failed, not SeaWorld.

 Most people do not have the opportunity to observe killer whales in the wild. At SeaWorld parks, people experience marine wildlife in a personal way that isn’t possible through books, television, film or the Internet.

More than 280 million people have visited SeaWorld since the first park opened in 1964, and these visits have played a role in developing a sense of respect for wildlife, especially killer whales.

After all, who says that you can't have fun and learn at the same time?

"Our hope is that you have a passion for the animals we all share in this world"
--Ken Peters(killer whale trainer-SeaWorld San Diego)