Is SeaWorld\u2019s plan to nearly double the size of its killer whale enclosure a step forward or a token response to negative feedback from the documentary “Blackfish,” which called the marine park\u2019s business practices into question?
\nThat debate was rejoined Jan. 6, when SeaWorld representatives and animal-rights activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) renewed their debate over the marine park\u2019s “Blue World Project” at a meeting of the Mission Bay Park Committee in Mission Beach.
\nAnnounced last year, the project is a master-planned expansion of the park\u2019s killer whale environment.
\n“We\u2019re going to replace the existing pool in the same place, making it 50 feet deep and 350 feet across,” said SeaWorld spokesman Jerry Howes about the park\u2019s expansion plans to reconfigure the orca habitat by 2018.
\nDetails on the project, an informational item only before the park committee, will be presented to the California Coastal Commission for review later this year.
\nAnimal-rights activists view SeaWorld\u2019s expansion plans as a negative.
\n“This is clearly a drop in the bucket, a desperate maneuver by SeaWorld to turn back the hands of time when people are learning about the suffering that these orcas go through in captivity,” argued PETA campaigner and spokesman Matt Bruce during broadcast interviews prior to the committee hearing. “It is fluff for visitors and does nothing for the orcas who are still confined to small, barren concrete tanks that they have to swim in in circles with chemically treated water. Even if you make the prison bigger, it\u2019s still a prison.”
\nA handful of PETA protestors stood outside and inside the Santa Clara Recreation Center, where the park committee meeting was held, holding signs protesting orcas being held in captivity, which activists contend is a “failed business model.”
\n“We\u2019re kind of changing our business model right now, building twice as big a habitat for the killer whales, making sure they continue to stay happy, breed and their numbers grow,” answered Mike Scarpuzzi, SeaWorld\u2019s vice president of zoological operations, who defended SeaWorld\u2019s expansion plans as “the best thing for the animals.”
\nScarpuzzi characterized PETA opposition as “radicals with an extreme point of view that we don\u2019t accept.”
\nAsked about the timing of the orca habitat expansion, coming in the wake of public blowback from “Blackfish” and declining profits from SeaWorld\u2019s three U.S. marine parks, Scarpuzzi said it was “more coincidental than anything.
\n“I\u2019ve been here almost 40 years, and there\u2019s always ebbs and flows in any business,” he said. “There\u2019s no doubt in my mind that SeaWorld is going to be strong and we\u2019re going to continue.”
\nScarpuzzi added this is the fourth planned expansion of SeaWorld\u2019s orca habitat. He pointed out development of large-scale projects like Blue Ocean “take time,” adding that “we\u2019ve been talking about this expansion for many years.”
\nPETA has challenged the ethics of keeping killer whales captive and profiting from their alleged commercial exploitation in public shows, brought to a flashpoint by the critical documentary “Blackfish.”
\nBruce noted killer whales dive up to 1,000 feet deep in the wild and swim up to 100 miles a day.
\n“They would have to swim 1,500 laps in their expanded tanks to approximate what they would swim in the wild,” Bruce said. “So this isn\u2019t anything to do with making lives better for these animals.”
\nScarpuzzi added SeaWorld is now into its fourth generation of orcas bred in captivity in the park, noting the most recent baby was born just 32 days ago.
\n“Killer whales don\u2019t breed if they\u2019re unhappy,” Scarpuzzi contended. “These animals were born and raised here, and now they have their families here.”
\nAsked his impression of “Blackfish,” Scarpuzzi described it as “one truth\u2026 Yes, somebody died, but all the rest\u2026 is a lot misrepresentations and, frankly, a lot of lies.”
\nScarpuzzi said the marine park\u2019s main concern is “about our animals and giving them the best environment we possibly can.”
\nBruce attacked the Blue World Project labeling it as “unnatural” and not in the best interest of killer whales.
\n“If SeaWorld is really interested in changing their image and doing the right thing by these animals, they would release them to seaside sanctuaries, where they can feel the ocean surround them and where they can hear the cries of distant relatives and maybe one day swim free with them,” Bruce said.
\nAsked about SeaWorld\u2019s characterization of them as “radical,” Bruce replied, “There\u2019s nothing radical about caring for these animals, wanting them to be left in the wild to live their lives as nature intended. What is radical is capturing these animals in the wild, artificially inseminating them and forcing them to live in small tanks that are the human equivalent of a bathtub, then forcing them to do tricks for crowds of screaming people.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is SeaWorld\u2019s plan to nearly double the size of its killer whale enclosure a step forward or a token response to negative feedback from the documentary “Blackfish,” which called the marine park\u2019s business practices into question? That debate was rejoined Jan. 6, when SeaWorld representatives and animal-rights activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":281462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"SeaWorld argue virtues, demerits on planned expansion of orca habitat","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}