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The Lecture: A Reflection

I conducted a lecture about the importance of zoos and aquariums over the weekend and now; I reflect on it.

By Jenna DeedyPublished 3 years ago 8 min read
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The Lecture: A Reflection
Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

Over the weekend, I conducted a “virtual” lecture on Discord where I talked about the future of modern facilities like SeaWorld, and the benefits behind close-contact interactions for animals in zoological settings. Before we got started on the subject, I introduced myself to my “virtual” audience, how I got involved with marine mammals, and what I was now up to. Then, we proceeded with our conversation: the benefits of waterworks and other close-contact interactions between zoo professionals and their animals.

Discussing Waterworks

After the introduction, I discussed waterworks, a form of in-water contact with marine animals in zoological settings on the grounds of research, education, husbandry, medical care, entertainment, and enrichment. At SeaWorld, waterworks began by accident during the ’60s when a killer whale under the park’s care started enabling their trainer to interact with them by having them go in the water for a play session.

From there, waterwork behaviors became a big part of all the marine mammal shows at SeaWorld parks in California, Florida, and Texas. When the trainers weren’t doing hourly observation, food prep, and regular dry-work and husbandry sessions, they would spend an excellent quality of their time doing in-water interactions with the marine mammals in their care. This is especially true for the killer whale family at Shamu Stadium.

While extremists argued that there was no “value” in waterwork sessions with the animals, as someone who has been a SeaWorld camper who got to work alongside the trainers in the training department, I beg to differ. Waterworks are important to marine mammals in zoological facilities because they help maintain close relationships with the animals and help form a strong trust between trainers and their animals. It also helps stimulate them and encourage natural behaviors that they would normally display out in the wild. For example, with killer whales, just take away the trainer in the water, and replace them with porpoises, newly caught fish, stingrays, and sharks, and there you go-the behavior you would normally see on a YouTube video of a killer whale show at SeaWorld does not differ from a wild orca carrying around small animals around. While I remain on the subject, there have been several reports of wild orcas pulling off similar behaviors with smaller marine mammals without bothering to eat them.

In early 2010, SeaWorld ended waterwork practices with their killer whales following a tragic freak accident when veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau died doing what she loved. The accident occurred when Tilikum, a 12,000-pound whale under her care, accidentally pulled into her ponytail, resulting in her drowning. In the decade since then, they have learned lessons on how to better care for the animals.

The Hypocrisy of Animal Rights Extremists

When waterworks with killer whales ended, activists saw this resolution as a “victory” for their radical agenda. The agenda, you may ask? Removing all killer whales and other cetaceans living in human care from modern facilities and put them into unaccredited, activist-owned “sanctuaries”. Yet, while they claim interactions between people and marine mammals in human care are “bad”, there are dozens of videos and photos of some of those same activists doing the same thing, but with marine mammals out in the wild.

For example, Orca Network, a notorious anti-zoo group that targets modern marine mammal facilities, offers tours to visit wild grey whales off the coast of Mexico. These tours allow people to pet wild grey whale mothers and their newborn calves from the comfort of a small boat that brings tourists to a lagoon that serves as a nursery for them. During the early years of its foundation, the Earthrace Organization often practiced swimming with wild manatees despite being against swim programs at marine mammal facilities.

However, probably one of the most problematic instances involves a self-proclaimed orca expert named Ingrid Visser. This is because she’s known for swimming with wild killer whales and interacting with them from her boat. At one point, she kept a sick killer whale calf in a small pool and allowed visitors to touch him while she was “rehabilitating” him. The calf, named “Bob” by Visser, died just a few days after his rescue. While she continues to blame the New Zealand Government for waiting until the “last-minute” to make any rescue attempt on Bob, photos, and videos tell us that Ingrid and her staff allowing visitors to touch the sick animal, which goes against marine mammal rehabilitation standards, may have doomed Bob to his death.

In addition, there have also been instances of Sea Shepherd employees visiting various Japanese facilities during the drive fishery season. One such facility, the Taiji Whaling Museum, has a reputation for collecting cetaceans from the 400-year-old brutal, and inhumane whaling practice in which the whalers kill most of the animals for both meat and as pest control. In addition, Sea Shepherd’s employees have also used their expensive trips to Taiji to not only enforce anti-zoo propaganda but also enable racism towards Asian communities. This includes racism towards the Japanese people themselves which in the end, can be dangerous.

The Sea Pen Issue

A big part of my lecture on Discord was a discussion on the issue regarding sea pens as a “solution” for long-term zoo and aquarium resident marine mammals. According to extremist groups like The Whale Sanctuary Project, Ric O’Barry’s Dolphin Project, and Orca Network, insist that cetaceans are “better off” being raised in “natural”, open sea pens, with water, changed by tidal flows and enabling the animals to interact with wild pods through the nets. So far, there are two active “sanctuaries” that are owned and operated by animal rights groups. One is a beluga habitat in Iceland that is owned by Merlin Entertainment in collaboration with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation group, and the other is a pen-based dolphin facility in Bali that is operated by the notorious Ric O’Barry and his family.

However, there are problems with maintaining a standard sea pen, relating to water quality, which would require these “sanctuaries” to gain a filtration system to keep the pens clean from any pathogens and parasites that might be harmful to a pod of cetaceans who have lived in a pool-based habitat for an extended period. Also, long-term water treatment of the pen would have to be required. This is because of the potential pollution and storms that might cause harm to the area that could affect the habitat. It would also require them to have in-land holding pools for the animal residents to stay during a period in which the “sanctuary” is uninhabitable for any reason. While the Icelandic facility has a holding pool for its beluga residents to live in during the fall and winter months, it’s unknown if O’Barry’s Bali facility has a holding pool for its resident animals.

Another concern was the fact that the sea pens could harm already-existing wild habitats. For example, EU laws have prevented activists from building sea pens in Mediterranean regions, because of laws that are aimed at protecting local wild dolphin, sea turtle, and monk seal populations, while the state of Massachusetts’ right whale conservation laws prevents pen-based habitats from ever getting built soon. The reason Merlin Entertainment chose Iceland in the first place was that the pro-whaling nation is not part of the EU or otherwise, they would have to look elsewhere for a location. I should also note that the two China-based belugas were originally from the coast of Russia and are not from anywhere near Iceland.

Meanwhile, The Whale Sanctuary Project, an anti-zoo group that aims to snatch zoo-born marine mammals into sea pens, recently gained seaside property off the coast of Nova Scotia. The group claims it wants to use the property to build a “sanctuary” for aquarium-born beluga whales in an area where endangered North Atlantic right whales live during the summer and fall months and any form of contact with a pen’s netting can be fatal for them.

What About SeaWorld’s Future?

This past spring, SeaWorld announced it gained a new CEO in Marc Swanson. Despite’s Swanson’s interest in the animal programs at the parks, he appeared to be more open to adding new rides even though he has no plans to end the killer whale programs soon. For many in the zoo and aquarium community, this is a sign that the animals might become a top priority as shown with the progress being made to Dolphin Stadium at the SeaWorld park in Orlando, Florida. This also includes the return of certain waterwork behaviors in the dolphin shows at the parks after a long hiatus after a social media attack by PETA and other animal rights extremist groups.

With waterworks returning to dolphin shows, some people now believe that the same behaviors may return to Shamu Stadium within the next few years. If this is the case, then chances are, other programs relating to the orcas, including its long-successful breeding program, could return as well. Then again, there are also chances that Swanson may cave into the demands of animal-rights extremists with little-to-no expertise in marine mammal care and husbandry in modern zoological facilities.

Conclusion

My lecture on Discord concluded by thinking about so many possibilities for SeaWorld and other modern marine mammal facilities. As the public is beginning to fact-check certain claims that extremists have made about marine mammal facilities, they question the true motives behind their radical campaigns. Some are even planning to add behind-the-scenes tours to their zoo and aquarium visit to see for themselves what really goes on at modern zoos and aquariums.

From there, people will hopefully start understanding the hard work that zoos, aquariums, and the people who care for them help promote environmental stewardship.

wild animals
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About the Creator

Jenna Deedy

Zoo and Aquarium Professional, Educator, Cosplayer, Writer and B.A. in Psychology whose got a lot to share when it comes to animals, zoos, aquariums, conservation, and more.

Instagram: @jennacostadeedy

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