Question

What is the reason SeaWorld is planning to increase the size of its orca enclosure?

Answer 1

Answer:

PR

Explanation:

Pressure from animal activists and a certain documentary called Blackfish made in 2013 revealed how SeaWorld was mistreating its orcas and exploiting them for financial gain. And also they were breeding them in captivity which was pretty bad. Orcas have a natural life expectancy of 30-50 years in the wild and can live much longer. But in SeaWorld the average age of their death is 14.

But what really broke the camel's back was that less people were going to SeaWorld because of the bad press and their stock prices were plummeting. So they planned to increase the size of their orca tanks in 2015 and regain some of that public goodwill. To do so they applied to the California Coastal Commission to do so. However they weren't expecting the Commission to also require them to stop the captive breeding as well so they weren't very happy. In the end they sued the Commission for it but later dropped the case as well as the plans to expand the orca tanks. More recently in January of last year (2020) they have changed their orca show to be more educational and less showy but it isn't much of an improvement at all.

Although Sea World also promised to end captive breeding too which was a good thing but basically the bare minimum of what they should be doing which is just stopping the whole show entirely cause orcas aren't really meant to do shows or even be in an aquarium in the first place. They are intelligent and social creatures like dolphins (who also shouldn't be kept in captivity either), and no tank is really large enough. All captive male orcas have floppy fins because they aren't able to swim enough or eat well, and as mentioned before, they don't live long.

Also, they aren't called killer whales for nothing --- many trainers over the years have been killed by orcas. Dolphins in captivity have also been known to become violent towards people as well, and have even drowned themselves on occasion. I might be biased against SeaWorld but well, the facts are there.

So yeah, it was for PR basically. it never got through though --- how old is this question actually?

Here's some pictures if interested: