SeaWorld Says It Will End Breeding of Killer Whales
By SEWELL CHAN

SeaWorld said on Thursday that it would immediately cease breeding killer whales, bowing to mounting criticism by animal rights activists, regulators and lawmakers over the treatment of marine mammals in captivity.

SeaWorld announced in November that it would phase out its San Diego killer whale performance this year, but it went further on Thursday, declaring that the orcas in its care would be the last generation of killer whales at its theme parks.

“We need to respond to the attitudinal change that we helped to create,” Joel Manby, the president and chief executive of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, wrote in an op-ed article in The Los Angeles Times announcing the decision.

The company has 29 orcas: 11 in San Diego; seven in Orlando, Fla.; five in San Antonio; and six in Loro Parque, on Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands. It does not plan to release the killer whales into the ocean, arguing that they would not be able to survive in the wild.

SeaWorld has been under fire after a 2012 book by David Kirby, “Death at SeaWorld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity,” and a 2013 documentary, “Blackfish,” assailed the treatment of killer whales at SeaWorld Orlando. (Tilikum, the whale featured in the film, is in poor health there.)

In October, the California Coastal Commission banned the breeding of orcas in captivity, a decision that SeaWorld challenged as an overreach of the agency’s authority. The commission attached the ban to its approval of a proposed expansion of SeaWorld’s whale habitat in San Diego.

Mr. Manby, in his op-ed article, took note of the commission’s decision, along with proposed legislation in the California State Legislature and in Congress to ban orca captivity, including the capture, import and export of the whales.

“We will end all orca breeding programs — and because SeaWorld hasn’t collected an orca from the wild in almost four decades, this will be the last generation of orcas in SeaWorld’s care,” he wrote.

Mr. Manby said, however, that SeaWorld’s whales would remain in captivity.

“Most of our orcas were born at SeaWorld, and those that were born in the wild have been in our parks for the majority of their lives,” he wrote. “If we release them into the ocean, they will likely die. In fact, no orca or dolphin born under human care has ever survived release into the wild. Even the attempt to return the whale from ‘Free Willy,’ Keiko, who was born in the wild, was a failure.”

SeaWorld said it would “introduce new, inspiring, natural orca encounters, rather than theatrical shows,” at its San Diego park this year, followed by San Antonio and then Orlando in 2019.

The company also announced a $50 million, five-year partnership with the Humane Society of the United States to improve its educational programs, teach visitors about animal welfare and conservation, and expand advocacy for marine wildlife.

In a conference call with Mr. Manby, the president and chief executive of the Humane Society, Wayne Pacelle, called it “a monumental announcement.” Among other things, the partnership includes a greater “focus on rescue, rehabilitation and advocacy for marine mammals in the wild.” SeaWorld parks will sell food “from humane and sustainable sources, including cage-free eggs and crate-free pork.”

Representative Adam B. Schiff, a California Democrat who had sponsored a bill that would prohibit the breeding, capture, import and export of orcas for public display, also applauded SeaWorld’s decision.

“The partnership they are making with the Humane Society, with its focus on rescue, rehabilitation and advocacy on important marine issues not only represents a change in their business model, but an exciting new direction for the company,” he said in a statement.

Killer whales, which are found in all the world’s oceans, were once reviled as predators, but, in recent decades, they have entered the ranks of adored wildlife, joining lions, polar bears and elephants. Orcas have strong family bonds, cooperate to hunt and possess startling vocal expressiveness.

Their beauty — and their ability to be trained by humans in captivity for performances — helped fuel public interest in their well being.

“Free Willy,” a 1993 family film involving a boy and his affection for a young orca in the Pacific Northwest, drew significant attention to the plight of the whales. Keiko, the whale in the movie, was captured off the coast of Iceland in the late 1970s and ended up at a marine park in Mexico.

After the film was released, money poured in to construct a rehabilitation tank in Oregon to prepare Keiko for release into the ocean. But Keiko had to relearn how to be a whale, as Susan Orlean reported in The New Yorker: He lacked sufficient ability to hold his breath, swim robustly and catch food. Released in 2002, he was found dead in a Norwegian fjord the next year, felled by pneumonia.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an activist group that has been an unrelenting critic of SeaWorld, welcomed the move but argued that SeaWorld should go further and consider releasing the whales on a case-by-case basis.

“For decades, orcas, dolphins, beluga whales, seals and many other animals have suffered in SeaWorld confinement, and, to do right by them now, SeaWorld must open the tanks to ocean sanctuaries so that these long-suffering animals may have some semblance of a life outside their prison tanks,” the group’s president, Ingrid E. Newkirk, said in a statement. “SeaWorld has taken a step forward, but more must come.”

She added that some orcas “can be successfully transferred to sea pens that mimic their natural environments and potentially released back into their home waters, depending on the needs and abilities of each orca individually.”

Mr. Manby said that idea was unrealistic. “It would be easier from a P.R. perspective if you put them out in a sea cage because it sounds nice,” he told reporters on the conference call. “We are very concerned about the animals’ health. If we did that and it failed — as I believe the Keiko experiment did — it would be on us, and then we would be criticized for that. This is a very difficult issue.”

The scrutiny has harmed SeaWorld’s image, attendance and stock price. But in its most recent earnings report, it said that total attendance was 22.47 million in 2015, an increase of 70,000 from 2014. Total revenue dropped slightly, to $1.37 billion in 2015, from $1.38 billion a year earlier. Net income fell to $49.1 million in 2015, from $49.9 million a year earlier.

美國海洋世界 不再繁殖殺人鯨

界施壓多年後，美國「海洋世界」（SeaWorld）17日宣布停止殺人鯨繁殖計畫，殺人鯨雜耍表演以後也會停止。

海洋世界說，現有29條殺人鯨仍將繼續在園內展示，但將「以具啟發性地自然新方式，讓觀眾與殺人鯨見面」。

批判豢養殺人鯨的紀錄片「黑魚」（Blackfish）2013年播出後，海洋世界的票房明顯下降，去年第四季虧損1100萬美元。

海洋世界執行長曼比表示：「透過影片、立法或網路評論，社會大眾對人類養育的這個龐大動物的態度逐漸轉變，我們必須跟隨社會的走向改變。」

殺人鯨表演1970年代在聖地牙哥海洋世界成為遊客焦點後，該演出即成為海洋世界的招牌，同時使得該主題公園成為熱門觀光勝地。

但2010年，殺人鯨「蒂利庫姆」（Tilikum）在表演結束後攻擊馴鯨師導致他死亡，此事件成為「黑魚」的焦點，並引起公眾嚴厲批評殺人鯨的豢養。聖安東尼海洋世界2015年有三頭殺人鯨死亡。

野生雄殺人鯨壽命約30年，母鯨可達50年甚至100年。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/us/seaworld-breeding-killer-whales.html

2016-03-18．聯合晚報．A6．國際焦點．國際新聞組