The California Coastal Commission dealt an unexpected blow to SeaWorld San Diego by banning captive breeding of orcas and drastically restricting the transfer of whales in and out of the park.
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The commission staff recommended approval after SeaWorld officials pledged that the facility will not house any orcas taken from the wild after February 12, 2014, nor will it utilize killer whale genetic material taken from the wild after the same date.
The panel added that amendment as it approved an expansion that would triple the size of the current killer whale enclosures.
“Breeding is a natural, fundamental and important part of an animal’s life and depriving a social animal of the right to reproduce is inhumane”, the theme park said in a statement after the vote.
According to a CNN report, which quoted attending actress Pamela Anderson, saying, “No whale is happy in a bathtub”, this is the biggest issue the Coastal Commission has faced in its 40-year history.
SeaWorld says it hasn’t captured wild orcas in more than 30 years. SeaWorld said its whales are healthier than those in the wild, even down to their dental work.
“It’s cool to see them, but it’s not the right thing to do”, she said.
Jared Goodman, director of litigation for PETA, said pressure from animal rights groups pushed the cities of Los Angeles and Oakland to ban bull hooks, the tools used by circuses to train elephants.
If SeaWorld moved forward with its plans under the commission’s various conditions, it would win back many of its critics, Fearing said. John Hargrove, a former SeaWorld trainer in California and Texas who has written a book about his experiences and appeared in the “Blackfish” film, said whales are heavily medicated and family structures that define life in the wild are broken. Attendance at the California park has declined since the release of the population documentary “Blackfish” in 2013, which suggests SeaWorld’s treatment of captive orcas provokes violent behaviour. The expansion includes 50 feet deep orca-friendly pools set to open in 2018, which have spots where the killer whales can rub and scratch themselves.
There are an estimated 56 orcas in captivity worldwide, with 24 of them owned by SeaWorld across each of its San Diego, San Antonio, and Orlando parks.
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“Most people would agree that at least trying to increase the size of the habitat that they live in is better than what they live in now”, he said. Today’s hearing, which started at around 10 a.m., and ended in an evening vote after public comments concluded, will allow the amusement park to replace a 1.7 million gallon pool with a 450,000 gallon pool, and construct a new 5.2 million gallon pool.
