“It’s cool to see them, but it’s not the right thing to do”, said 10-year-old Zoey Lambe-Hommel.
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The California Coastal Commission approved the growth of the park’s Shamu “killer whale” facility.
“I want to protect the orcas”.
She said: ‘They don’t belong in captivity’.
It seems the commission agrees with her. After the vote, he and other officials from SeaWorld rushed out of the building without further comment.
The panel’s amendment to Seaworld’s “Blue World” expansion plans bans breeding of captive orcas, including by artificial insemination, at the California park but not at SeaWorld facilities in other states.
“These 11 orcas would be the last 11 orcas there”, PETA lawyer Jared Goodman said after the meeting, referring to the whales at the California marine park.
“No more orcas will be condemned to a nonlife of loneliness, deprivation and misery”, the animal rights group added in a statement.
According to PETA, thousands of people have written to the California Coastal Commission in opposition to SeaWorld’s plan.
As the hours-long meeting dragged on, Reilly told the commission the park would be willing to accept a cap of 15 orcas, but banning breeding at the park would eventually lead to the “extinction” of the orca program. “These orcas are robbed of everything that is natural to them”.
Protesters and supporters filled a meeting room all day Thursday where the commission was considering a vast expansion to the tanks that SeaWorld uses.
SeaWorld brought dozens of employees on a bus from San Diego while People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals bused supporters in from Los Angeles. Animal-welfare activists declared victory shortly after the vote. The Orlando, Fla.-based theme park chain has been beset by stock losses and declining ticket sales since the 2013 release of the documentary film “Blackfish”, which critiqued SeaWorld’s handling of orcas in captivity.
The commission’s report in favor of the expansion mentions a pledge by SeaWorld that the facility “will not house any killer whales taken from the wild after February 12, 2014”.
Commissioner Greg Cox, who voted for the project and suggested the whale cap, said a bigger whale enclosure is better than the existing enclosure.
But the agency appeared to disagree.
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The staff of the commission that regulates land and water use along the California coast has recommended approving the expansion under nine conditions that include forbidding SeaWorld from housing recently captured orcas in San Diego.
