Orca exhibitions are a very controversial topic because of how they are kept in captivity for most of their life. These exhibitions only serve Seaworld like theme parks and the public that wants to watch these performances that the orcas are trained to do. Orcas are stripped of their natural lives in the wild so they can be trained and raised in captivity to work for humans for amusement and to make money for companies like Seaworld. These orcas are kept in captivity for the majority of their lives, and are sentenced to living their lives in chlorinated swimming tanks for human pleasure and it is degrading to the orca’s well being.

I think that places like Seaworld believe that the orcas are just animals and they are unable to process emotions or are incapable of complex thinking like humans, so they place them in captivity without any regards for how they feel and do not realizing what they are doing is degrading. I believe that they think because they are not humans they are inferior so they can do whatever they want to the orcas. It could be possible that orcas may be just as intelligent as humans if not more. A documentary called Blackfish goes into great depth on this subject. One of the scientists that were mentioned in the film Blackfish is neuroscientist Lori Marino. Marino has studied the brain of orcas and she discovered that there is a part in their brain called the paralimbic region which is an extra lobe of tissue, and this lobe is involved with emotions and thought processing. This is something in their brains that other mammals, and even humans do not have so this suggests that they could be more elaborate in their thoughts and emotions which could make them as intelligent or even more so than humans (The Raptor Lab par. 8-9). An example of this is intelligence was displayed during the film Blackfish because it showed a heartbreaking scene where an orca’s offspring were being taken away and the parent’s response was something that was unheard of. The orca was producing sounds that were never heard before which gives reason to believe that it was some type of emotional trigger. The sounds were thought to be some type of call to her offspring which shows how orcas are very capable of feeling emotions and having deep thoughts similar to humans (Cowperthwaite, Blackfish).
The drawbacks of marine parks and aquariums is that it is not the orca’s natural habitats and it could have serious repercussions on their mental being. These animals are not able to feel at home in these artificial environments especially since they are essentially just huge swimming pools for the orcas so that the public can watch them. They are deprived of their natural freedoms to roam the wide open oceans however they see fit. There are some positives of this exploitation depending on how someone viewed it. Although these orcas are in captivity, they are treated with great care and love. They have lots of human contact with trainers that are dedicated to making their lives better. These companies such as Seaworld make lots of money off these displays, however if they were to put their money towards the betterment of orcas like some type of aid for these animals then it is possible that these marine parks and aquariums could actually be of good use towards the orcas. It would also be better if they do not keep these animals captive for as long as they do. An orca in captive will spend most of their lifetime in these tanks so a huge positive would be to cut down that amount of time dramatically. I think if these aquariums and Seaworld like attractions were to create some type of rehabilitation system then the captivity would make sense. For example if they were to take in orcas that were physically incapable to support themselves in their natural habitat then they could put them in the system for say a year or two while they help the orca rehabilitate then send him/her on their way back into the wild. During the duration of their rehabilitation, I believe it would then be acceptable for the orcas to be publically viewed for educational purposes.

After reviewing the presented information my thoughts on this exploitation of the orca community still stands. I believe that it is wrong regardless of the circumstances because why should places like Seaworld decide that these intelligent creatures are not meant to live in their own natural habitats but are destined to become human’s captive attractions. Who are they to strip orca’s from their original families in the wild and place them in these artificially created families in captivity and force them to live in tanks with them.