The Orca Welfare and Safety Act or the Orca Protection Act AB 2305 was a bill passed in California in 2016. This bill made it illegal for any person, institute, or corporation to breed captive orcas, move or receive captive orcas or orca embryos from a captive orca from any state or country, and use captive orcas as a mean of entertainment or performance. A violation of this law is a $100,000 fine as a misdemeanor.

This bill hoped to solve the issues with orcas being held in captivity after the documentary Blackfish came out exposing every single one of those issues, including corporations taking orcas from the wild and corporations letting their trainers be in charge of aggressive and emotionally distraught animals that are growing tired of living in captivity and made to perform, specifically in SeaWorld.

However, there are many problems with this bill that could easily allow other corporations to find legal loopholes that could cause more issues instead of solving them. One part of the bill states, “An orca located in the state on January 1, 2017, may continue to be held in captivity for its current purpose and after June 1, 2017, may continue to be used for educational presentations until it is retired or until its death.” What exactly is considered an educational presentation? And how would one know if the information used in a presentation is correct?

As seen in “Blackfish”, employees at SeaWorld would often change information or be given false information to explain away the orcas’ unusual behavior or why a percentage of them had a bent over the dorsal fin, something that developed over time while they were in captivity. Also, these educational presentations sometimes allow children to interact closely with animals, i.e. there’s an attraction at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom that lets children interact with animals such as manta rays. If a child is misinformed on how to handle a wild animal, this would lead to a child getting hurt, like the little girl who got bitten by a dolphin at San Antonio’s SeaWorld Dolphin Cove.

In the subtext of the fourth part of section one which states, “...an orca that is held for rehabilitation or research purposes shall be returned to the wild whenever possible and, if a return to the wild is not possible, the orca may be used for educational presentations, but shall not be used for breeding, performance, or entertainment purposes.” The biggest problem is in that one sentence. Corporations could choose how long they keep their orcas in captivity. “Research purposes” is a loose term that could easily be used as a loophole by corporations as they could also choose what exactly they’re researching or even how they conduct their research, no matter if it is or isn’t harmful to the animals.

The final problem with this bill is, “Existing law makes it unlawful to any marine mammal, as defined, except as provided under specified federal laws.” Why should this law only be entitled to marine mammals? There are many animals out there that suffer in captivity. This law should apply to all animals instead of just a select group. I understand what this bill was trying to do but there are just too many ways for corporations to use the bill to their advantage. This bill still has a long way to go before it can be considered foolproof. After all, what’s the point in trying to save animals if one can just find a way hurt them?