SeaWorld is Not Entertainment
Sea World has been viewed as a place to go for entertainment and fun for a family for many years since it opened in 1959.
One of the main attractions at the theme park is the orca show.
Many viewers don't know what happens behind the scenes.
Here are some things that you didn't know about Sea World.
1. Sunburns on the animals are covered up with black zinc oxide. In the wild, orcas spend up to 95 percent of their time submerged and would find shade in the depths of the ocean, but at SeaWorld their tanks are far too shallow. The zinc is considered sunblock for the orcas, but it is usually absorbed.
2. Some of the orcas at Sea World were kidnapped first and then sent to Sea World. One of the orcas, Tilikum wasn’t taken from his natural environment because he was injured—instead, he was torn away from his family against his will and confined to a small concrete tank for a hefty profit.
The First Orca:
In 1965, the first-ever orca show at SeaWorld was performed by a female orca named Shamu at SeaWorld San Diego. During Shamu’s capture, her mother was shot with a harpoon and killed before the young orca’s very eyes by a marine “cowboy” named Ted Griffin. Griffin’s partner, Don Goldsberry, later worked for SeaWorld and was assigned to bring orcas into the park. He continued kidnapping and slaughtering orcas, and at one point, he hired divers to slit open the bellies of four orcas, fill them with rocks, put anchors around their tails, and sink them to the bottom of the ocean so that their deaths would not be discovered.
1. Sunburns on the animals are covered up with black zinc oxide. In the wild, orcas spend up to 95 percent of their time submerged and would find shade in the depths of the ocean, but at SeaWorld their tanks are far too shallow. The zinc is considered sunblock for the orcas, but it is usually absorbed.
2. Some of the orcas at Sea World were kidnapped first and then sent to Sea World. One of the orcas, Tilikum wasn’t taken from his natural environment because he was injured—instead, he was torn away from his family against his will and confined to a small concrete tank for a hefty profit.
The First Orca:
In 1965, the first-ever orca show at SeaWorld was performed by a female orca named Shamu at SeaWorld San Diego. During Shamu’s capture, her mother was shot with a harpoon and killed before the young orca’s very eyes by a marine “cowboy” named Ted Griffin. Griffin’s partner, Don Goldsberry, later worked for SeaWorld and was assigned to bring orcas into the park. He continued kidnapping and slaughtering orcas, and at one point, he hired divers to slit open the bellies of four orcas, fill them with rocks, put anchors around their tails, and sink them to the bottom of the ocean so that their deaths would not be discovered.
"10 Things You Didn't Know About SeaWorld - SeaWorld of Hurt." SeaWorld of Hurt. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
