If you really think about it, What is the purpose of marine parks such as SeaWorld? What do we really get out of them, I mean besides the millions of dollars that the owners get, but what do we as a society really get out of it? Fun? Is watching animals do tricks really that fun? The whales in these parks suffer for years. These whales are taken from the wild and separated from their families for the pure enjoyment and the profit of humans. There are several drawbacks to exhibiting orcas in marine parks, but are there any real benefits?

Recently there has been a lot of conversation about the whales at SeaWorld, mostly because of the documentary BlackFish directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, which caused a large amount of awareness of the things going on in the park. People are starting to realize that maybe using whales for our enjoyment is not necessarily right. In the film it is shown that just like humans, whales have families and they share deep emotional connections with them and some scientists might argue that they are even stronger than those of humans. It has been proven that killer whales have an enlarged limbic lobes . The limbic lobe is associated with emotion such as happiness or depression, and this shows that they are capable of feeling things just like humans (Crawford par4). Whales spend their entire lives with their families and never leave their pod, and separating them is very deteriorating to their mental health. They possibly feel even more depressed than a human when being separated. Using whales for marine themed parks causes these whales huge amounts of frustration and stress. They are separated from their families and forced to spend their entire lives with strangers who they are not able to communicate with and it causes tension and violence amongst them (BlackFish). These whales are put through so much and for the majority it is just for the benefit of humans.

Those who are in favor of marine parks might argue that it offers benefits to humans and the animals. An argument in favor of these parks is that they are educational, and offer people an opportunity to learn about animals which they would otherwise not have. In reality these aquatic parks misinform the public about these whales. SeaWorld falsely states that in the wild, Orcas live for approximately twenty to thirty years when many studies have shown that wild orcas live from about fifty to eighty years (“Killer Whales”). Those in favor might also argue that something good that SeaWorld does is that they donate their proceeds to fund research about animals but in reality between the years 2004 and 2012 tax records show that SeaWorld has only donated about six percent of their proceeds to research (Hodgins par5). I do not think this amount really justifies for the treatment of these animals. You would think that if they really care about the whales, most of their funds would go to research to help them, but that is obviously is not the case. And finally, many say that parks like SeaWorld are just good fun for the entire family, but what are we teaching children when we take them to Seaworld? We are saying that it is okay to do whatever you want with the life of other creatures basically because we have the power to and we can. We give ourselves the job of placing value on another creature's life, a creature who cannot defend itself with words and has no choice but to resort to violence. We are saying that it is okay because it is “fun”, because you are having fun that makes it ok, does it?

These whales were not put on this earth for our entertainment. These whales have families and feelings and just how humans feel joy when they see them jump around and do tricks, whales feel sadness when separated from their families and when they are isolated. The drawbacks greatly overpower the benefits of exhibiting orcas in parks. Torturing these orcas should not be fun. Fun should not include stealing animals from their homes. Humans are intelligent enough to know better. Orcas should not continue to be exhibited in parks for the pure benefit of humans.

                                    Works Cited
BlackFish. Dir. Cowperthaite, Gabriela. Magnolia Pictures, 2013. Film.
Crawford, Lars. “Killer Whales are Non-Human Persons.” GreyMattersJounral.com. n.p. 7 December 2013. Web. 21 September 2015.
“Killer Whales (Orcas)” National Geographic. Web. 23 September 2015.
Hodgins, Nicola.“SeaWorld As A Conservation Donor?”. U.S Whales. 12 May 2014. Web. 23 September 2015.