15 Things Seaworld Doesn't Want You To Know

back in the 20th century it seemed like sea world was the coolest place on earth you can actually go and visit a place which had killer whales in tanks and you could get right up close to these unbelievable animals and see how smart and playful they were but then some people started to think hey if they're that smart maybe keeping them in a little teeny tiny swimming pool instead of the whole entire ocean is a little cruel then in 2013 the documentary blackfish came out and won a lot of praise but also made sea world look pretty bad does sea world help animals or is it cruel the debate goes on but from the nature of killer whale finns to their breeding program we are going to show you 15 things seaworld doesn't want you to know number 15. dorsal fins one of the first things people began to question about sea world was the truth about killer whales with collapsed dorsal fins clearly this was something that did not happen in the wild so what did it mean when this occurred in captive killer whales the dorsal fin on a large male killer whale can grow up to six feet in height and is a vital appendage for navigating the oceans but in captivity it is common for it to flop down to one side sea world claims this is natural and often occurs in the wild but studies show this is simply not true if it does occur in the wild it almost always is a sign of poor health or other trauma the finn is made of collagen like a human ear and under normal circumstances is underwater with pressure as the whales swim fast and dive deep but just floating around in a pool lowers this pressure and causes tissue damage and it particularly affects males for some reason here's the most important point when whales with collapsed fins are put back into the wild their fins stand up again the stress of captivity and lack of proper exercise is clearly bad for any living thing but especially one this majestic before we go on like this video smash the subscribe button and click the notification bell right now or this centipede will crawl on your face when you're sleeping number 14 breeding killer whales in captivity don't breed well and since the capture of wild killer whales was outlawed in 1972 sea world has been forced to resort to artificial insemination to ensure they have more whales in the future trainers train male whales to flip onto their backs and present their genitals and the trainer then has to manually extract semen and catch it in a container this is then inserted into a female whale in the hope of pregnancy in their rush to get new whales born they inseminate females far too young a little like humans a killer whale female is physically capable of healthy pregnancy at between 14 to 16 years old but in sea world the females are expected to give birth aged 8 to 10 which often results in still births in fact almost all killer whale births are still born also they then separate mother and calf at an early age which is highly traumatic for both killer whales are the only species to have more advanced brain structures than humans in the areas which control empathy and emotional response and so likely suffer even more than we would at such a separation they are known to cry in emotional pain and suffer from depression number 13 kidnapping in spite of the ban on capture five of the whales at the park were kidnapped from the wild back in 1970 a team of boats and airplanes set out on the puget sound with the intention of capturing killer whale calves for the entertainment industry boats aimed to herd the whales into a cove where they would be trapped chasing the humans were fooled by the whale pod who had been through this kind of thing before they knew their young were in danger so somehow they were able to communicate amongst themselves that the males would continue up into the cove with the humans following while discreetly the females and their calves would slip down a different way however the airplane above was too much of an advantage and was able to communicate to the boats that they needed to change course and so many whales were caught that day and taken from their parents when this was banned in the u.s sea world just kept moving to new territories such as iceland which had not banned it yet collecting more and more whales for display in spite of their own government outlying capture number 12. drugs thought out dead fish is far from the healthy and varied diet these massive bodies would expect to enjoy in the wild weighing up to six tons and measuring as much as 32 feet a killer whale's diet is extremely important and the fresher the better in the wild they would eat fish penguins and marine mammals such as seals sea lions and even whales however their unhealthy and unfresh diet is often mixed with a cocktail of drugs which can include benzodiazepines antipsychotics and at times contraceptives these help to keep the whales docile since captive whales often display signs of aggression and mental illness just like in humans these kinds of drugs are best served as a last resort as the effects on the body can be highly damaging and the small moderations and behavior they make are not beneficial to the whales in the long run in any way number 11. trainers the trainers at seaworld are often presented as being expert marine biologists but this is not always the case in fact most of the trainers at sea world are simply performers who have learned how to interact with the animals in shows but did not necessarily have any expertise that does not mean to say that the trainers aren't competent but they are being presented as having knowledge about the animals that maybe doesn't exist among humans yet no trainer can ever be sure of how a killer whale is going to behave and react one of the most experienced trainers in sea world history john hargrove has become an outspoken critic of seaworld and wants to see these animals left in their natural environment in spite of the magical experiences he has had with them good he acknowledges times when his life was in danger when the whale's moods can change when something just isn't right they are professionals but they are not magicians in the water it is the killer whale who is in charge number 10 animal care in spite of many protestations to the contrary by sea world an investigation by the united states department of agriculture which is the federal executive department dealing with animal welfare among other things conducted an investigation into the conditions at sea world san diego after a child was bitten by a dolphin julie seaworld says that katina the killer whale was injured here at sea world about two weeks ago while in 2013 the investigation concluded and the marine park was cited for multiple violations of the animal welfare act some of those violations were serious including the use of surgical instruments which were more than 10 years past their expiry date the usda report also documented the degraded state of the dolphin tanks which were cracked and had rusty beams held up with crumbling concrete all of which were considered dangerous to both animals and the workers alike it is argued that allowing young children to hand feed dolphins is dangerous given that captive dolphins can sometimes be aggressive due to their unhappy living conditions and several injuries to both children and dolphins seem to confirm this and not only have animals been injured at sea world but many have died prematurely due to accidents and injuries which might have been avoided with better care number nine chemicals as you might imagine the tiny pools at sea world do not have the self-cleaning mechanism of an entire ocean and visitors would of course expect an absolutely sparkling clean experience for their money this means some serious scrubbing duties by the trainers who must clean out the tanks and other areas with a whole range of chemicals these chemicals are not part of the animal's natural environment and so can have many negative effects as seen in the common cases of blindness in sea lions and walruses at the parks this toxic effect is no less on humans and the trainers have reported many skin conditions caused by the large amounts of chlorine poured into the pools the killer whales usually have constant streams of mucus pouring from their eyes which is a protective mechanism but not something which should be on at all times trainers too had cases of serious eye burn from the chlorine which left them unable to open their eyes after swimming there are many theories about what causes eye damage in killer whales from increased exposure to the sun the uv friendly blue color of the pool walls to lack of dark depths to work in but no doubt huge doses of chlorine are not good for the whales number eight behavioral problems according to seaworld's corporate incident reporting there have been more than 200 incidents of trainer injury caused by killer whales with a range of severity including death of a trainer but aggression is only one of the behavioral problems that captive killer whales display some of their other behavior is self-destructive and self-harming and they will make themselves bleed by gnawing on solid objects like walls or gates at other times the animals seem to just float listlessly in the pools with nothing better to do while in the wild they would be consistently engaged in hunting and social interactions with their pot the whales also fight one another and can inflict quite serious injuries these problems seem to be a sign of mental illness which coupled with the physical decline suffered by the whales often leads to early death in 2019 kayla a killer whale at sea world orlando died she was the oldest captive born whale in history and passed away at age 30. in the wild however killer whales can live to 80 years with the average age being 50 to 60. number seven hunger one of the primary methods of training whales at sea world is using food to reward them when they do what they're asked but the inverse method is also used where the whales are starved if they do not do what they are asked to do this negative reinforcement is a method of training which is considered unethical in pretty much all forms of animal training and yet sea world will punish the whales with starvation if they do not perform tricks which are often painful for a whale to launch itself onto a solid platform it will need to know the consequences of failing to do so and that they'll be unpleasant so it goes through with the trick even though that massive body designed to be held together in water will experience huge pressure on its organs when it is placed against a hard surface on land this is no doubt at least uncomfortable for the killer whales if not outright painful but if they do not do it they know they will suffer the pain of hunger instead number 6. overwork speaking of performing tricks there are not really the same kinds of labor laws for whales as you might expect for humans and this means that often these animals are expected to work tirelessly for profit with little rest or time away from the stress of performing one killer whale named kasatka was captured at the ago of one and taken to sea world where she lived for 40 years and during that time she performed eight shows a day for 40 years the only break kasatka was ever given was to be transferred by road to other parks for breeding after which her babies would be immediately taken from her and while her maternal hormones were still overwhelming she would be sent right back to her grueling schedule of work this whale was known as the matriarch of the sea world wales but also considered one of the most dangerous whales to work with no doubt unpredictable after her many years of pain having suffered a lung disease for many years she was euthanized at the age of 42 in 2017 just after telecom one of the most famous and notorious killer whales also died of a lung disease aged 35 33 years after being captured near iceland number five sunburned killer whales or orca as they are sometimes known are used to living in cold seas and spending a great deal of time deep underwater in spite of their dark patches of skin they can still be prone to sunburn this is not helped by the fact that sea world's three parks which house killer whales are in the extremely sunny environments of orlando san antonio and san diego on top of this the shallow pools mean that there is really nowhere to hide from that hot sun when the animals burn just like people it can cause the skin to become raw and disfigured this is yet another aspect of sea world's operations that they do all they can to cover up from the public who would no doubt be asking questions if they saw the whale's skin was burned and discolored so they cover the burned whales with black zinc oxide which works as a form of water resistant makeup to keep visitors in the illusion that there is nothing wrong with these captive animals number 4. fedex sea world doesn't reserve its mistreatment of animals only for orcas however it has done plenty of things to some of its other residents that make you wonder how it could possibly be legal how about mailing 20 penguins across country by fedex fedex who are not exactly geniuses when it comes to competent delivery of regular mail were entrusted with a plastic 4x4 crate full of life penguins who were forced to stand in the same position for 13 hours with a few air holes punched into the crate and a block of ice at the bottom to keep them cool unlike most animal transport operations the fedex penguins were not sedated with sea world figuring they'd be fine without them sea world has transported penguins for publicity stunts to a variety of places including the new york stock exchange where they are forced to parade in front of huge crowds and bright flashing lights finally the penguin enclosure is often filled with coins thrown by visitors and even things like shoes and the penguins instinctively try to eat shiny things mistaking them for fish scales which can be very damaging to their health number three dentistry as we mentioned earlier one of the most visible behaviors by unhappy killer whales is to non-chew solid objects in frustration and boredom a major peer-reviewed study into dental health of captive orcas revealed that their teeth were often in terrible condition as most people know the health of your teeth can have powerful consequences for the health of many other things in your body from bones to organs 45 of the captive whales had moderate wear to their teeth while 24 had where described as extreme 61 of the whales had been given some kind of dental surgery in which their teeth are drilled by trainers and the pulpy inner material removed in an attempt to avoid abscesses which are usually fatal in killer whales unlike a human root canal drilling an orca tooth cannot be filled and capped and so they must be flushed out daily with chemicals to prevent infection a process which weakens the teeth further and contributes to wear it is suspected that tilikum and kasatka died from antibiotic resistant lung infections brought on by the need for daily medication for their teeth number two feeding feeding time at seaworld is what most people want to see but perhaps it is ironic that the most notorious incidents in the park's history occurred during human feeding time don brasho was a senior animal trainer at sea world orlando and the poster girl for the operation on february 24 2010 she performed with the killer whale tilikum in the dine with shammusho seaworld maintains the name shamu for its performances even though the whales change over time this show goes on while guests enjoy a restaurant meal in view of the performance at the end of the show this experienced trainer was stroking tilikum's head while lying on the platform when suddenly the whale grabbed her by either the arm or the hair with reports varying tilikum dragged on down to the bottom of the pool and drowned her while also inflicting devastating injuries to her body which he held onto for 45 minutes before releasing it this was a terrible tragedy but it's hard not to speculate that this aggression by telecom was not just random but in some way a brutal and desperate way of expressing her unhappiness not with her trainer but with her captivity number one large whale small tank it would be impossible to just turn all these whales out into the wild captive and captive born killer whales would simply die in the wild no matter what the movies say but marine reserves which give them the freedom of the ocean but within some bounds would be far better for these whales than the conditions they are kept in sea world may be the most famous corporation holding captive killer whales but they are not the only ones there are 13 parks in the world with captive whales in the us canada argentina japan china russia france and spain one of the saddest stories is of lolita a killer whale who has lived alone for 40 years at the miami seaquarium in 1970 she arrived at the park with a male named hugo but in 1980 hugo committed suicide by continually ramming its head into the wall of the tank until he died since then lalita's life has consisted of her daily performances and the rest of the time she floats motionless in her tiny pool waiting for the next performance and therefore next meal time to start even famed dolphin and well trainers have called her captivity inhumane and have pleaded with the park to attempt partial reintroduction to the wild but lolita remains the biggest money spinner for miami's aquarium so it seems her miserable existence will go on for a while yet what do you think of keeping killer whales in captivity do you think seaworld is hiding the truth from its visitors let us know in the comments below also check out our other cool stuff showing up on screen right now see you next time you

Channel: Amerikano

Views: 336,162

Rating: 4.8531394 out of 5

Keywords: things, seaworld, doesnt want you to know, things seaworld doesnt want you to know, know, creature, creatures, viral, new, secrets, secret, unbelievable, orcas, orca, seaworld orcas, seaworld orlando, seaworld trainer, seaworld trainers, seaworld accident, seaworld whale attack, seaworld whale, seaworld whales, species, best, education, seaworld (film subject), seaworld orca, discovery channel, wildlife, oceans, marine mammals, killer whales, science, marine biology

Id: q3fXkCM0oOk

Length: 19min 12sec (1152 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 23 2021