SeaWorld’s Profits Drop 84% After Blackfish Documentary

[Zepheyr]

Sea World is responsible for fostering my interest in sea conservation from a young age. I credit them with exposing my curious young mind to cetacean intelligence, and implanting a profound respect and admiration for dolphins and whales in general that I still have to this day. I'd hate to see Sea World disappear.

[MJJersey]

Originally Posted by MoonBeam33

No, keeping intelligent primates behind glass is not a good thing either, nor sharks, nor big cats, etc. But this thread is about Seaworld so let's keep it on topic.

I was reading an atricle related to the Cecil killing and lions live only 10 years in the wild but up to 30 in zoos with human care. Yes that sounds so terrible.

[Mathguy]

The reality to me is that the major threat to the general sea animals are things like over-fishing, pollution, habitat loss and so forth.

If a "Sea World" has a few captive that raise awareness in the population in general about the bigger issues then it's a acceptable trade-off IMO.

[prospectheightsresident]

Originally Posted by NLVgal

That math makes no sense unless they spent a bunch of money, wrote off a huge loss, or someone is cooking the books .

Given the number of television ads I saw from Sea World defending themselves against the documentary (or some other campaign against it), it wouldn't shock me if this is the cause. If so, and revenues only dropped by 3%, then their ads may have worked.

[Paka]

WWF - Whales killed by whaling since moratorium

Reading these stats, they might be WAY safer and more likely to survive at SeaWorld then if they were on their own in the wild!

[animalcrazy]

I personally have never been to Sea World, nor do I ever plan to visit it. It's a personal choice as I find zoo's equally sad as well. I would prefer to see the whales in their natural habitat behaving as whales and not some trained seal performing tricks. I see it as yet another example of man's arrogance and disrespectful to another species...but that's just me. "You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...." There you go, my flash back to my hippie days. I hope some day you join us (Go ahead sing it. You know you want to.)

[Ringo1]

Originally Posted by davidt1

Public aquariums over the world also keep fish in captivity. Do the hypocritical idiots ever cry for them?

Me I think all animals should be left alone in their natural habitats. They should not be caged and imprisoned in zoo, aquariums, etc.

I agree with you.

[hothulamaui]

Originally Posted by Speleothem

They haven't taken an Orca from the wild in over 35 years.
Do we still collect whales? No we do not.

they don't need to take them out of the wild they collect their captives whale's sperm and make lots of captive baby whales from it. whales are a money maker for them...conservation is secondary.

[shaylahc]

I live in Seattle, and we have 3 pods of resident orcas that live in our waters.

After seeing these animals in the wild, I will NEVER visit another marine park. I don't even really like zoos anymore. One never really stops to think about captivity until they have seen these beautiful creatures in the wild.

[shaylahc]

Originally Posted by hothulamaui

they don't need to take them out of the wild they collect their captives whale's sperm and make lots of captive baby whales from it. whales are a money maker for them...conservation is secondary.

This is true. They also separate the moms from the babies and send them to different aquariums as needed. To an orca, her family is EVERYTHING. In the wild they stay in their family pods for life.

Also, captive orcas have short lifespans. Many of them have died, even in infancy.