Since Blackfish came out in 2013 there has been a lot of backlash toward Seaworld (and rightfully so.) But cetacean captivity goes way beyond Seaworld and sometimes I think we can forget that. There are other marine parks all around the world exploiting these creatures for human entertainment. We are going to take a deeper look at the history of cetacean captivity, how it started and why. To further understand how to help empty the tanks, maybe we need to understand history.
Cetacean captivity has been around far longer than any marine park will admit. In order to admit to this secret, these parks would be discrediting themselves, hiding the violent acts behind their past. Capturing cetaceans started all the way back in the 1860s and 70's when beluga whales and dolphins were captured to be shipped to marine parks across the US and Europe. Marine Studios, now known as Marineland Of Florida was the first park to house a captive bottlenose dolphin in 1974. This dolphin was the first captive-born ever.
The 1960s is when whaling blew up as there were little laws protecting the capture of wild marine life. Between 1970 and 1971 ten orcas were captured off the coast of Puget Sound, Washington state. Five of these captured whales were sent to Seaworld, one (Lolita) was sent to Miami seaquarium and the rest were sent off to various parks around the states. All the captives besides Lolita died prematurely. For 15 years after, 307 whales were captured, 13 died during the capture process and 55 were sent to aquariums.
In 1969 the Taiji dolphin drives also began. These dolphins are wrangled into a small cove where the best looking ones are captured and sent to marine parks while the others are brutally murdered for food. However, it is now illegal to send wild-caught dolphins into the U.S.
In the mid-1970s people began questioning the ethics behind the captive industry. In 1972 the Marine Mammal Protection Act was set in place as an effort to protect animals from the live capture industry. But in 1994 the industry found a way around this law stating that if the captured is used for education or conservation purposes then they can breed without legal repercussions.
In 1976 Washington state banned the capture of wild orcas within their state. However, Seaworld pioneers the captive and captive breeding industry, they opposed this legislation in Washington state and made it once again, internationally legal to capture whales and sell them into captivity. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species can regulate the trade of cetaceans but most cetaceans being captured are not on the "endangered species" list, their trade can not and will not be controlled.
In 1992 the federal government blocked the trade of Taiji dolphins from being sent to Six Flags Discovery Park. In 1993, three Pacific White-Sided dolphins where captured off the coast of California and this capture set off a lot of controversy making these three dolphins the last US caught captives. This leads now into the problem of the captive breeding industry. However, in other parts of the world the capture and captivity industry is booming and marine parks are looking to expand outside of the US where people are less likely to care about marine captivity.
Article about Seaworlds opposition on legislature
Source for timeline
