Seaworld Captivity

Imagine you are in a boat right off the shores of Greece. You happen to look up and out of the corner of your eye you see something. As your gaze adjusts, you notice it's a killer whale, being torn away from his home. A large net encloses in in, attached to a large ship. Now, imagine you are sitting in the stands at SeaWorld, surrounded by hundreds of people, people waiting so eagerly to lay eyes on this year’s rendition of “Shamu”. When you look into the cement “pool”, you see him. You see the majestic, beautiful, free, wild animal now in captivity. Only, this time, he looks tired, old, neglected, abused, and lifeless. This is exactly what SeaWorld is doing to killer whales. They take these wild animals out of their natural habitat and force them into captivity.
SeaWorld claims they are providing education and new research, but in fact, “they have had no new scientific releases on any animals in their parks for decades, so they are not contributing to the science of whales in any form”(projectaware.org). Just within 15 years, “Washington and British Columbia” captured “275 to 307 whales [...] 55 were transferred to aquariums” and “12 to 13 died during capture operations”(seaworldofhurt.com). The courts “included [SeaWorld] by name [...] prohibiting orcas from being forcibly removed from their rightful ocean home”(seaworldofhurt.com). Throughout all of the wrongdoing, SeaWorld knows they are at fault somewhere in their actions, being that, after the premiere of Blackfish, SeaWorld “declined requests [...] to be interviewed”(takepart.com). SeaWorld is nothing more than an amusement park that captures and abuses ocean wildlife solely for the purpose of profit, while claiming to be recording data and new discoveries of killer