Inquiry Project | Eng 1102 Portfolio

INVADING OUR OCEANS.

I remember thinking how horrible it all was. The whole thing was just that. Horrible. The way the animals in our oceans are treated by humans is horrible. How are the problems in our marine life not on the news more often? How could so much information not be on display for the public? Why are more people not informed about what happens to the precious animals who live in our oceans? The fact of the matter is that marine life is a neglected issue in today’s society and that is a whole other problem within itself. Marine life seldom makes its way to the shore of news shows. Why is that? Why are people more worried about what celebrities are wearing or what they are doing over a weekend rather than the fact that sea animals are being treated negatively and not getting the proper treatment they deserve? There really is no answer. But there is a way to help this awareness. If people could learn more about what happens to the animals living in the oceans, they might be willing to do something to help. We as a community need to come up with ways to get the attention of the public so that they feel it is their responsibility to begin helping the wildlife in the oceans.

SEAWORLD.

Imagine this. You’re a little kid and you have been ripped away from your family. You get dropped off in a place too small for you to feel comfortable in. The suffocating area you get put in is full of other people who have no interest in becoming your friends. You’re trained to do a routine that you will put on show for people every day for the rest of your life. If you don’t do what you are supposed to you will be punished. There’s a chance you will die in your new living area because of how small it is and because you don’t have much room to move around. You have some friends, but they are just the people who tell you what to do and work with you everyday. Imagine living that life because this is the life of a killer whale within the confined pools of the beloved SeaWorld.

Many kids have been to or have heard of SeaWorld. When a family takes a trip to the widely known aquatic theme park, there are nothing but smiles and excitement filled within everyone, unless the family had been in a car for hours and all the kids are cranky and ready to get the day going. It’s exciting, seeing your favorite animals, being able to see them up close, watch how they swim and interact with each other behind the massive glass tanks.

SeaWorld does a great job with advertising the happiness their park brings to kids and families by having different commercials on television. SeaWorld commercials make some people want to get off their couch and head to see the great Shamu right away. But there’s a problem with all of this because SeaWorld does not tell the public the whole truth about what happens behind their closed doors.

After watching the documentary, Blackfish, on the killer whales of SeaWorld, I learned more about what SeaWorld does on the inside than any news talk show ever informed me. Blackfish is a documentary on what happens to the animals in SeaWorld and it is told from the perspective of people who were once employees and trainers at the theme park.

It shows everything from the beginning to the end of what SeaWorld does. For starters, capture teams and divers travel out far into the ocean to capture orcas. They herd the whales into coves and seek out the baby orcas because there is less of a shipping cost to transport the babies. SeaWorld denies this act by stating, “We do not separate killer whale moms and calves. SeaWorld recognizes the important bond between mother and calf” (EcoWatch).

This is obviously not true due to the fact that the documentary showed the tactics capture teams use to lure the baby orcas and their mothers so they can easily take the babies. I’m not sure if it’s worse that they take away children from their mothers or that they deny it to the public.

The main orca in the documentary is named Tilikum, nicknamed Tilly, who had a history before he entered SeaWorld’s doors. He was first brought to Sealand, which is a small pool with a few whales that would do a few tricks to entertain the people who came out to watch for the day. One day, one of the trainers accidentally fell into the pool and Tilikum ended up killing her, but none of the workers at SeaWorld were informed of this when Tilikum arrived at SeaWorld.

In the documentary, the former trainers mention that they were not informed of all the details of the trainer’s death at Sealand, their management just made it seem like it was the trainer’s fault not Tilly’s. I think that’s not only highly dangerous, but unfair and should be illegal to withhold information from the employees. If a person is putting their life into their work they should know every detail of the animals they are working with and what they are getting themselves into.

Management of SeaWorld put their trainers at risk when they brought Tilikum and did not even have the decency to inform them of the risks they were taking. National Geographic journalist states that, “These are not bad whales. They just come with all the instincts of predators” (Brower). What he is trying to say is that although orcas are dangerous animals, they are not meant to be bad and to kill the trainers intentionally.

But being ripped away from their family, being stuck in captivity, and living a life with a set routine every day, that makes the animals go insane and the insanity leads them to act out (Blackfish).

DOLPHIN COVE.

23,000 dolphins. That is how many dolphins and porpoises are killed in Taiji, Japan every year in the dolphin cove. After watching the documentary, The Cove, I was able to learn all about the tactics fishermen in Japan use to capture and kill innocent dolphins. The dolphin hunt begins in September and goes on until March. The capture teams go after the young females and trap them in the cove by using large nets. Once the dolphins are all together, trainers go into the water and pick out the dolphins they want as performing dolphins in different aquariums. The dolphins that are not selected are taken to a private cove and are slaughtered so their meat can be sold.

The dolphin meat is sold in major markets and at one point it was put in school lunches. This constructed another problem in Japan, which were high levels of Mercury poisoning. Unfortunately, if a dolphin found its way into the nets, it had only two outcomes, both horrendous. If the trainers choose it, it is taken and put in captivity. If it is not chosen, it is killed. And why? Because a trainer decided it would not be a good show animal? Because it’s meat could make people money?

Killing an innocent animal for money is one of the cruelest things a human can do, yet the dolphin cove remains running. No one has been able to stop it and although I do believe that one day someone will find a way to shut the whole operation down, the lives of many dolphins will be lost before that.

Part of the reason why the cove has not been shut down is because not enough people know about what the fishermen there are doing to the wildlife. Hayden Panettiere, a musician and actress, found out about the terrible acts in Japan and went out on a mission to free as many dolphins as possible (Hall). That shows that there are people out there who know about what’s happening and care enough to do something about it, but the more people become aware of this problem, the more possibility of something changing.

In the documentary, Ric O’Barry, the main activist in the film, says, “I honestly believe when the world finds out about this it will be abolished” (Mcneill). When the world finds out. That’s the point. The world doesn’t really know what’s going on, so the solution is to inform them of the terrible acts going on in the cove. Ric O’Barry was once a dolphin trainer and when he realized what was going on and how much captivity harms dolphins, his beliefs took a turn and he became one of the most famous activists and campaigners. He has been arrested countless of times and still continues with whatever he can to help these helpless animals.

The people who capture the dolphins defend themselves by saying that it is a tradition, but if it’s a tradition, why doesn’t everyone in Japan know about it? It’s become ingrained in their minds that this act is a ritual, a tradition that is okay because it’s appropriate to do according to their laws (Moran). I don’t believe slaughtering dolphins for money is something that should be considered a tradition. If the laws in Japan do believe it’s okay, then something should be done about their laws as well as their so-called traditions (The Cove).

WHAT YOU CAN DO.

What people at home forget is that you do not have to be a celebrity with loads of money to donate to different organizations that help marine life, although celebrities do their fair share of contributing to organizations as seen with Leonardo DiCaprio. His organization donated $3 million to an organization called Oceana that helps save ocean wildlife (Li). But people don’t need millions to do something to help ocean animals; they can do things right in their own homes.

You can begin with the easy things like recycling. If more people took the time to recycle, there would be less trash trickling into the depths of the oceans and harming the animals. Also, don’t let balloons into the sky because if they end up in the ocean, animals think they are jellyfish and when they eat them, there is a high risk of them dying (How to Help).

Another thing to take note of is if you have ever bought a pack of soda cans, you know that there are plastic rings attached that you normally throw away. Well don’t! When those plastic rings end up in the ocean, they can wrap around the mouths or bodies of some animals and then they are stuck like that. You can help decrease the chance of them being harmed just by simply cutting those plastic rings before you dispose of them.

20% of the trash in our oceans is thrown off of ships or oil platforms and the other 80% is from land sources (Pacific Ocean). There are simple ways people can help make a difference in the lives of many sea animals right from their home.

ANIMAL RIGHTS.

Animal rights have also become a huge problem in today’s society because no one really acknowledges it. People think that just because animals are not walking and talking humans that they do not have rights. Those people are very wrong because animals have their own rights, which should be considered more important because they cannot actually speak to defend themselves. Animals rely on people to defend them because they cannot do it themselves.

Animal rights activists have major issues with aquariums because of the simple fact that they are taking the animals’ freedom away. In an article discussing animal rights in aquariums, it is said “from an animal rights perspective, keeping animals in captivity for our own use is an infringement on that animal's right to be free of human exploitation, regardless of how well the animals are treated” (Lin). The quote explains that these animals do not belong in captivity, but they belong in the oceans.

Sea creatures deserve to live in the depths of the oceans and to have the freedom to go where they please. They should not be caged in a confined space just so people can stare at them through a thick glass frame.

THEREFORE WHAT?

When students were asked the question “If you had $1,000 to donate to any charity, which would you choose?” not one person checked the charity that helped dolphins and whales (Khashmanian). The reason for that is not because people do not want to help dolphins and whales, but because they do not realize that those animals need help. People don’t know what goes on in the lives of those animals and for that reason, they do not understand how much they could do to help.

Everything from the orcas at SeaWorld to Dolphin Cove to keeping our seas clean by recycling and to the animal rights, make up the way marine life is cared for. All of these issues are problems that ordinary people like you and I can help solve or at least try to fix. It's important for people to be informed so that they realize what is happening. Maybe if the right person learns about the horrible things that happen to marine life, he or she will end up making the largest difference for these animals.

What happens to the wildlife in our oceans is not clear or known to everyone, which makes it much more difficult to do something to help the problem. You may not have the power to save all of the animals in the oceans. You cannot save them all by yourself. But what you can do is help them in the best way that you can and with that you are saving them. Start today to help make a difference in the lives of these animals by doing anything you are able to do. The smallest act can make the biggest change.