[CINC] Black Fish

[thusone at aol.com]

In addition to information about the movie, "Black Fish" this link has an interesting interview with Orca expert discussing ramifications of keeping killer whales in captivity.
I am sorry for the unfortunate title of this link, but it is well worth reading.   The public will probably be asking us about this movie as they did with "The Cove"
    Shirley


"Killer whales are social animals [resident killer whales stay with their mothers for life]. That's a really, really important thing with killer whales because you don't see it with other animals. Maybe in some human societies you have both brother and sister staying with mother their entire life, but you don't see it in the wild, you don't see it in other animals. The social aspect of them is what I love to study here looking at these groups. To have a healthy individual it has to be allowed to be in its natural environment and the captive environment is so unnatural that it surpasses any benefit that we might get from having animals in captivity. We are changing their nature so dramatically in order for us to see a pretty thing, because really that's what that boils down to. We're not seeing the actual animal anymore when we see it in captivity, it's a different sort of beast. They're just too amazing, they're just too complex to sacrifice."


"The calf-mother separations that are mentioned in the film both involve two of the most responsible and bonded mothers in SeaWorld’s collection, both of whom have had multiple calves taken from them. The separations are said to be driven primarily by introducing new breeding options to other SeaWorld parks and by fulfilling entertainment and other husbandry needs. We are surprised that SeaWorld has brought up calf rejection, an issue the film does not address and a phenomenon that is extremely rare in wild orcas. In the wild, females generally have their first calf around 13-16 years of age. Because SeaWorld has bred their females as early as 5-6 years of age, these females have not learned proper social behavior, they have not learned how to mother a calf, and may ultimately reject and injure their calves."Giles adds: "[SeaWorld's response] is nonsense — a mother at SeaWorld should have all of her offspring with her. And we know that's not true. And, let me respond one more thing, with regard to breeding, you would never have inbreeding the way that they do inbreeding with captive killer whales. You wouldn't see that in the wild where mothers and sons are breeding and producing offspring. "

http://gawker.com/seaworld-is-so-pissed-over-the-blackfish-documentary-840955452
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