A Summary of the Effects of Captivity on Orcas

A Summary of the Effects

of Captivity on Orcas

PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS

Contents

The E ects of Captivity on Tilikum and Orcas Generally at SeaWorld…………..................................…………......3

I. Orcas Are Extremely Intelligent Mammals Whose Brains Are Highly Developed in Areas

Responsible for Complex Cognitive Functions, Including Self-Awareness, Social Cognition,

Culture, and Language …………………………………………...............................................................................................…...4

II. Tilikum Is Deprived of Every Facet of His Culture and the Opportunity to Engage in

Natural Behavior, Causing Extreme Stress and Su ering….…………….….......................................................5

A. The Tanks at SeaWorld Provide Inadequate Space and Result in Stress……….…...........................5

B. SeaWorld’s Constant Manipulation of Tilikum’s Social Structure Results in Stress.................7

C. The Tanks at SeaWorld Create a Distressing Acoustic Environment…….………..….........................9

III. The Stressors of the Captive Environment at SeaWorld Result in Aggressiveness, Self-

Injury, and Other Physical and Behavioral Abnormalities………………….……..............................................10

A. Aggression Between Orcas and Between Orcas and Humans……..……………..............................……10

B. Stereotypic Behavior………………….……………………………………….......................................................................….…..13

1. Painful Dental Problems Caused by Chewing Metal Gates and Concrete Tanks.....14

2. Surface Resting and Lying on the Tank Floor….………………….….……............................................17

Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………...............................................................................................19

Cover image: © Terrell C. Newby, Ph.D.

The Effects of Captivity on Tilikum and Orcas Generally

at SeaWorld

Orcas are highly intelligent and social apex predators, and living in

captivity causes them extensive physical and psychological harm. Among other

things, the physical constraints of the artiﬁ cial enclosures at SeaWorld limit their

opportunity to exercise, disperse from incompatible pairings, escape from conﬂ icts,

or engage in natural types of behavior, such as swimming at high speeds or diving,

causing them extreme stress and frustration.

The stress of the captive environment is manifested in “physiological and

behavioral abnormalities indicative of psychological distress and emotional

disturbance,” including stereotypic behavior, unresponsiveness, excessive

submissiveness, self-inﬂ icted physical trauma and mutilation, compromised

immunology, and excessive aggression.

At SeaWorld Orlando, Tilikum lies listlessly

at the surface or the bottom of the tank for extended periods, displays aggression

toward humans, bites on the gates and concrete sides of the tanks, and is charged at

and raked by other orcas so severely that he sometimes bleeds, shivers, and needs

to be kept out of shows. While Tilikum has reached the average life expectancy for

a male orca, the same stressors impair captive orcas’ immune systems so that they

have a mortality rate two and a half times higher than wild orcas, notwithstanding

SeaWorld’s alleged superior veterinary care and husbandry.

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

Orca brains share a number of important features with human brains that are

associated with complex intelligence.

As with the human brain, orca brains are much larger than expected for their

body size. The proportion of brain and body size is typically expressed as an

encephalization quotient (EQ). The EQ for orcas is 2.57, which means that even when

their large body size is taken into account, their brains are still two and a half times

larger than expected.

Orcas therefore have more brain tissue available to serve

complex cognitive functions, such as self-awareness (a sense of personal identity),

social cognition, culture, and language.

In addition, the neocortex (the outer wrinkled surface of the cerebrum) of

the orca brain is highly di erentiated—i.e., di erent parts have di erent

specialized functions—and even surpasses the human brain in the degree of its

convolutedness—a measure of the surface area indicating the amount of information

processing possible in the brain.

The neocortex is involved in integrating

information from the di erent senses to form mental representations of objects and

thoughts and is also part of the cerebral cortex—the system that processes higher-

order thinking and complex, abstract processes, such as language, self-awareness,

meta-cognition (the ability to think about one’s own thoughts), social cognition, and

theory of mind (the ability to think about and infer the thoughts of others).

In addition to all these complexities, the orca brain also contains spindle-shaped

cells known as von Economo neurons in the same areas of the brain as humans.

These spindle cells are found in the parts of the brain that are thought to be involved

in high-level cognitive processing, such as social and emotional cognition, awareness,

and intuition.

This includes “feelings of empathy, guilt, embarrassment, and pain, as

well as judgement [sic], social knowledge, and consciousness of visceral feelings.”

I. Orcas Are Extremely Intelligent Mammals Whose Brains Are

Highly Developed in Areas Responsible for Complex Cognitive

Functions, Including Self-Awareness, Social Cognition, Culture,

and Language

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

Finally, orca brains possess a highly developed paralimbic region,

which is believed

to be involved in processing and integrating emotional information with other

thought processes. In fact, the human brain is not elaborated in the same way and

does not have an identiﬁ able paralimbic lobe, which suggests that the orca brain

may have evolved certain kinds of sophisticated or complex functions and thought

processes related to the processing of emotion that did not evolve in the human

brain—or at least not to the same extent.

Along with their complex intelligence and cognitive abilities, orcas are among the

most highly social, far-ranging, communicative, and culturally complex mammals

on the planet. Orca populations are distinguishable by diet, morphology, dialect,

social structure, genetics, and behavior. Their transmission of these group-speciﬁ c

vocal and physical types of behavior from generation to generation in complex

multicultural societies is recognized as a form of culture that, to researchers’

knowledge, is unique outside humans.

SeaWorld causes Tilikum severe psychological and emotional su ering by

depriving him of, among other things, adequate space, environmental enrichment,

social stability, and the opportunity to perform natural behavior such as swimming

long distances, diving, and foraging. The conﬁ ned space, repeated scheduled

performances, and related training completely compromise his autonomy. This

deprivation is physically and psychologically harmful to orcas, and, as discussed

below, causes them to display indicators of stress and trauma, which, notably,

includes aggression, self-injury, and increased mortality.

The tanks at SeaWorld o er woefully inadequate space for an orca. Orcas are one of

the fastest animals in the sea, traveling at speeds of up to nearly 28 miles per hour.

II. Tilikum Is Deprived of Every Facet of His Culture and the

Opportunity to Engage in Natural Behavior, Causing Extreme

Stress and Suffering

A. The Tanks at SeaWorld Provide Inadequate Space and

Result in Stress

They are also adapted for swimming extended distances and durations. Individual

orcas have been recorded traveling nearly 100 miles per day

and are capable of

covering vast distances of many thousands of miles.

They regularly dive 200 to

300 meters (656 to 984 feet)

and spend 95 percent of their time submerged.

In the

wild, orcas swim almost continuously.

According to a reference book for zoos, aquariums, and wildlife parks and a standard

course textbook for zoo biology students, the design and construction of marine-

mammal habitats “should consider the natural history and behavior of the species to

be maintained and should permit the performance of most, if not all, of their natural

behaviors.”

In addition, it “must meet the physical, psychological and behavioral

needs of the animals.”

Put simply, “[m]arine mammals need enough space to allow

them to perform natural behaviors with freedom of movement.”

At SeaWorld, orcas are kept in a series of tanks that average approximately 86 feet

by 51 feet and are only 34 feet deep—not even twice as deep as the average orca

is long. At up to 22 feet long and 12,000 pounds, Tilikum is unable to engage in

virtually any natural movement: He is unable to swim any meaningful distance or

dive and is forced to spend a majority of his life on or just below the surface of the

water.

The largest tank at any of SeaWorld’s facilities holds approximately 0.0001

percent of the minimum volume of water (45.3 billion gallons) that an orca traverses

daily in nature.

Tilikum would have to swim the circumference of that tank more

than 1,900 times in a single day to approximate the distance he would have swum in

that time in the wild before he was captured.

After Tilikum killed trainer Dawn Brancheau in February 2010, he was, at least at

times, held in a tank intended for use only when administering medical care or

husbandry procedures that was so small that his rostrum (nose) and ﬂ uke (tail)

apparently could touch the sides of the tank. Small enclosures have been shown

to induce stress in various species,

and “[a]mong the carnivores, naturally

wide-ranging species,” such as orcas, “show the most evidence of stress and/or

psychological dysfunction in captivity.”

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

SeaWorld utterly disregards the importance of orcas’ complex familial and

sociological bonds. Long-term studies of wild orcas have shown that most

populations live in stable social groups with strong long-term associations, and

some individuals, such as mothers and sons, stay together for life.

In resident

orca populations of the Paciﬁ c Northwest, orcas live in “highly stable matrilineal

pods averaging 12 animals” and “there is no known case of individuals changing

pods.”

In fact, these close relationships are so crucial that even adult o spring of

a post-reproductive orca mother have been shown to have a signiﬁ cantly increased

mortality risk in the year after their mother’s death.

While other populations

typically appear to live in smaller groups, even these individuals generally leave

their natal pods only occasionally and temporarily travel with other groups.

In contrast to the stable social structure in nature, SeaWorld transfers orcas

between facilities regularly to “balance” the genetic pool for breeding

and for use

in performances and often houses together orcas who don’t know one another and

Tilikum is seen inside the circle in this aerial photo of SeaWorld.

B. SeaWorld’s Constant Manipulation of Tilikum’s Social Structure

Results in Stress

are incompatible.

In addition, SeaWorld removes calves from their mothers at

ages far younger than they would be separated in the wild, if at all, and it is clearly

distressing to these animals.

The orca Kayla exempliﬁ es this disregard for stable social structure. Kayla was born

at SeaWorld San Antonio in 1988, taken from her mother at only 11 months of age,

moved to the now-defunct SeaWorld Ohio at the age of 2, returned to San Antonio

in 1999, and ﬁ nally moved to Orlando in 2006, where she remains today.

Another

orca, Katina, who is held at SeaWorld Orlando, also had her ﬁ rst calf, Kalina, taken

away from her. When Kalina, known as the Original Baby Shamu, was 4 years old,

she was shipped to Ohio for reportedly disrupting shows at the facility.

The night

that Kalina was taken, Katina “remained immobile in a corner of the pool, emitting

wretched cries into the night.”

Research has shown that social instability—such as changes in group dynamics,

competition for resources, and unstable dominance hierarchies—is a major stressor

that is believed even to have caused the deaths of several captive dolphins.

In fact,

while Tilikum has remained at SeaWorld for more than two decades, the company’s

own behavioral proﬁ le for him acknowledges that “[d]uring times of frustration

due to social stress in the environment, Tilikum has exhibited aggressive behavior

by mouthing [or biting] the stage, vocalizations, tightening body posture, banging

gates, a deep fast swim, and sometimes lunging toward control trainer.”

In short, Tilikum is deprived of the stable, nurturing social family and pod structure

that was so central to his life in the wild. The artiﬁ cial groupings at marine facilities

are, according to one expert, “a tremendous violation of the basic premise of the

pod” and result in “constant stress.”

Orcas are highly acoustic animals who use a range of signals for distinct purposes,

including clicks for echolocation to navigate and detect environmental objects

and prey

and whistles and pulsed calls for social communication.

Orca pods

have distinctive sets of discrete call types known as dialects that are passed down

C. The Tanks at SeaWorld Create a Distressing Acoustic Environment

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

through vocal learning,

i.e., the dialect is learned by calves through contact with

their mothers and other pod members. Indeed, in one well-studied population,

family-speciﬁ c call types dramatically increase in the days following a birth, which

“supports the idea that discrete calls in orcas indeed function as family badges and

suggests that the family may actively enhance vocal learning of a signal that is

crucial for recognizing and maintaining contact with the family.”

These dialects

“are maintained despite extensive associations between pods,” and some calls are

shared between pods, “suggesting another level of population structure” and further

evidencing the importance of communication to their complex society.

SeaWorld’s apparently wholesale disregard for orcas’ stable social structure, as

discussed above, strips Tilikum and the others of the opportunity to develop and

transmit dialects—their principal form of communication and a crucial component

of their identity. Additionally, the tanks at SeaWorld likely make any e ort by

Tilikum to communicate highly distressing. Dr. Hal Whitehead, an expert on

cultural transmission in cetaceans—the order that includes whales and dolphins—

and coauthor of a groundbreaking review of culture in orcas and other cetaceans,

compares the experience of a “highly acoustic cetacean” such as an orca “living in

a tank with acoustically reﬂ ective walls to that of a visually oriented animal, like a

human, living captive in a room covered with mirrors on all walls and the ﬂ oor. The

experience is likely to be profoundly disturbing, especially over the long term.”

Similarly, oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau compared keeping orcas in tanks to

“a person being blindfolded in a jail cell.”

As a result of the aforementioned circumstances, captive orcas display behavioral

indicators of severe stress and trauma, including stereotypies (abnormal repetitive

behaviors), self-inﬂ icted physical trauma, and excessive aggression toward humans

and other orcas, among other abnormalities not observed in wild populations.

III. The Stressors of the Captive Environment at SeaWorld Result

in Aggression, Self-Injury, and Other Physical and Behavioral

Abnormalities

Evidence of su ering caused by the captive conditions at SeaWorld is found in the

“long record of orcas … killing and seriously injuring humans, other whales, and

themselves in captivity.”

Despite hundreds of years of encounters between seafarers, researchers, and orcas,

there has been only a single reliable report of an orca seriously injuring a human

being in nature.

Yet as indicated by SeaWorld’s own corporate incident logs

revealed in the proceedings regarding its violation of federal workplace safety

laws after trainer Dawn Brancheau’s death, the company itself has recorded “600

pages of incident reports documenting dangerous and unanticipated orca behavior

with trainers,” consisting of “some 100 occurrences of killer whales biting, hitting,

lunging toward, pulling on, pinning, dragging, and aggressively swimming over

SeaWorld trainers” regularly for decades.

These logs are also incomplete. As the

secretary of labor revealed during these proceedings, SeaWorld failed to document

incident after incident, including Brancheau’s death, which prompted the citation.

Most notoriously, Tilikum was involved in the death of a trainer at Sealand of the

Paciﬁ c in 1991,

a member of the public at SeaWorld in 1999,

and Brancheau at

SeaWorld in 2010.

At times, Kayla, also at SeaWorld Orlando, has “displayed some

aggressive tendencies towards trainers in a variety of ways, including … moving her

head (mouth open) towards a trainers’ hand, and coming out of a line up towards

a trainer with her mouth open.”

Another orca named Keto, who was on loan to a

Spanish facility called Loro Parque, rammed and killed his trainer during a training

session in 2009.

Similarly, the stressors of conﬁ nement at SeaWorld frequently cause orcas to exhibit

abnormal aggression toward each other, further demonstrating that these conditions

induce the types of behavior that pose a hazard to trainers. In nature, aggression

between members of a pod or between pods is rare.

“[S]erious aggression among

orcas in the wild is relatively low and most injuries, e.g., rake marks, are superﬁ cial.”

Rather, conﬂ ict is resolved through dispersion and shifting alliances within groups

of orcas (giving each other space),

which they are unable to do in captivity. Since

subordinates in captivity “are unable to leave the area to avoid the situation,

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

A. Aggression Between Orcas and Between Orcas and Humans

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

stress, psychological, and physical trauma can occur.”

At SeaWorld, orcas have

no inﬂ uence over their social associations because they are limited to the groups,

tanks, and facilities to which they are conﬁ ned by the sta ,

leading to stress and

aggression, despite the fact that “[t]heir social rules prohibit real violence and they

seem to have worked out a way to peacefully manage the partitioning of resources

among di erent groups.”

For example, at SeaWorld, orcas are separated by steel gates prior to training

sessions, during shows, or when they become aggressive toward each other.

According to former SeaWorld orca trainers, “It is common for separated whales

to bite down on the horizontal metal bars, or to ‘jaw-pop’ through the gates as

they display aggression at each other. … As a consequence, tooth fragments can

sometimes be found on the pool bottoms following these displays.”

According

to SeaWorld’s own behavioral logs as well as photographs and a davits, most of

the orcas at SeaWorld have sustained broken and worn teeth from biting on the

gates. As discussed in greater detail below, similar behavior is also displayed as

stereotypies, i.e., abnormal repetitive behavior caused by the stress of inappropriate

conﬁ nement and inadequate enrichment, often resulting in fractured teeth, chronic

pain, and painful dental drilling.

In addition, in an attempt to establish social dominance in this environment, orcas

repeatedly charge with open mouths and rake others with their teeth.

According

to former SeaWorld trainers, this is aggressive behavior and its resulting injuries

occur regularly. One trainer who worked with Tilikum noted that the orca would

sometimes have streams of blood running behind him as he moved through the

water and have to be held out of shows until his raked and bloody skin healed, after

which he would exhibit nervous and agitated types of behavior, such as swimming

in circles, making distress vocalizations, and avoiding contact with the other orcas.

SeaWorld’s internal proﬁ les from 2010 also note that Katina has “’[r]ake’ marks in

[her] right eye patch,”

that Kayla similarly has a “white scar through [her] right eye

patch,”

and that “[s]ocially, Nalani has been aggressed on by Taima [who has since

died] multiple times.”

A number of incidents involving other orcas have been reported that resulted in

injury or death.

Indeed, following the death of the orca Kandu, who fractured

her jaw when she exhibited aggression toward the orca Corky and died of fatal

hemorrhaging of major arteries in her nasal passages,

sta at SeaWorld San Diego

repeated that this was “common behavior” and that “the altercation was not a rare

event at all.”

Kandu’s death left Orkid, her calf, orphaned at 11 months old,

and

Orkid went on to have her own “long history” of aggressive incidents before the

facility discontinued water work with her in 2006.

Similarly, the orca Ikaika, who was returned to SeaWorld San Diego in 2011 after

spending years at Marineland in Canada on a breeding loan, “exhibited certain

aggressive tendencies towards the female killer whale at the Marineland facility.

… Ikaika showed similar tendencies while at SeaWorld [Orlando] in both 2005

and 2006. In 2006, Ikaika raked a young calf with his teeth and had to be given

tranquilizers by the SeaWorld sta .”

SeaWorld’s veterinary records state that Ikaika

was “showing some aggression to [Katina’s] calf” and was given diazepam to “try to

mellow him”—which had already been given to two other orcas at the facility (Katina

and Taku) for the same reason.

The harmful conditions at SeaWorld also cause Tilikum and the other orcas

held there to exhibit stereotypic behavior, which is a strong indicator of severe

psychological and emotional su ering.

In 2005, a special edition of the journal Aquatic Mammals was published featuring

the results of a decade-long project by Laurence Couquiaud, a dolphin researcher

with a degree in architectural design who has specialized in examining the design

of captive facilities and husbandry. In the study, which made recommendations

for the design of tanks and enclosures at captive facilities, Couquiaud observed

that “some behaviours tend to occur when space is limited; the environment does

not provide occupational activity; and when animals are kept alone, deprived of

stimulus diversity, or are subject to environmental stress.”

Another study on animal

boredom acknowledged that “[s]tereotyped behavior patterns … tend to emerge

B. Stereotypic Behavior

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

when the animal cannot engage in behavior it is highly motivated to perform,

such as searching or hunting for food, seeking social interaction, or just trying to

escape.”

Other research and documentation has shown that orcas’ inability to carry

out even the most rudimentary types of behavior that they would engage in while in

nature causes them instead to behave in abnormal and repetitive ways,

including

biting on gates and the walls of the concrete tanks themselves and spending

inordinate amounts of time “surface-resting” and lying motionless at the bottom of

the tanks or on shallow ledges referred to as “slide-outs.”

“As animals stay longer in their cages, they begin to direct their attention to

inadequate substrates. They may lick, suck, or chew the ﬂ oors and bars of their

cages ….”

“By the time the animal begins to develop a ﬁ xation on inadequate

substrates, the situation has become severe.”

At SeaWorld parks, orcas are separated by steel gates prior to training sessions,

during shows, or when they become aggressive toward each other.

As noted above,

according to former orca trainers at SeaWorld, “under-stimulated and bored animals

… ‘chew’ metal bars [that separate the tanks] and mouth concrete pool corners, like

the main stage at SWF [SeaWorld of Florida]. As a consequence, tooth fragments

can sometimes be found on the pool bottoms following these displays.”

When the orcas’ teeth break, it exposes the pulp, which, if left untreated, will decay

and form a cavity and can lead to “inﬂ ammation and eventually a focus for systemic

infection.”

Since many of the orcas who sustain broken teeth are relatively young

and the roots of their teeth have not yet matured, a root canal is not possible.

“Instead, using a variable speed drill, trainers drill holes through the pulp and into

the jaw via an endodontic procedure called a modiﬁ ed ‘pulpotomy.’”

The orcas

“often refused to submit to the drill by sinking down beneath the surface, shaking

their heads violently, or breaking from control and swimming away. The sta knew it

was a successful drill when blood started to bubble out from the bore hole.”

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

1. Painful Dental Problems Caused by Chewing Metal Gates and

Concrete Tanks

The open holes are not capped or plugged and “represent a direct route for

pathogens to enter the blood stream where they can then be deposited into the

tissue of various organs throughout the body, such as the heart or kidney.”

The trainers are therefore required to ﬂ ush out the pulp cavity with water or an

antiseptic solution two to three times daily to remove debris that can cause “abscess,

bacteremia, and sepsis.”

After SeaWorld was cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration

for endangering the life and safety of its employees following Tilikum’s killing of a

senior trainer, the company’s vice president of veterinary services, Dr. Christopher

Dold, admitted in his testimony that the orcas at the company’s facilities “will erode

the surface of their teeth, exposing the pulp cavity, and that can be and is a common

management concern of ours.”

This can lead to “an abscess or an infection within

the pulp cavity of the tooth that’s under pressure,” so the trainers will “drill out the

center of the tooth,” which as of late 2010 had been done to approximately 14 of the

20 orcas (or 70 percent of them) at SeaWorld parks at that time.

Indeed, the veterinarian who was responsible for treating Ikaika, on breeding loan

from SeaWorld at Marineland of Canada, noted that “[a]t the time of his transfer to

Marineland in 2006, Ikaika exhibited … a chronic dental problem with which he still

has di culties today. Due to the nature of the dental problem, Ikaika’s teeth will

always be subject to infection. Ikaika’s problem is with the roots of various teeth in

his mouth. These roots are open, allowing bacteria to enter and cause infections.

… The normal course of treatment is to ﬂ ush his teeth consistently, numerous

times daily, and treat him with antibiotics and pain medications.”

According to

veterinary records, Ikaika had su ered from at least four dental infections prior

to being transferred to Marineland, during which he “would exhibit redness and

swelling in the area around the infected tooth, would have less energy and would

be less willing to eat.”

Days before his transfer, SeaWorld sta drilled two teeth

so badly damaged and infected that they were giving o heat noticeable to the

trainers.

The veterinary records also reﬂ ected sta observations that “pulp is

protruding from the third left mandibular canine” and that there was infected

discharge (“purulent exudate”) oozing from the “second left mandibular tooth.”

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

Similarly, each of the three adult orcas at SeaWorld Orlando has sustained broken

and worn teeth from biting on the gates and concrete sides of their tanks. According

to SeaWorld’s own behavioral proﬁ les and as apparent in visitor photographs:

Tilikum has no remaining teeth intact on his lower jaw;

many of Katina’s teeth

have been broken, including “LL3 and LL4 badly chipped, LL6 broken at the base”;

and Kayla’s teeth have been badly broken and drilled through, including her “[u]

pper left #6 tooth cracked, [she is] missing [her] upper left #8,” and at least 12 of her

“[l]ower teeth [have been] drilled for ﬂ ushing (right side #1–7, left side #2–6).”

Like Ikaika’s records, which were revealed only in the course of litigation,

SeaWorld’s veterinary records likely contain additional details on the extent to

which these orcas have damaged their teeth out of frustration and the subsequent

e ects on their health.

This high prevalence of painful broken and worn teeth and exposed pulp in captive

orcas stands in stark contrast to those in nature, many of whom “show little or no

tooth wear, while those who do tend to specialize in prey with abrasive morphology.

Broken teeth in wild orcas are rare.”

As discussed above, wild orcas regularly spend 95 percent of their time submerged

and swim almost constantly. “[I]n aquaria … killer whales (and other whales and

dolphins) rest while ﬂ oating and lying on the bottom of pools.”

At SeaWorld, “with

little horizontal or vertical space in their enclosures, captive orcas swim only limited

distances, with most spending many hours surface resting.”

The amount of time

that captive orcas commonly spend engaged in these behaviors has never been

reported in wild populations.

In nature, resting orcas

usually swim tightly together side by side, forming a resting line. Group

diving and surfacing become closely synchronized and regular, with longer

dives of 2-5 [minutes’] duration separated by 3 or 4 short, shallow dives.

2. Surface Resting and Lying on the Tank Floor

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

Rate of forward progression is slow compared to foraging and traveling, and

resting groups may stop altogether and rest motionless at the surface for

[only] several minutes.

This type of stationary resting at the surface has never been observed to be repeated

more than three or four times in succession by the same individual.

In contrast,

researchers have reported captive orcas at SeaWorld alone and “completely

immobile for about 1 hour or even longer while ﬂ oating at the surface.”

One visitor

reported that Tilikum was observed doing this for nearly three and a half hours at

a time.

According to former trainers, Tilikum would surface-rest with wide eyes

and an arched posture consistent with preparation to ﬂ ee as well as swimming in

rapid circles, slamming his head into the side of the tank, making loud distress

vocalizations, and avoiding contact with other orcas.

100

Similarly, captive orcas have been reported to spend inordinate amounts of time

lying motionless at the bottom of the tanks—“[l]ying on the bottom of the pool is

characteristic of all adult killer whales currently residing at SeaWorld, San Diego.”

101

“Single episodes of rest on the bottom for these killer whales lasted between 3 and 7

min.”

102

This behavior has never been observed in wild populations.

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

Lori Marino & Toni Froho , Toward a New Paradigm of Non-Captive Research on Cetacean

Cognition, 6(9) PLOS ONE 3 (2011).

Lori Marino, A Comparison of Encephalization Between Odontocete Cetaceans and Anthropoid

Primates, 51 BRAIN, BEHAV. & EVOLUTION 230 (1998).

See Part II.B, infra.

Patrick R. Hof et al., Cortical Complexity in Cetacean Brains, 287A ANATOMICAL REC. 1142, 1151

(2005); Lori Marino, Cetacean Brains, in THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEUROSCIENCE 807–810

(Larry R. Squire ed., 2008); Lori Marino et al., Neuroanatomy of the Killer Whale (Orcinus orca)

from Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 281A ANATOMICAL REC. 1256, 1262 (2004) [hereinafter

Neuroanatomy of the Killer Whale].

Camilla Butti et al., Total Number and Volume of von Economo Neurons in the Cerebral Cortex of

Cetaceans, 515 J. COMP. NEUROLOGY 243, 244 (2009).

Id.

Id. at 257 (citations omitted).

Marino, Neuroanatomy of the Killer Whale, supra.

Terrie M. Williams, Swimming, in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MARINE MAMMALS 1140, 1145 (William

F. Perrin et al. eds., 2008) (Orcas swim at an average “casual” speed of 3.6 meters per second (m/sec),

or 8.05 miles per hour (mph), and “sprint” at up to 12.5 m/sec, or 27.96 mph.); John K.B. Ford, Killer

Whale: Orcinus orca, in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MARINE MAMMALS 654 (William F. Perrin et al. eds.,

Academic Press 2002) (traveling over distances at speeds of over 20 kilometers per hour (km/h), or

12.43 mph); id. (a mean traveling speed of 10.4 km/h, or 6.46 mph).

See, e.g., Robin W. Baird, The Killer Whale: Foraging Specializations and Group Hunting, in

CETACEAN SOCIETIES: FIELD STUDIES OF DOLPHINS AND WHALES 131, 136–37 (Janet

Mann et al. eds., U. Chi. Press 2000) (160 km (99.42 miles) in 24 hours) [hereinafter Foraging

Specializations].

Ingrid N. Visser, Propeller Scars on and Known Home Range of Two Orca (Orcinus orca) in New

Zealand Waters, 33 N.Z. J. OF MARINE AND FRESHWATER RES. 635, 638 (1999) (15,600 km (9693

miles) in six years).

Craig O. Matkin et al., Expanding Perspectives: Investigating Pod Speciﬁ c Killer Whale Habitat

with ARGOS Satellite Telemetry, Presented at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage,

Alaska (Jan. 2012) (orca for whom “regular dives of 200–300 m were recorded and one dive of 400 m

was logged”); Robin W. Baird et al., Factors Inﬂ uencing the Diving Behaviour of Fish-Eating Killer

Whales, 83 CAN. J. OF ZOOLOGY 257, 262–63 (2005) (a population that uses “primarily near-surface

waters” still dives “below 150 m on a regular basis” and up to 264 m).

National Marine Fisheries Service, Northwest Regional O ce, Proposed Conservation Plan

Appendix

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

for S. Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) 16 (2005), available at http://orcasphere.net/pdfs/

SRKWpropconsplan-Oct05.pdf.

Rob Williams & Dawn P. Noren, Swimming Speed, Respiration Rate, and Estimated Cost of Transport

in Adult Killer Whales, 25(2) MARINE MAMMAL SCI. 257 (2009).

Brian Joseph & James Antrim, Special Considerations for the Maintenance of Marine Mammals

in Captivity, in WILD MAMMALS IN CAPTIVITY: PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUES FOR ZOO

MANAGEMENT 181 (Devra G. Kleiman et al. eds. 2010).

Id.

Id. at 183; see also Laurence Couquiaud, Special Issue: Survey of Cetaceans in Captive Care,

31(3) AQUATIC MAMMALS 279, 327 (2005) (“Enclosures in which cetaceans are housed should

be as naturalistic as possible, considering the fundamental needs of the animals before aesthetic

considerations.”).

Oleg I. Lyamin et al., Cetacean Sleep: An Unusual Form of Mammalian Sleep, 32 NEUROSCIENCE

BIOBEHAV. REV. 1451, 1457–58 (2008); Robert W. Osborne, A Behavioral Budget of Puget Sound

Killer Whales, in BEHAV. BIOLOGY OF KILLER WHALES 211, 231 (Barbara C. Kirkevold & Joan S.

Lockard eds. 1986).

See ERICH HOYT, THE PERFORMING ORCA—WHY THE SHOW MUST STOP 40 (Whale and

Dolphin Conservation Society, 1992).

See generally Kathleen N. Morgan & Chris T. Tromborg, Sources of Stress in Captivity, 102 APPLIED

ANIMAL BEHAV. SCI. 262, 277–78 (2007).

Georgia Mason, Captivity E ects on Wide-Ranging Carnivores, 425 NATURE 472 (2003).

E.g., Luke Rendell & Hal Whitehead, Culture in Whales and Dolphins, 24 BEHAV. & BRAIN SCI. 309,

314 (2001) (citations omitted); Robin W. Baird & Hal Whitehead, Social Organization of Mammal-

Eating Killer Whales: Group Stability and Dispersal Patterns, 78 CAN. J. OF ZOOLOGY 2096 (2000).

Rendell & Whitehead, supra, at 314 (citations omitted).

Emma A. Foster et al., Adaptive Prolonged Postreproductive Life Span in Killer Whales, 337 SCI. 1313

(2012).

Rendell & Whitehead, supra, at 314 (citations omitted).

Transcript of Proceedings at 651, 736, Sec’y of Labor v. SeaWorld of Fla. (OSHRC No. 10-1705). This

balance must be di cult to achieve, as Tilikum has sired at least a dozen calves, making him the

father or grandfather of more than half the orcas owned by the company.

See, e.g., Tim Zimmermann, Do Orcas at Marine Parks Injure One Another? (Sept. 14, 2010), http://

timzimmermann.com/2010/09/14/do-orcas-at-marine-parks-injure-one-another/.

SeaWorld, Kayla Proﬁ le, http://www.scribd.com/doc/85235907/seaworld-orca-proﬁ le-killer-whale-

kayla-2010.

DAVID KIRBY, DEATH AT SEAWORLD 112 (2012).

Id.

Kelly A. Waples & Nicholas J. Gales, Evaluating and Minimizing Social Stress in the Care of Captive

Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), 21 ZOO BIOLOGY 5 (2002).

SeaWorld, Tilikum Proﬁ le, http://www.scribd.com/doc/85239975/seaworld-orca-proﬁ le-killer-whale-

tilikum-2010.

Mike Thomas, Tilikum’s Captivity May Be Problem, but He’s Important for Conservation,

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

ORLANDO SENTINEL, Feb. 25, 2010 (quoting marine-mammal biologist Fred Felleman); Marino &

Froho , supra, at 3.

Volker B. Deecke et al., Quantifying Complex Patterns of Bioacoustic Variation: Use of a Neural

Network to Compare Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) Dialects, 105 J. ACOUSTICAL SOC’Y AM. 2499,

2499–2500 (1999).

John K.B. Ford et al., Killer Whales: The Natural History and Genealogy of Orcinus Orca in British

Columbia and Washington State 21 (2d. ed., U. Wash. Press, 2000)

Id.

Rendell & Whitehead, supra, at 314 (citations omitted).

Brigitte M. Weiß et al., Vocal Behavior of Resident Killer Whale Matrilines with Newborn Calves: The

Role of Family Signatures, 119(1) J. ACOUST. SOC. AM. 627, 634 (2006).

Rendell & Whitehead, supra, at 314.

VANESSA WILLIAMS, CAPTIVE ORCAS: “DYING TO ENTERTAIN YOU”: THE FULL STORY

35 (Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, 2001) (quoting Hal Whitehead, Speech, The Value of

Oceanaria (Whales in Captivity: Right or Wrong? Symposium 1990).

Tyler Haden, Cousteau on SeaWorld Tragedy, THE INDEPENDENT (Feb. 27, 2010). Like social

structures and dialects, foraging is also an important component of orca culture, and their methods

of ﬁ nding, capturing, and eating prey as well as the types of prey vary widely. Orcas are the oceans’

apex predators and forage on, inter alia, ﬁ sh, seals, sharks and rays, and other cetaceans. They are

also known for their use of a range of often complex and cooperative hunting techniques, including

launching out of the water to take prey on dry land, coordinating to create a wave to wash prey o ice

ﬂ oes, and debilitating prey by ramming or striking them with their tail ﬂ uke. See generally Rendell &

Whitehead, supra, at 314–15 (citations omitted). Alternatively, all captive orcas are fed only frozen and

then thawed dead ﬁ sh, which prevents them from engaging in any of the social and cultural aspects

of hunting. Williams, supra, at 34–35.

See Marino & Froho , supra, at 3; see generally JOHN S. JETT & JEFFREY M. VENTRE, KETO

AND TILIKUM EXPRESS THE STRESS OF ORCA CAPTIVITY 1 (2011), http://theorcaproject.

ﬁ les.wordpress.com/2011/01/keto-tilikum-express-stress-of-orca-captivity.pdf; INGRID N. VISSER,

REP. ON THE PHYSICAL & BEHAV. STATUS OF MORGAN, THE WILD-BORN ORCA HELD IN

CAPTIVITY, AT LORO PARQUE, TENERIFE, SPAIN, at 2–5 (2012) [hereinafter Morgan Report],

http://www.freemorgan.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Visser-2012-Report-on-the-Phyisical-Status-

of-Morgan-V1.2.pdf.

Marino & Froho , supra, at 3 (citations omitted).

Keiko Reminds Man of Whale Attack, LODI NEWS-SENTINEL, Jan. 17, 1996.

E.g., Brief for Respondent Secretary of Labor at 25–28, SeaWorld of Fla. v. Perez (D.C. Cir. No. 12-

1375).

Transcript of Proceedings at 373–74, 448–57, 467–69, Sec’y of Labor v. SeaWorld of Fla. (OSHRC No.

10-1705) [“Tr.”].

Whales Kill Trainer as Spectators Watch, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Feb. 22, 1991, at C3.

Park Is Sued Over Death of Man in Whale Tank, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 21, 1999, at F5.

Ed Pilkington, Whale Killing: They Played as Usual. Then He Drowned Her, THE GUARDIAN,

February 26, 2010.

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

Kayla Proﬁ le, supra.

Tim Zimmermann, Blood in the Water, OUTSIDE MAGAZINE (July 15, 2011).

Ingrid N. Visser, Proliﬁ c Body Scars and Collapsing Dorsal Fins on Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in

N.Z. Waters, 24 AQUATIC MAMMALS 71, 79 (1998) (“There have been very few reports of conspeciﬁ c

aggression in wild killer whales”).

Marino & Froho , supra, at 3.

Id.

Couquiaud, supra, at 296.

Id. (“These disruptions also can be caused by the fact that some of the animals may have been

removed from their original social structure, separated from family members or a social unit, and

now have to adjust to a new social environment”).

See generally Je Warren, Why Whales Are People Too, READERS’ DIGEST CAN. (July 2012)

(quoting Marino), available at http://www.readersdigest.ca/magazine/true-stories/why-whales-are-

people-too?page=0,3.

JETT & VENTRE, supra.

Id.

See, e.g., Morgan Report, supra, at 4, 12; Tim Zimmermann, The Killer in the Pool, OUTSIDE

MAGAZINE (July 30, 2010).

Zimmermann, The Killer in the Pool, supra.

SeaWorld, Katina Proﬁ le, http://www.scribd.com/doc/85235353/seaworld-orca-proﬁ le-killer-whale-

katina-2010.

SeaWorld, Kayla Proﬁ le, supra.

SeaWorld, Nalani Proﬁ le, http://www.scribd.com/doc/85239104/seaworld-orca-proﬁ le-killer-whale-

nalani-2010.

See Zimmermann, Do Orcas at Marine Parks Injure One Another?, supra.

Performing Whale Dies in Collision With Another, N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 23, 1989.

Greg Johnson, Killer Whale Bled to Death After Breaking Jaw in Fight, L.A. TIMES, Aug. 23, 1989.

KIRBY, supra, at 170–71.

Tr. at 531, 556–59.

SeaWorld Parks & Entm’t v. Marineland of Canada, A davit of Lanny Cornell (Mar. 28, 2011) ¶ 40.

Id. ¶¶ 16–17.

Couquiaud, supra at 297.

Françoise Wemelsfelder, Animal Boredom: Understanding the Tedium of Conﬁ ned Lives, in

MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING IN ANIMALS (Franklin D. MacMillan ed. 2005), at 85.

Ros Clubb & Georgia Mason, Captivity E ects on Wide-Ranging Carnivores, 425 NATURE 473

(2003); See generally JETT & VENTRE, supra.

Wemelsfelder, supra at 84.

Id.at 85.

JETT & VENTRE, supra.

Id.

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

KIRBY, supra, at 162.

JETT & VENTRE, supra.

Id.; see also Tr. 1730.

Tr. 1730.

Id. at 1743.

A davit of Lanny Cornell, supra, ¶¶ 16–17.

Id. ¶ 19.

Id. Ex. B.

Id.

See Photos of Tilikum’s Teeth, attached.

See SeaWorld, Katina Proﬁ le, supra; Photo of Katina’s Teeth, attached.

See SeaWorld, Kayla Proﬁ le, supra; Photo of Kayla’s Teeth, attached.

NAOMI A. ROSE, HUMANE SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL AND THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF

THE UNITED STATES, KILLER CONTROVERSY: WHY ORCAS SHOULD NO LONGER BE KEPT

IN CAPTIVITY 2 (2011) (citations omitted).

Lyamin, supra, at 1457.

JETT & VENTRE, supra, at 5.

Ford, supra, at 654.

See Robert W. Osborne, A Behavioral Budget of Puget Sound Killer Whales, in BEHAVIORAL

BIOLOGY OF KILLER WHALES 211, 231 (Barbara C. Kirkevold & Joan S. Lockard eds. 1986).

Lyamin, supra, at 1458.

The Orca Project, Tilikum’s Lonely Life After Dawn, (Sept. 3, 2010), http://theorcaproject.wordpress.

com/2010/09/03/seeing-is-believing-tilikums-lonely-life-after-dawn/.

100

Complaint, Tilikum et al. v. SeaWorld Parks & Ent., Inc. & SeaWorld, LLC, No. 11 Civ. 2476 (S.D. Cal.

2011), at ¶ 42.

101

Id. at 1459.

102

Id.

A Summary of the E ects of Captivity on Orcas

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