Orcas in Captivity Research Essay Sample

Holding orcas in captivity worsens their mental health which leads to aggression that has various effects.

In the article, “Orcas’ behavior can become aggressive in captivity” by Nature’s Crusaders, a blog dedicated to keeping the world healthy it voices:

Captive life is stressful due to small tanks, false social groupings, increases disease potential, isolation and chemically altered water. To relieve their stress, captive killer whales may get aggressive toward themselves, other killer whales, or humans. (“Orcas’ behavior can become aggressive in captivity”)

Orcas are used to having the whole ocean available to them. Enclosing them in confined spaces hurts them physically and mentally. One of the ways that it hurts them, is that it causes emotional stress. As stated above, there are not many other ways to  get rid of this stress other than getting aggressive towards other orcas, themselves, and sometimes even humans. In the wild, there have not been any reliably confirmed human deaths that have been linked back to orcas, but there have been 4 human deaths that were caused by orcas in captivity and their mental state.

Another common outcome of orcas dealing with emotional stress and aggression is unhealthy teeth.

The article “Why we shouldn’t keep killer whales in captivity” that was written by Jane Warley, an editor with a marine science background states “Killer whales in captivity are known to bite the metal bars of their tanks as a sign of aggression or boredom, which is really bad for their teeth” (Warley).

From the aggression created by the stress of living in captivity, biting the bars of their cages becomes a bad habit of orcas. Biting the bars can lead to poor teeth conditions. Poor teeth conditions can lead to simple tasks being difficult or painful as well as many infections/diseases. 

All of this evidence delves into how aggression and tooth damage in orcas is not seen as much in wild orcas, proving that it is developed from being held in captivity.

Holding orcas in captivity makes them physically extremely sick and unhealthy.

An article called “Orcas Gone Mad: Effects Of Captivity” by Rylie Kieny, a St. Mary’s University stated “Being such social creatures, orcas travel in large groups called pods. They are acoustically oriented, using clicks, whistles, and echolocation to navigate their surroundings and communicate with one another. However, when in captivity there is no opportunity for them to take advantage of this natural behavior” (Kieny).

In this quote, it talks about how orcas are raised and how they communicate. Different pods have different ways of communication, which can lead to miscommunication and anger (Kieny). The separation from their pods can also lead to things like emotional stress, anxiety, or depression. All of these natural instincts being taken away would also affect whether or not they would be able to survive in the wild if they were to be released.

Out in the wild, orcas have a huge amount of space to swim around which keeps their dorsal fins from collapsing. But once taken into captivity, that gets taken away.

From the website ThoughtCo, an article called “Killer Whale Dorsal Fin Collapse” by marine science expert Jennifer Kennedy says “One theory as to why dorsal fins collapse in captivity is because the orca spends much of its time at the water surface and doesn't swim very far. This means that the fin tissue gets less support than it would if the orca were in the wild, and it starts to fall over” (Kennedy).

The dorsal fin is a very noticeable part on orcas. In the wild, less than 1% of orcas suffer from collapsed dorsal fins (Kieny). This means that it should be as common as it is for orcas in captivity. Dorsal fins are useful in making it easier to swim through water making it quite useful (Kennedy). Another theory is that dorsal fins collapse because of dehydration and overheating of fin tissue (Kennedy). If this is the case, it proves that when orcas are kept in captivity, they are not properly being taken care of.

These articles and the information given from them prove the point that orcas in captivity become immensely ill from their instincts and their body being ruined.

While it is not as popular, another opinion is that orcas should stay in captivity for education and research reasons.

“Pro-Captivity Views” published on the PBS website by Director of Veterinary Medicine at Seaworld Jim McBain and Vice President of Zoological Operations at Seaworld Brad Andrews states “Over 90 percent of the American public feels that zoos and aquariums are essential to education, are important to learning about animals” (McBain and Andrews).

This quote states that most Americans think that keeping animals in captivity is the key to learning more about them. But, from tons of research it has been proven that orcas in captivity are very different from orcas who live in the wild. With orcas in captivity being used for everyones entertainment, this also proves that misinformation is being spread to people without any knowledge of how harmful captivity really is through the orca shows.

So while it is a popular belief that orcas in captivity help with education, research says that orcas in captivity and wild orcas are very different.

Editor Jane Warley states in “Why we shouldn’t keep killer whales in captivity” from the website OneKind Planet that “Firstly, captive studies are limited in what they can tell us about wild killer whales as the captive environment is artificial. Captive killer whales behave and react differently to wild killer whales and they also suffer from different health issues” (Warley).

This text says that orcas in captivity live in an “artificial” environment rather than the natural habitat that wild orcas are in. This results in a change of diet, behavior, and various other things. An example is when it comes to their behavior. One of the very obvious differences in their behavior is the fact that there has never been any recorded attacks/aggressive behavior shown toward humans by wild orcas. But when it comes to orcas in captivity, there have been hundreds of incidents (Kieny).

This evidence points to the fact that the argument that keeping orcas in captivity is important for research purposes is misinformation that is being spread because of the lies being told by orca shows.