Free Tilly

     This past weekend, I watched a CNN documentary, Blackfish, about orca whales that live in captivity, specifically environments like Sea World. This film introduced a situation in which a trainer was killed by an orca whale, Tilikum, at Sea World. I agree that was present that because of its miserable life in captivity, the animal had a mental breakdown and snapped. Orcas are not meant to be contained in areas less than 1% of the size of their natural habitat. They are not meant to be torn away from their close-knit family pods. They are not meant to perform once, and then sit idle in a small pen for all other hours of the day.
     What really struck me from the documentary was a segment about the brain of an orca. A very good follow-up summary was done by Discovery News in response to blackfish, that covers the advanced intellectual and social skills in the killer whale. Orcas and dolphins (who are closely related) are the second smartest mammals, behind humans. The strong presence of emotions in an orca makes the claim that their captivity is driving them mentally crazy quite reasonable.
     Although it sounds ideal to just release the animals straight back into nature, in reality, things may get a bit more complicated. After life in captivity, the killer whales may not be ready or willing to go back into the ocean, for they are mentally scarred and very changed, as stated in this Orlando Sentenial article. I think this could be solved by different housing options for the killer whales; a more open living environment that provides a pen or shed, and access to the ocean if it is desired, maybe more effective. This process of returning orcas to the wild is very difficult, so to minimize future efforts, I believe that the removing of orcas from the wild should be banned as soon as possible. The more killer whales that are taken from the wild, the more that will have to be put back.
     There is a petition to release Tilikum, Free Tilly Now, which argues that the captivity of orcas is "simply illogical" and "simply unethical". Hopefully, through this petition, it may be considered to ban the use of orcas for entertainment purposed, and discontinue the captivity of killer whales.

Here are some intersting facts I leave you with:
1. In captivity, many killer whales live only a little over 20 years, while in the wild, they can live around 50-60 years. (Sea World employees told the opposite to the inquirers, as mentioned in Blackfish)
2. There has been no intentional killer whale attacks on humans, in the wild, compared to at least 40 attacks when in captivity.
3. Killer whales use echolocation, but when they use it in captivity, it bounces of the concrete walls which creates confusion and a sound that can deafen them. 
4. "A whale or dolphin living in a pool for it’s entire life would be the equivalent of you living in a phone booth for your entire life." (http://www.freetillynow.org/about.htm)