I want you to think about your life, now imagine your bedroom. Imagine that space diminished by a thousand. Would that be comfortable? Not in the slightest. Ocras are no exception to these feelings, so why should they be subject to confinement when they have no choice in it. I do not believe orcas deserve to be caged up their entire lives. Marine parks and aquariums are prisons built simply to serve as a form of entertainment. Orcas have been known to show a great deal of intelligence, and yet humans are dismissing these facts just to take advantage of the fact that people really are fascinated by giant fish that can put on a show.

Orcas were not designed to be confined. From the film Blackfish we can see the physical damage done by the orcas captivity. Tilikum himself was not only covered from head to tail fin in cuts and rake marks, but his dorsal fin had also collapsed on his back, curving over in a painful looking way (Blackfish). We have already seen some drawbacks from keeping these huge animals in captivity.The mere physical damage caused by the captivity in a sign that these whales were not meant to be held in such a way. Through scientific study it has been found that “orcas are more than three times as likely to die at any age in captivity as they are in the wild” (Rose 4). In no place should it be acceptable for humans to shorten and damage an animal's life for something as trivial as entertainment.

Killer Whales, like any other animal should be allowed to live their lives the way they were meant. Would you like to be forced into a place and made to live in a way that wasn't comfortable or natural. Places like SeaWorld are only in it for the profit and the amount of money they spend on advertising vs. actually studying animals is a huge difference. “As part of its new $10-million pledge...$1.5 million [has been committed] to a partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation” (Martin 7). SeaWorld has stated that the captured orcas provide them with insight into the lives of all killer whales when in reality “[most of the published] papers did not focus on captive whales, but wild populations ranging from Alaska to New Zealand” (Raja 5). If SeaWorld is so bent on keeping these orcas as a form of research why are they spending so much to actually send out researchers to follow the wild and free orcas. The only reason for the research SeaWorld completes is to keep up appearances, the captured whales do not serve as anything but money makers to this business.

Sure we can learn things from the killer whales kept in captivity, but it is much more informative when we can study them in their natural habitat. We should not be spending money on keeping them in captivity, rather we should be going out to them if we really want to learn more. The only benefit to keeping captive killer whales is the profit aquariums and marine parks make from showcasing these animals. Orcas should not be subject to the exhibitions in aquariums and marine parks.