Captive Marine Animals Vs. Free Living Animals

Fie Lissner

The pools that holds these glorious creatures can obviously not be compared to the space and water that an Orca can cover. A lot of marine mammals that is in captivity has to live under these premises. “The Humane Society of the United States believes that these animals should not be taken from the wild simply to entertain and amuse people, for a number of reasons” (Marine mammals in captivity 5/13). The life of the individual marine animal that is not living in the wild has nothing to do with the life it would’ve had if it were to live in the wild. Which is obvious when you think of the way that they’re living; the pools, the water, the ecosystem and basically everything in captivity has nothing on the wildlife that their ancestors had lived with back in time.

“Dolphins are perfectly evolved to live and flourish in their wild ocean home, not within the confines of a human-made concrete tank or artificial lagoon.” (Marine animals in captivity) This quote points out how the animals are able to live an healthy life in the wild. The human race is taking advantage of the wild for our own amusement and there is something deeply wrong in this concept.

“Life for captive whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals is nothing like a life in the ocean. It is almost impossible to maintain a family group in captivity, a tragedy for whales and dolphins. When you see marine mammals in tanks or pools, consider what they have lost in order to entertain us.” (Marine aqua parks). Most of the cons of having marine animals captive claims that we only have them for our entertainment and pure amusement so I see how it would be frustrating for biologist who have these animals for research and schooling purposes as well as for the people who are only trying to help the animal(s) by having them captive.

There is of course marine animals living in the wild. The wild is the marine animals natural habitat and can as previously discussed not be compared with the captive life that a lot of marine mammals has. Some of the pros of the marine animals staying in their natural habitat is the obvious such as them growing up in the environment that their ancestors has been living in for decades upon decades.

“Cetaceans eat a variety of fish and invertebrates; some species eat other marine mam

There is a a lot of pros and cons of being a marine mammal in captivity as well as in the wild.

Some of the pros is longer life expectancies, easier access to research on the given marine animal and the ability to get a better understanding of the marine animal and the animal will in most cases get the care needed.

“Over 90 percent of the American public feels that zoos and aquariums are essential to education, are important to learning about animals” (The debate – pro captivity 5/13). This quote tells that the pros of having marine animals in captivity isn’t only essential for some research but it can indeed increase the average student’s understanding for a certain animal. Reading about an animal can teach you a whole bunch of stuff but seeing the animal in real life can certainly beat any book.

There is also a lot of cons to keeping marine animals in captivity.

One of which is the fact that orcas or so called killer whales can swim about 100 miles in 24 hours, these creatures can also go deep underwater about 500 ft. to be exact (marine mammals in captivity mals.” (Captive vs. Wild 5/13). The marine animals will be able to find all these natural food sources in the wild and will naturally find their personal hunting technique. There is good and bad to everything and this accounts for the bad things about animals being in the wild as well “It is easy to see that in their own environments, little prevents such creatures from yielding to their natural impulses, as they should.”(Marvel at wild animals — from a distance 5/13) This quote basically says that there isn’t going to be a lot holding the animals living in the wild holding them back from potentially hurting each other and in some cases even kill each other. “Dolphins and other marine mammals are threatened by boat collisions and entrapment” (Commercial Fisheries and Marine mammal 5/13) this quote supports the claim that one threat to the marine mammals are boats and boat collisions. Some 100.000 animals living in the water gets injured or killed by commercial fishing every year (Commercial Fishing and Marine mammals 5/13). But that is only some of the few risks of being a marine mammal living in the wild.

My opinion on this is that having animals in captivity can be a very good thing but it certainly has major flaws which i think we should try and fix. We should only have animals in captivity for educational reasons and not for people’s amusement. “SeaWorld’s contributions to animal rescue and rehab only amount to .0006 percent of its profits.” (Grist 5/13). What is stated in the quote is why i am so against having animals in captivity. Sea world makes a ton of money every season and for them to only give 0.0006% of their annual income to rehabilitation and rescue of the marine animals is wrong. Just purely wrong. We should not use such amazing creatures for entertainment and not help them. I am very much against having animals of all sorts as well as marine mammals captive the only time it should be considered ‘okay’ to have any kind of animal captive is to rehabilitate them and help them if needed. “500 orcas, dolphins and other members of the dolphin family held in captivity in the United States.” (Ten facts about captive orcas and dolphins 5/13). i strongly believe that most of the 500 marine animals being held captive around the U.S does not have a problem or an injury that holds them back from being set back into the wild. Almost every person with a soul is going to agree with my opinion that it is wrong to keep animals captive for our own amusement. “The more we learn about marine mammals, the more troubling it becomes to keep these complex, intelligent creatures in tanks and pens. It’s time to see the situation from the animals’ point of view and reconsider whether it’s right to confine them for our amusement”. (Marine mammals in captivity 5/13) It is also very saddening to see these creatures of the wild being held behind bars and knowing that they’re not where they’re supposed to be – that they’re not home.

But having the animals in captivity can not only hurt them mentally but also physically, the animal in captivity gets put under a whole lot of stress as well as pressure, this can affect all parts of the animal such as the immune system (captivity). Animals should not be held captive.

Marine science work citing.

“The Debate – Pro-captivity”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/debate/procap.html

“animals in the wild”

http://cfhs.ca/wild/marine_mammals_in_captivity

“Marine mammals in Captivity”

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/captive_marine/facts/marine_captivity.html

“Marin aqua parks”

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/captive_marine/

“Wild vs. Captive”

https://awionline.org/content/wild-vs-captivity

“Marvel at wild animals — from a distance”