Ever since 1959 (the day SeaWorld opened) millions of people came to see their most popular attraction, the Orca Show. SeaWorld used to catch an orca in the wild but haven’t in the past 40 years; they decided to start breeding the whales. So, most of the whales were born under human care. They had no experience in the wild and would not be able to survive in the oceans. SeaWorld had a whale, named Tilikum, who was one of the biggest orca in any zoological park. They used Tilikum for mostly breeding, and he has sired 14 calves while at SeaWorld.

Everything SeaWorld was doing seemed to be okay, nobody really said anything bad about their reputation. Until, some of the whales killed some of the trainers/performers.  Killer whales (another name for orcas) are considered one of the oceans largest predator. After a while, previous trainers helped out with a documentary about SeaWorld; it was called Blackfish.

Blackfish caused a lot of trouble for SeaWorld. It showed the world behind the scenes of SeaWorld trainers, not all bad but just not healthy for the whales. The whales were living shorter lives than out in the ocean, and had some other health issues. After Blackfish, people are protesting against SeaWorld. Demanding that the whales would be set free. SeaWorld ignored the protesters because they knew if they let the whales out, they would not be able to survive. SeaWorld kept in the shadows for a while until recently they let the world know about their latest news: they will not be breeding orcas at SeaWorld anymore.

SeaWorld is at its last generation for killer whales; although it’ll still be quite a few years until the whales will die. SeaWorld has decided to introduce new and natural orca encounters, and there will not be any more theatrical shows.  SeaWorld has also announced a new partnership with the Humane Society of the United States to protect the oceans.