Free the Whales!

I remember, as a two year old, sitting in the huge stands in Sea World, gawking at the massive creatures leaping and diving into the sparkling water, their slick black bodies glittering in the sunlight. The call of the orca, as it reverberated through the stadium, was a breathtaking experience.
They were magnificent yet gentle – all the time cooperative and obedient, swimming along side their trainers, deftly catching fish thrown at them, splashing and whistling as they were told.
For years, the Orca Show, at the Shamu Stadium in Sea World, has attracted a large number of tourists. The captive killer whales in all their majestic glory are made to leap and flip in perfect synchronization; reducing these highly intelligent animals to nothing more than circus attractions.

Recently, the news of Dawn Brancheau’s death stunned the world as she was allegedly dragged into the water by one of her most loved whales, Tilikum, the largest Orca at Sea World, and subsequently drowned. This horrific incident was startling as she was one of the most experienced trainers at the Park and one of 12,000 pound Tilikum’s only human companions. She was a woman passionate about whales and marine life since she was a nine year old girl and loved them like her own children. May she rest in peace.

Though reports are unclear on what exactly happened, the incident has raised serious concerns and criticism.
PETA, for decades, has campaigned against the captivity of killer whales, claiming it to be like entrapping them in a bathtub, due to their sheer size.
Captive whales tend to lead shorter lives, are often agitated and unlike wild ones, they have been involved in killing humans.
Not only Sea World, Marine ‘Amusement’ Parks have been subject to scrutiny all over the world. Even in Bahrain, the sole Dolphin Park on the island has witnessed the death of their poor unfortunate animals and now only hosts two dolphins in squalid cramped conditions.
It is about time that people realize that animals thrive only in their natural habitats; Sea creatures were meant to exist in the vast expanses of seas and oceans.
And I strongly believe that man must not trifle with the natural existing balance of the fragile ecosystem – they are likely to tip the scales. One cannot expect a killer whale to be a friendly fish – every creature has its place. They are meant to be in their pack, with their own kind and live a free, independent life.

They were meant to experience the feel of real seawater, sunlight warming their backs, pebbles on the shallow sea floor, corals and sea weed and the gentle ebb and flow of the waves. Instead they are subject to raucous applause, slapstick humoured pranks, restricted space, bright lights and loud, blaring music and inescapable desperate isolation.

Whales will always belong to the Wild at heart; they do not belong in glass tanks just as much as humans are not meant to be confined in cages. They were meant to soar and leap and bound in wild waters, trashing their tails and flipping their fins, cascading water, blowing fountains into the air and playing and travelling with their pack. Man can learn just as well about their fellow water bound counterparts through watching and observation from afar, putting away their harpoons, strangulating, suffocating nets and dreaded trawlers.

Nature meant for animals to peacefully coexist with humans not for human beings to ‘tame’ them into jumping through hoops at every five o’clock showing.