Water world

Now and then a piece of news, out of the many that I read on the way to work, catches my eye and I find myself so drawn to the story that I am reading round the subject way after that piece of news has turned cold.  Last week one such bit of news kept me up a few nights.  It was an announcement that a captive killer whale called Tilikum, who had killed his trainer during a performance at Sea World in Florida about a year ago, was performing again.  You can read the piece here.  I had read the news about the death of the trainer when the incident occurred and the fact that Tilikum was to be spared despite calls for it to be euthanised.  I also remember the petitions for it to be released back to the wild following the incident.  I did not know that he had been left out of the performance rosta since then, and found it alarming to read reports of how Tilikum had been left, allegedly, in solitary confinement for most of this time.  There were also discrepancies in the reports surrounding the circumstances of the death of Tilikum's trainer, Dawn Brancheau.

From what I could gather Tilikum dragged her into the water and she drowned.  There were reports that she had suffered severe injuries inflicted by him.  It was also mentioned that he had previously been associated with two other deaths, one of which was of a trainer that had fallen into the water and then attacked by Tilikum and two other orcas.  Trainers were not allowed to get into the water with Tilikum  for safety reasons as a result of the deaths before Ms. Brancheau's.  Some reports described Tilikum's behaviour as 'play' that had gone horribly wrong.  He had had a good performance session with Ms Brancheau just before he attacked her and the two had been sharing a friendly moment, nose to nose when he dragged her into the water by grabbing her hair.  I think any effort to psychoanalyse Tilikum's behaviour is of no use; the fact is that he caused the death of Ms. Brancheau and procedures for interactions around him need to be controlled so as to prevent this from happening again.  Tilikum is performing again; this was said to be good for him as the activity and interaction with humans and other orcas would benefit him, which seems a fair consideration.  Orcas are intelligent, sociable animals; Tilikum is being held captive and from an animal welfare viewpoint his keepers should provide him with opportunities to lead as comfortable and fulfilling a life as possible.  The question is whether this is really possible in captivity? The other question is could he ever be released to live free, or partially free, again?

I am not an orca expert and can only reflect on what I have read.  Orcas in the wild live in matriarchal family units called pods.  There is a strong bond between members within the pod and also a hierarchical structure.  Pods are said to have their own culture and their own dialect and it was reported that orcas from different pods and geographical locations would have problems communicating with each other and integrating into one social group.  Thus, it was proposed that orcas captured from different parts of the world being forced into each other's company may cause stress and lead to displays of violence towards each other.  There have been reports of captive orcas raking each other in the pool, with one such incident leading to the death of an orca when she charged into the pool wall, rather than her intended victim, and mortally injured herself.  It is not clear to me whether such incidents occur in the wild.  It was reported that the conflicts may have arisen due to hierarchy quarrels and it is not beyond imagination that such quarrels would occur in the wild as well.  However, it is reasonable to expect that quarrels may be more frequent when a pod is being created artificially where there are no cultural or familial links between the animals.

The capture of orcas has been made more difficult and aquariums are making efforts to establish a breeding programme to circumvent this.  Essentially this would mean establishing a population of orcas in captivity that have never been in the wild.  This domestication programme, allegedly,  also circumvents some of the ethical issues surrounding the capture of orcas.  However, breeding orcas in captivity has not been that successful and the average life expectancy of orcas, either captured or born in captivity, is much lower than in the wild.  This leads to concerns as to the living conditions that are provided  Additionally it is impossible to provide the space that orcas are used to in the wild.  In the case of Tilikum, one of the other reasons why trainers are disallowed in the water is his sheer size.  Campaigners for his release state that the pools he is kept in are far too small for him.  Orcas are broadly divided into transients, residents and offshores with each having different feeding habits and territorial range.  These types are often placed into pods with no regard for their differences.  They do not interbreed  in the wild but hybrid orcas  are bred in captivity.  There has also been issues with mothers not knowing how best to care for their young because of the lack of examples of what maternal care entails.   

The argument for keeping orcas in aquariums is that the few that are presented to delight and entertain humans make us feel interested in their well-being and so we make more effort to safe-guard the ones in the wild; holding a small number of orcas in captivity is for the greater good.  Personally I find the argument a bit light on weight.  I care deeply about the well-being of animals in general, most of which I will probably only see on TV, and am quite happy with that.  I do understand that zoos and aquariums  do a lot in terms of conservation and I laud the people who work in them with that purpose in mind.  However, we need to do things appropriately rather than just make do.  The real problem is our mismanagement of our use of the world and if we don't care about it enough to change our ways, and need coaxing to perform our duties through the incarceration  of animals that fare badly in captivity, maybe we deserve to be extinct along with everything else we render extinct.