Last year, my wife gave me an unusual gift for my birthday. She said happy birthday, I wish you many many more such great birthdays and gifted me a dive with the sharks!
So we went to this place in Edinburgh and I jumped into a big tank full of sharks. The sharks were massive, they were about 9-10 feet each and they look magnificent. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of swimming with these amazing creatures and being a part of their serene world. The sound of silence in the water was pure joy.
..............
Fast forward, a year later a good friend of mine pointed me to a video called Blackfish. It is a documentary about the life of killer wales aka orca's in captivity. I watched the first couple of minutes and knew that the world has wronged these amazing sea beauties.
Remember Free willy? The orca in that movie was called Keiko. After the movie, keiko was sent to Mexico and it was used for live performances. The small tank in Mexico soon took it's toll on keiko - the constant exposure to air, the unclean water and the shallow tank started affected it's health. Keiko had caught the imagination of the world by then and there was a massive movement called free-keiko movement that raised 7 million pounds to move keiko to a bigger tank in Oregan. After 6 months in Oregan it was moved to Iceland and then released back into the wild. Keiko did not survive for too long, it was seen too close the shore line probably yearning for human touch. It died within 6 weeks at a young age of 27!
This is just one story, there are several such stories of orca's that have suffered the loneliness. There are cases of orca's committing suicide due to depression! Attacks on their trainers is another manifestation of their anger against captivity. Surely, we cannot provide them with some food everyday and claim that it is the same as living in the wild!
Here are some facts about orca's in captivity:
- Orca's live in the wild for upto 70 years, and in captivity for about 20-30 years
- The dorsal fin collapse is observed in 90% of captive orca's, the magnificent fin just falls apart because of the effect of gravity and the lack of water pressure in the small tanks
Anyway, the point of this post is that I have taken an intransigent position that I will never pay to watch these animals perform. I will never repeat the shark dive and will never support anything that puts animals in captivity. Coz, remember that at the end of the show you can always go back home... those beautiful animals cannot!
