103 year old Orca spotted

[CountDeMoney]

Convincing. But hey if you think the best way to get people to care about marine life is to make sure they never see any marine life - carry on.

1.5 million people visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore last year;  my niece's Girl Scout troop had an overnight camping and  learning event there last month.
None of the animals were required to perform, nor were they intelligent enough to suffer from it.

There are plenty of options out there to learn about marine life without engaging in acts of cruelty to do it.

[Jaron]

Whale watching!

[PRC]

Whale watching!

Whale watching in the wild is a great time and a legitimate tourism activity.  Huge business in Victoria, BC and Washington State and a lot of fun... or were you talking about your love life?

[Ideologue]

All orcas should be freed from captivity.  The fact that Ideologue hates them with the passion of a Japanese fisherman would be enough, let alone the cruelty of circus abuse.

I do not, I find their existence morally problematic--not unlike humans.  I think humans should be free or die too.

[Jaron]

Whale watching!

Whale watching in the wild is a great time and a legitimate tourism activity.  Huge business in Victoria, BC and Washington State and a lot of fun... or were you talking about your love life?

[Jacob]

1.5 million people visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore last year;  my niece's Girl Scout troop had an overnight camping and  learning event there last month.
None of the animals were required to perform, nor were they intelligent enough to suffer from it.

There are plenty of options out there to learn about marine life without engaging in acts of cruelty to do it.

I concur 100%

[Eddie Teach]

Whale watching!

or were you talking about your love life?

[celedhring]

I visited the Baltimore Aquarium while I was over there and I thought it was a great place. As CdM said, you can educate children without circus shows. To be frank, I find the whole "we need animals to do cute tricks for kids to love them" notion a bit short-sighted.

The Barcelona Zoo have announced that they will discontinue dolphin shows in 2017. Heck, we even had an orca in captivity until a decade ago (in woefully inadequate facilities for a beast her size), so I'm happy to see we're slowly getting with the times.

[The Larch]

SeaWorld has been under a lot of criticism for years, and a documentary released last year called Blackfish about orcas in captivity has exacerbated this. Pixar even changed the ending for its upcoming Finding Nemo sequel after John Lasseter saw it, and lots of bands that were going to perform at their parks cancelled their scheduled concerts. California and NY are currently considering a ban on keeping orcas in captivity.

[Ideologue]

And people say The Act of Killing was the year's best documentary.  Or did Indonesia stop being a corrupt hellhole yet?

[garbon]

Convincing. But hey if you think the best way to get people to care about marine life is to make sure they never see any marine life - carry on.

1.5 million people visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore last year;  my niece's Girl Scout troop had an overnight camping and  learning event there last month.
None of the animals were required to perform, nor were they intelligent enough to suffer from it.

There are plenty of options out there to learn about marine life without engaging in acts of cruelty to do it.

Really I recall watching a seal show at the Boston Aquarium.

But then that was sort of my point. There are other parts of SeaWorld than the animal shows.

[garbon]

I visited the Baltimore Aquarium while I was over there and I thought it was a great place. As CdM said, you can educate children without circus shows. To be frank, I find the whole "we need animals to do cute tricks for kids to love them" notion a bit short-sighted.

Well do have fun demolishing that strawman.

[Grey Fox]

Finally, an animal thread where Seedy is right instead of defending the ultimate evil of Felines.

[Sheilbh]

SeaWorld has been under a lot of criticism for years, and a documentary released last year called Blackfish about orcas in captivity has exacerbated this. Pixar even changed the ending for its upcoming Finding Nemo sequel after John Lasseter saw it, and lots of bands that were going to perform at their parks cancelled their scheduled concerts. California and NY are currently considering a ban on keeping orcas in captivity.

That's a pretty good documentary.

[celedhring]

I visited the Baltimore Aquarium while I was over there and I thought it was a great place. As CdM said, you can educate children without circus shows. To be frank, I find the whole "we need animals to do cute tricks for kids to love them" notion a bit short-sighted.

Well do have fun demolishing that strawman.

What strawman? I wasn't particularly arguing against you, just agreeing on what CdM said. There's really no need to engage in animal cruelty to put up a marine institution that will attract visitors and educate.

The Barcelona Aquarium beats the Barcelona Zoo in attendance and it doesn't have all the dog and pony shows.