Normally, in the wild, orca whales swim 100 miles a day in the ocean. In SeaWorld parks, orca whales would have to swim the circumference of their tanks 1,900 times to swim the same distance. Often, in the small confined tanks, fights occur between the whales. The fights are a result of the stress and anxiety that orcas endure from captivity and crowded tanks. However, when orca fights do take place, orcas do not have the ability to swim away to prevent injury or death as they would in the vast, wide open ocean. An example of a fight between two orca whales occurred at the SeaWorld park in San Diego, California, when a whale named Kandu V, attempted to “rake” a new orca whale recently placed in her tank. Raking is the forceful scratching of the dominant killer whale’s teeth against the other whale. However, Kandu V missed, and because of the small tank, she swam into the wall and ruptured an artery in her jaw. Unfortunately, the injury was fatal. The small tanks can cause aggression and lead to serious injury or even death.
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Orcas also have an unnatural diet in captivity. Because the orca whales cannot hunt and obtain water from the bodies of their prey in captivity, they are fed gelatin, a protein obtained by boiling pig or cow bones, in order to stay hydrated. In addition, in captivity, orca whales are bred unnaturally. In the wild, orcas have the ability to choose who they mate with and when they mate. At SeaWorld, whales breed regularly without the choice of a mate. The male orcas are trained to lie on their backs, so the trainers can collect their sperm. The female whales are then impregnated, most often at an early age. For example, a whale named Katina was bred at the age of 9, when in the wild she would have bred at the age of 14. In many instances, the young females have been unfit to raise their calves, and many calves have died not long after their births.
