Killer Whales: Tanks and Tensions

This isn’t really Niagara Falls related, but it does involve Killer/Orca Whales, which of course ties into Marineland.

It seems that Marineland has stayed under the radar this year when it comes to their whales. I haven’t heard of many (if any) protests. I thought there might be more coverage after the tragedy at SeaWorld when the trainer died, but there wasn’t much.

Last month, the NPR show called On Point (out of WBUR Boston) had a show called Killer Whales: Tanks and Tensions:

…reporter Tim Zimmerman with Outside magazine has gone deep on the story of how killer whales are captured and kept — how these magnificent animals suffer for our delight.

And he tells the story of Tilikum in particular, who had been there for death twice before.

The show never once mentions Marineland in Niagara Falls, but it was interesting to hear of the history of this whale, and how SeaWorld deals with them. I went ahead and read the Outside magazine article as well, but id didn’t mention Marineland either. However, while listening to the podcast, and reading the article, I couldn’t help but think about Marineland.

On a related note, there was an old site that I had linked to a while ago that had a listing of all of the whales still alive in captivity. That site is no longer functioning, but I did find another site that lists them.

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