Desperate SeaWorld killer whale that ‘tried to beach itself ’
FLAILING helplessly on a slab at a Tenerife tourist park, this is the captive killer whale thought to have beached itself in despair.
The orca, called Morgan, was filmed lying on the side of a tank for more than ten minutes without anyone stepping in to help.
Horrified tourists at Loro Parque, where the whales are owned and managed by the US firm SeaWorld, claim the orca was attempting to kill herself following a performance.
Yesterday the popular park, which charges a £26 entry fee for adults, staged three 30minute shows in which the orcas are forced to perform tricks and dance for food.
But commenting on the video, one shocked viewer wrote: ‘Looks to me as if she’s trying to take her own life, I don’t blame her.’
And experts pointed out that if orcas are beached for too long then their weight – normally supported by water – can crush their organs.
Yesterday the Daily Mail visited Loro Parque, but was unable to determine Morgan’s health. However one of the park’s five other orcas, believed to be named Tekoa, was performing with what appeared to be a collapsed dorsal fin. The deformity is normally the result of captivity with inadequate space to swim.
And another whale, which was held in a tiny tank during the show, appeared to be continuously headbutting a metal gate and thrashing at speed in the confined space.
The new video of Morgan, who was removed from the ocean in 2010, came after she was filmed in April banging her head against a gate in an attempt to escape her enclosure and get into a larger pool with a male orca called Tekoa.
The video, which was filmed an anonymous activist, was shot betweenpark. animalphin ProjectAt rightsthe orca said: time campaignershows ‘Thea spokesmanat orca the The touristDol- for is obviously in huge distress and rams its head forcefully against the metal gate in what seems to be an attempt to escape.’
They added: ‘This video shows the amount of stress and cruelty imposed on orcas as a result of confinement to small, barren tanks.’
There have also been other instances of worrying behaviour in SeaWorld’s orca whales. Orcas at SeaWorld San Antonio were said to have severe dental trauma. They were thought to have ‘significant wearing’ on their teeth from allegedly chewing their tanks due to boredom. Heather Rally, a wildlife veterinarian with PeTA, said: ‘ every single orca that I observed had significant wearing on their teeth, specifically on the lower mandible. They chew on their tanks. There’s boredom there as a factor, and there’s also stress.’ And in 2013, Blackfish – an American documentary which looked at the controversy surrounding keeping killer whales in tourist parks – told the story of the orca Tilikum, who was linked to the deaths of three people while in captivity. Since the documentary’s release, both SeaWorld’s profits and its parks’ visitor numbers have been affected. The firm has responded with attempts to rebrand. But SeaWorld was forced to shut down their killer whale show in San Diego in the wake of mounting protests in the US last year. And Loro Parque has since come under scrutiny from animal rights group PeTA US, which sent staff to inspect the orcas after launching a campaign against SeaWorld.
PeTA US claim to have found injured orcas ‘floating listlessly in tiny tanks and begging for food’.
And the new video has led to calls for the whales to be released into the wild. Yesterday Spanish animal rights supporter Seve Jukka May said: ‘Free the orcas. Their place is in the ocean. Shame on humans who exploit them.’
However a spokesman from Loro Parque insisted: ‘The video is a new attempt at exaggeration of a normal situation in which there is no problem for the animals.’
And a spokesman for Seaworld said: ‘There are no concerns with Morgan sliding out as shown in the video as the whales do this with some regularity.
‘Loro Parque is a respected zoological institution, and our two organisations manage the care of these killer whales. Morgan receives regular health and wellness exams from a team of veterinarians, and is currently healthy and thriving.’
‘Their place is in the ocean’