Against Petting Pools
Let’s be clear. This website and its authors are not advocating for petting pools. There are many negative factors that weigh against petting pools, particularly as they exist today. First and foremost, the inhabitants of these pools, or their fore bearers, should never have been forcibly taken from their families and their native waters.
In addition, there are psychological stress, transmission of diseases, harmful foreign objects, and so forth. An excellent review of the problems with petting pools can be found in "Biting the Hand That Feeds: The Case Against Dolphin Petting Pools” by The Humane Society of the United States.
But a relative good emerged from something we can agree is bad, and the badness of petting pools back then was not as bad as their badness today.
These events occurred at a time when both science and society (including we, the petting-pool visitors) were more ignorant and perhaps more innocent, at least about cetaceans in captivity. Science was just beginning to learn the natural history of orcas, and how different orcas are from the ravaging beasts they had been held to be for centuries. Science was just beginning to learn how intelligent they are, and how complex and sophisticated their brains are, as well. And whatever science knew, the public knew less. There was no Googling, no social media, no websites, no books or papers to download, no Internet, no smart phones. And there was next to nothing about the emerging knowledge regarding orca biology available in hardcopy books at that point. The little that had been learned in the late 1960’s and early-mid 1970’s hadn’t yet reached the popular press. Society was just emerging from a cultural dark age to a cultural middle age of knowledge on orcas and dolphins.
Part of that ignorance existed on the part of the marine parks too, but perhaps that was for the better. They hadn’t yet learned how popular petting pools would become. They weren’t yet squeezing out all the potential tourist dollars at the expense of the cetaceans. The SeaWorld petting pool was spacious. The dolphins and orcas had ample room in the center of the pool. They could avoid interacting with people while not crowding on top of one another. Of course SeaWorld kept them hungry, so they would still be inclined to take the fish that were sold to tourists. But in the end, keeping cetaceans in pools for the public was a profit-making venture, and nothing more. The parks seemed disinclined to learn to know their captives even as much as some of their visitors in the public did.
The petting pool at Marineland of the Pacific was even a bit more enlightened. At least later on, they didn’t sell fish to the tourists. Also, the inside of the pool was lined with a short black rubbery seaweed. It made the water look black. It was harder for the visitors to see the dolphins when they were underwater, but for the dolphins, the underwater light level was more natural. That seaweed helped filter the water. It cushioned the pool walls so the dolphins were less likely to scrape their skin on the concrete. It helped absorb sound that would otherwise have reverberated inside the pool.
At least for the orcas, their time alternating between training and the petting pool was a break from boredom; a break the dolphins did not have. Absolutely central to this website, humans and orcas were able to develop relationships and to learn about one another in a way that is absolutely unique in the history of either species. Something good and unplanned emerged from challenging circumstances.
We do advocate that when SeaWorld's orcas are retired to seaside sanctuaries, they have friendly human contact available 24/7. Most of these orcas have been in human company for their entire lives, and for a few, for most of their lives. Friendly contact free from the agendas of training, performing, breeding, etc. could help partially heal their damaged lives. There are inherent dangers when humans enter the water with orcas. At least initially, time spent in the water should be limited to medical necessity; however, our experiences show that the orcas might actually invite humans to join them in the water.
Retirement to sanctuaries doesn't have to be just about healing the damage humans have done to the orcas. It can also be about starting some real two-way communications and bonds/friendships between humans and orcas, as these particular orcas have formed bonds with humans already, and many have never interacted with their wild relatives.
Entering their world is part of that process that cannot be avoided as they cannot come into our world, dry land. It can be about friendship and trust between species and a symbiosis that could benefit both species and heal the planet in more ways than one. Even wild cetaceans occasionally reach out to humans. In the case of these orcas, uprooted from their natural lives, we should expect and be prepared that they will be reaching out to us.
Let’s be clear. This website and its authors are not advocating for petting pools. There are many negative factors that weigh against petting pools, particularly as they exist today. First and foremost, the inhabitants of these pools, or their fore bearers, should never have been forcibly taken from their families and their native waters.
In addition, there are psychological stress, transmission of diseases, harmful foreign objects, and so forth. An excellent review of the problems with petting pools can be found in "Biting the Hand That Feeds: The Case Against Dolphin Petting Pools” by The Humane Society of the United States.
But a relative good emerged from something we can agree is bad, and the badness of petting pools back then was not as bad as their badness today.
These events occurred at a time when both science and society (including we, the petting-pool visitors) were more ignorant and perhaps more innocent, at least about cetaceans in captivity. Science was just beginning to learn the natural history of orcas, and how different orcas are from the ravaging beasts they had been held to be for centuries. Science was just beginning to learn how intelligent they are, and how complex and sophisticated their brains are, as well. And whatever science knew, the public knew less. There was no Googling, no social media, no websites, no books or papers to download, no Internet, no smart phones. And there was next to nothing about the emerging knowledge regarding orca biology available in hardcopy books at that point. The little that had been learned in the late 1960’s and early-mid 1970’s hadn’t yet reached the popular press. Society was just emerging from a cultural dark age to a cultural middle age of knowledge on orcas and dolphins.
Part of that ignorance existed on the part of the marine parks too, but perhaps that was for the better. They hadn’t yet learned how popular petting pools would become. They weren’t yet squeezing out all the potential tourist dollars at the expense of the cetaceans. The SeaWorld petting pool was spacious. The dolphins and orcas had ample room in the center of the pool. They could avoid interacting with people while not crowding on top of one another. Of course SeaWorld kept them hungry, so they would still be inclined to take the fish that were sold to tourists. But in the end, keeping cetaceans in pools for the public was a profit-making venture, and nothing more. The parks seemed disinclined to learn to know their captives even as much as some of their visitors in the public did.
The petting pool at Marineland of the Pacific was even a bit more enlightened. At least later on, they didn’t sell fish to the tourists. Also, the inside of the pool was lined with a short black rubbery seaweed. It made the water look black. It was harder for the visitors to see the dolphins when they were underwater, but for the dolphins, the underwater light level was more natural. That seaweed helped filter the water. It cushioned the pool walls so the dolphins were less likely to scrape their skin on the concrete. It helped absorb sound that would otherwise have reverberated inside the pool.
At least for the orcas, their time alternating between training and the petting pool was a break from boredom; a break the dolphins did not have. Absolutely central to this website, humans and orcas were able to develop relationships and to learn about one another in a way that is absolutely unique in the history of either species. Something good and unplanned emerged from challenging circumstances.
We do advocate that when SeaWorld's orcas are retired to seaside sanctuaries, they have friendly human contact available 24/7. Most of these orcas have been in human company for their entire lives, and for a few, for most of their lives. Friendly contact free from the agendas of training, performing, breeding, etc. could help partially heal their damaged lives. There are inherent dangers when humans enter the water with orcas. At least initially, time spent in the water should be limited to medical necessity; however, our experiences show that the orcas might actually invite humans to join them in the water.
Retirement to sanctuaries doesn't have to be just about healing the damage humans have done to the orcas. It can also be about starting some real two-way communications and bonds/friendships between humans and orcas, as these particular orcas have formed bonds with humans already, and many have never interacted with their wild relatives.
Entering their world is part of that process that cannot be avoided as they cannot come into our world, dry land. It can be about friendship and trust between species and a symbiosis that could benefit both species and heal the planet in more ways than one. Even wild cetaceans occasionally reach out to humans. In the case of these orcas, uprooted from their natural lives, we should expect and be prepared that they will be reaching out to us.