A 12,000 pound killer whale living in a fish tank for 15 years. I don’t think anyone would want to be in a position like this. Well, sadly this is the life of Tilikum. He has been bringing smiles to children's faces for over a decade, but at the same time he has been known to harm people and eventually he decided to kill one the head trainers at SeaWorld. Today, Tilikum does  not perform as often as he used to to prevent him harming any other trainers or potential audience members. Tilikum will never get what he truly wants, but putting Tilikum in one giant tank( a tank so big that it will be in its own separate section of the park) all for himself can be a great compromise for both animal activists and SeaWorld owners.

SeaWorld doesn’t want Tilikum or any other orcas and porpoises to be in SeaWorld sanctuaries because for one these marine mammals have lived in giant tanks there whole life, they won't be immuned to the other animals and potential diseases in that could enter through sanctuaries. People who are for these sea sanctuaries say this is a viable way to retire or at least give these orcas more freedom to move around and have a sense of what being in waters is like. For example, experiencing currents, swim, dive, and interact with other ocean animals. This is the way orcas should live their life because if they live in an unnatural environment, they will start to develop unnatural behavior. Marine mammal scientist Naomi Rose gives an analogy saying,” Putting them in a concrete tank that’s tiny relative to the size of their bodies is like keeping a dog in a kennel for its entire life without ever taking it for a walk or run.” People who make money off of these animals may disagree. These tanks are created to contain the killer whales, but they made them tremendously big for them to move around. They may have the ability to create large, enormously tanks, but they won't be able to create one to replicate the size of the ocean. In comparison, a giant whale tank is a kennel compared to the ocean. There are so many other examples that show the problems with killer whales in captivity. Former SeaWorld worker Hargrove mentions that these animals are bored in these tanks. They have nothing to do since they are surrounded by concrete walls. The veterinarian of SeaWorld, Hendrik Nollens, says he wants to continue working with SeaWorld and SeaWorld shouldn’t go out of business just for not complying with animal activists to get rid of the orcas and other sea creatures. Instead they should change their business plan. What Nollens wants is to have SeaWorld create these sea sanctuaries.

Now there are some pretty convincing arguments for why there should be reasons as to why orcas should not be in captivity and how can there be valid arguments for orca captivity, but surprisingly there can be. Yes, maybe many of these reasons were created so the owners of SeaWorld loose their biggest asset, but they, in some shape or form, can make audiences become a lot less biased to the other side. One the bigger arguments for that SeaWorld has released to the public is the issue that SeaWorld sea animals were raised in SeaWorld the won’t be mature enough to be out in the wild on their own. Chris Dold, veterinarian at the SeaWorld explains putting orcas in sea pens will give them exposure to ocean toxins, diseases, and harsh weather. An example of a killer whale put in a sea pen was Keiko. A sea pen up in Iceland, caretakers tried to train Keiko to feed itself in the wild. They eventually decided to let her go, but a couple of months, Keiko died of acute pneumonia. Another issues with retiring orcas in sea pens is it costs a lot of money to make one. SeaWorld had plan to create one sea pen for eleven killer whales, but for a good reason. To create one sea pen, it would cost SeaWorld 5 million dollars. It will also add an additional $500,000 to pay staff. Since the sea pens are in the water, it can cost a lot more to repairs damages as well. These issues may sound evasive, but this could a serious problem to both killer whales and SeaWorld if these issues aren’t taken into account.

Both SeaWorld owners and animal activists have to make a compromise because each side is and will continue to hold on to their own reasons. I believe SeaWorld should create a separate section of their park to create a much bigger tank to hold Tilikum. This, SeaWorld doesn’t have to worry about the dangers of putting their orcas in sea pens and animal activists can be more satisfied with the amount of space these orcas are living. The problem is SeaWorld has already proposed a similar idea by doubling the size of the tank in a project called Blue World. It was approved by the California Coastal Commision, but they also wanted SeaWorld to stop breeding. SeaWorld didn’t want to do that, so for now Blue World has been put on hold. I understand that SeaWorld doesn’t want to stop breeding, but I believe this is the only way to put the feud between SeaWorld owners and animals activists at rest.