By BARELLI-PRIN Anais
Orcas are marine mammals. They are part of the family of cetaceans, such as dolphins. Orcas live in the Arctic and Antarctic area. The male orca can reach up to 9 meters long and weigh up to 8.5 tons in its natural environment and the female up to 7 meters and 4 tons. It is able to carry one babe at a time and its gestation lasts between 15 and 18 months. At birth it measures about 2.70 meters and weigh 220 kilos. Orcas are organized into matriarchal societies composed of several families that form a “clan”, which lives and moves together. They have an elaborate language shared by the clan. Their diet is extremely varied, they are hunters commonly called “super-predators”. Their curious and sociable character leads them to frequent Man, and especially in captivity.
This is how they are found as the main attraction of water parks (like sea world in America or Marineland in Europe). Playful and easily tamed, they are partners in the same way as the dolphins in the animations for the public. However parks do not have sufficient space for their normal development. This situation has consequences on their growth, their life expectation. Accustomed to travel long distances to hunt, orcas suffer from their life in captivity which alter their morphology, such as the curvature of the dorsal fin which remains straight in their natural environment. There are also effects on the psyche of the animal, due to its confinement. In the case of an animal living in clans, extracting one to have it cohabit with a member of another clan is stressful and can even trigger different languages. It is a form of animal abuse that causes them to behave aggressively towards man, whose response is fear and rejection.
In America, there are many water parks, such as Seaworld in which there are orcas. In recent years the trainers of these parks were made aware of the life conditions of the animals they care for, with emphasis on orcas. Outside captivity orcas are not dangerous for men. However, in captivity, even if attacks are rare, there were already three deadly ones from an orca on its trainer. The documentary “Blackfiish” directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite follows precisely the course of orcas in the water park Seaworld. This documentary retraces the life of Tilikum, an orca which has committed some attacks, including a mortal one. It is shown that the poor behaviour towards animals and more particularly towards orcas in American water parks and the subsequent neglection of their need for freedom, cause the orca to feel unhappy and thus, to commit acts dangerous for men.
We now have the way to find information and visual aids that make the existence of such parks unnecessary. Like for mankind, captivity and upbringing have perverse effects. What is considered as a punishment for men is seen as fun when it comes to an animal. It is important that humans become more aware of the disastrous impact on their environment otherwise there is a risk of seeing it change and turned against them.
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