SeaWorld said Thursday it would cease breeding killer whales this year, bowing to mounting criticism by animal rights activists, regulators and lawmakers over the treatment of the marine mammals in captivity.
SeaWorld announced in November that would phase out its San Diego killer whale performance this year, but the statement published Thursday went further in declaring that the orcas in its care would be the last generation of killer whales at its theme parks.
"We need to respond to the attitudinal change that we helped to create," Joel Manby, the president and chief executive of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, wrote in an op-ed article in The Los Angeles Times announcing the decision.
SeaWorld has been under heavy scrutiny after a 2012 book, "Death at SeaWorld: Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity" by David Kirby and a 2013 documentary, "Blackfish," which assailed the treatment of killer whales by the theme park. The company also has locations in San Antonio and Orlando, Florida. (Tilikum, the whale featured in the documentary, is in poor health at the Orlando park.)
In October, the California Coastal Commission banned the breeding of orcas in captivity, a decision that SeaWorld challenged as an overreach of the agency's authority. The commission attached the ban to its approval of a proposed expansion of SeaWorld's whale habitat in San Diego.
Nonetheless, Manby, in his op-ed article, took note of the commission's decision, along with proposed legislation in the California state Legislature and in Congress to ban orca captivity, including the capture, import and export of the whales.
"This year, we will end all orca breeding programs — and because SeaWorld hasn't collected an orca from the wild in almost four decades, this will be the last generation of orcas in SeaWorld's care," he wrote.
Manby said, however, that its whales would remain in captivity.
"Most of our orcas were born at SeaWorld, and those that were born in the wild have been in our parks for the majority of their lives," he wrote. "If we release them into the ocean, they will likely die. In fact, no orca or dolphin born under human care has ever survived release into the wild. Even the attempt to return the whale from 'Free Willy,' Keiko, who was born in the wild, was a failure."
The end of orca breeding takes immediate effect. SeaWorld said it would "introduce new, inspiring, natural orca encounters, rather than theatrical shows" at its San Diego park this year, followed by San Antonio and then Orlando in 2019.
The company also announced a partnership with the Humane Society of the United States to improve its educational programs, teach visitors about animal welfare and conservation, and expand advocacy for the protection of marine wildlife.
"We commend the company for making this game-changing commitment," Wayne Pacelle, the president and chief executive of the Humane Society, said in a statement. "Today we turn a corner, working together to achieve solutions on a wide set of animal issues including sunsetting the use of orcas at existing facilities; maximizing SeaWorld's focus on rescue, rehabilitation and advocacy for marine mammals in the wild; and sourcing food for animals and customers from humane and sustainable sources, including cage-free eggs and crate-free pork."
Rep. Adam B. Schiff, a California Democrat who had sponsored a bill that would prohibit the breeding, capture, import and export of orcas for public display, also applauded SeaWorld's decision.
"The partnership they are making with the Humane Society, with its focus on rescue, rehabilitation and advocacy on important marine issues not only represents a change in their business model, but an exciting new direction for the company," he said in a statement. "These changes are something that advocates have been urging for years, and I think SeaWorld will find that visitors will reward their actions with a renewed interest in the parks."
Killer whales, which are found in all the world's oceans, were once reviled as predators, but, in recent decades, they have entered the ranks of adored wildlife, joining lions, polar bears and elephants. Orcas have strong family bonds, cooperate to hunt and possess startling vocal expressiveness.
Their beauty — and their ability to be trained by humans in captivity for performances — helped fuel public interest in their well-being.
"Free Willy," a 1993 family film involving a boy and his affection for a young orca in the Pacific Northwest, drew significant attention to the plight of the whales. Keiko, the whale in the movie, was captured off the coast of Iceland in the late 1970s and ended up at a marine park in Mexico.
After the film was released, money poured in to construct a rehabilitation tank in Oregon to prepare Keiko for release into the ocean. But Keiko had to relearn how to be a whale, as Susan Orlean reported in The New Yorker: He lacked the ability to hold his breath, swim robustly and catch food. Released in 2002, he was found dead in a Norwegian fjord the next year, felled by pneumonia.
The news media scrutiny has harmed SeaWorld's image, attendance and stock price. But in its most recent earnings report, it said total attendance was 22.47 million in 2015, an increase of 70,000 from 2014. Total revenues dropped slightly, to $1.37 billion in 2015, from $1.38 billion a year earlier. Net income fell to $49.1 million in 2015, from $49.9 million a year earlier.