Jane Goodall, known for her conservation work with primates around the world, says that SeaWorld should be closed. She says that because the park’s whales and dolphins use sonar-like sound waves to communicate with each other, being in a tank is prohibiting that. She claims that the sound echoing off the tanks walls is “acoustical hell for the animals” and that “[SeaWorld] definitely should be closed down.”
SeaWorld released a statement saying that this is not the case and that “it works with experts in bioacoustics to measure the noise level in its enclosures, which it says are quieter than the ambient ocean.” They said Goodall may not have read recent research on marine animals in zoos.
“Jane Goodall is a respected scientist and advocate for the world’s primates, but we couldn’t disagree more with her on this. Zoos and marine mammal parks like SeaWorld allow people to experience animals in a way that is inspiring and educational,” continued the company’s statement.
Goodall hopes that people lose their interest in whale shows and start to realize how problematic captivity is for these animals. “It’s not only that they’re really big, highly intelligent and social animals so that they capture and confinement in itself is cruel, but that they have emotions like ours.”
This is just the latest in a run of problems for SeaWorld, who has been plagued with negative press since the Blackfish documentary was released in 2013.
News source: Huffington Post
Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images
