You’ve got to love it when a group called Heart spurns
SeaWorld on account of its keeping killer whales captive for
entertainment at its theme parks. Heart is one of eight major
bands that have cancelled out on SeaWorld’s “2014 Bands, Brew
and BBQ Fest” since the documentary “Blackfish” aired. The
other names – all major players in the music industry – are
REO Speedwagon, .38 Special, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride,
Cheap Trick, Barenaked Ladies, and Willie Nelson. In addition,
Joan Jett and Edgar Winter have reportedly asked SeaWorld not
to use their music in the theme parks’ shows. That’s some
list, and some rebuke. Just two musicians set to appear
haven’t yet made the pledge.
The action taken by these performers amounts to a run on
the bank when it comes to SeaWorld’s cultural capital. It’s an
indicator of the tremendous slippage in the theme park’s
reputation since February 2010, when the orca whale Tilikum
killed trainer Dawn Brancheau and SeaWorld officials threw the
dead trainer under the bus, suggesting that the incident was
her fault.
Hakan Karlsson
It’s also the sign of the tremendous power of culture in
stimulating and shifting public discussion. Over the weekend,
the legendary Miami
Herald writer and satirist Carl Hiaasen praised the
impact of the Academy Award-nominated documentary
“Blackfish”in raising awareness of SeaWorld’s cruelty in
keeping such majestic creatures of the oceans in “extreme and
stressful confinement” in “glorified guppy ponds.” CNN
created a cultural moment around the issue several months ago,
with its repeated airing of the documentary. Like David
Kirby’s 2012 book “Death
at SeaWorld,” “Blackfish” examines the heart-wrenching
misery associated with whale capture and captivity and the
entire history of fatal accidents that culminated in
Brancheau’s death.
Not long ago, SeaWorld’s primary investor, the private
equity firm Blackstone Group, announced its decision to trim
its ownership share from 63 percent to 45 percent. This means
that SeaWorld will no longer be a controlled company and will
eventually have to appoint a majority of independent
directors. This could bode well for the end of captive orca
performance at the theme park, something The HSUS began
campaigning for in the early 1990s and a position from which
we’ve never wavered.
Yet Hiaasen’s column warns of SeaWorld Entertainment’s
record take of $120 million in the third quarter of 2013, and
of its likely ability to weather the storm of Blackfish, just
as it did with the film “Free Willy,” and Kirby’s book in
prior years. In mid-November, SeaWorld appealed the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s ruling that
the park, having subjected trainers to a hazardous
environment, would be required to keep humans out of the water
with killer whales unless physical barriers were present to
reduce the risk of serious injury or death.
And in September, the Georgia Aquarium and SeaWorld – part
of a consortium trying to import 18 wild-caught belugas (of
which SeaWorld would take 11) – appealed the ruling
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Association that such action would further the
decline of the wild beluga population from which the whales
were captured.
As part of this genuine grassroots uprising against
SeaWorld, we’ll be asking Justin Moore and Scotty McCreery to
cancel their appearances, too. And we’re asking consumers to
take their entertainment dollars elsewhere until SeaWorld
Entertainment ends its captive whale performance programs and
its support for taking whales from the ocean. However long
that takes, 2013 will be remembered as a year in which an
absorbing film, aired in prime time on a national network,
placed the issue in front of millions of viewers worldwide,
stirring the conscience of the American public and setting the
stage for a strong moral correction on the treatment of whales
in captivity.