San Diego is home to one of three SeaWorld marine mammal theme parks in the United States. Famous for providing family-friendly shows and zoological displays of various marine animals, the San Diego park has been under fire since the late 1980s by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for problems throughout the resort.
SeaWorld of San Diego was cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when Orky, one of the resident killer whales, was found to be partially blind with severe health problems, yet forced to perform anyways. Creating an investigation, OSHA found that all of the orcas at the San Diego aquarium were under tremendous levels of stress, which lead the animals towards health attacks.
OSHA has created a series of reports regarding orcas' lives at the San Diego exhibit. According to Counter Punch, these orcas work as many as eight shows a day, 365 days a year, with their tanks measured in feet, limiting their natural needs of swimming around 90 miles a day. Orcas living in captivity takes away the evolved matriarchal culture the animals have lived in for generations, of which SeaWorld admitted to, was a problem. A female trainer of the theme park has also been sourced saying Orky did not enjoy being ridden on by humans.
Since 1987, SeaWorld in San Diego has been under fire for worker injuries. The first major injury to hit the news occurred on November 21, 1987 when a trainer was crushed to death by an orca during a performance. That same month 14 separate injuries had occurred to trainers during a five-month span, including neck and back trauma. Extreme cases documented of trainers at the San Diego theme park include needing to be revived by CPR after being held under an orca's body over four minutes, another with broken ribs, ruptured kidney and a lacerated liver.
SeaWorld motivates orca whales to cooperate during a show by withholding fish or using the young to motivate the parents. According to Counter Punch, without food, orcas will refuse to perform, therefore needing food to be incorporated into the show; the orcas are switched out mid-show if they do not perform. For mother orcas who are noted as being notorious in refusal to work, trainers will often bring their calves into the show as the mothers wish to stay close to their young. According to ORCA, methods like these are extremely harmful to the animals. Orky, a killer whale that accidentally ran into a trainer, died four months after the attack, with an autopsy revealing the 30-year-old had organs of an orca twice his age. Orky was literally worked to death. Sea World has responded to the issues, stating, "A series of accidents had occurred that are more serious than we've had in a short period before," while continuing to state new safety measures would be implemented. In the time since, no new safety measures have been made public besides a short period where trainers were not allowed to perform with the orcas.
