Michael Bigg

SeaWorld of Hurt The growing argument over if killer whales should or should not be kept in captivity is becoming more widespread and well-known, simply because of attractions like SeaWorld and improving technology that extend further opportunities for research. The first article Why Killer Whales Shouldn’t Be Kept in Captivity by the SOS Dolphins organization, written August 7th, 2017, portrays an argument over the negative effects of using Orcas on display in captivity. The second article…

The power of emotion: compassion In Marina Keegan’s essay, Why We Care About Whales, Marina claims on how humans value the life of humans and the life of non-human animals. The essay starts with a social occurrence of emerging beached whales. A natural force that is created by the movement of both the moon and the Earth push whales to the beach. While giving a detailed, vivid explanation of how beached whales die, Marina maximizes the sadness and lamentation of whales’ deaths. Furthermore, she…

SeaWorld’s Orca Problem Every year, millions of people are drawn to marine parks to see captive animals, including everyone’s favorite, the killer whales, perform in shows for their entertainment. Not many people think about what goes on behind these said shows. What we don't think about is the torture, maltreatment and even forced insemination that goes on in these “wonderful” places. Captured from the wild In the open ocean, orcas are smart, cooperative creatures. They work together to find…

Introduction Ever since 1961, humans have been removing orcas out of their natural habitats to go to places such as Sea World, where they are forced to perform tricks for people who pay to watch (Blackfish). Unlike orcas in the wild, captive orcas have been known to live shorter lives and go through traumatic experiences. Also, orca captivity has had negative effects on not only the orcas taken captive, but their families too. Due to the negative changes orcas experience from the wild to…

Did you know there are about 17,000 individual animals in the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium located in Omaha, Nebraska? This is America’s largest zoo, yet this is only one the 142 accredited zoos across America, this may seem like a lot, but America only has a handful of zoos compared to the 414 zoos located in Germany. One of the many positives that zoos and aquaria provide is there revenue and job opportunity. Just in America the annual zoo revenue averages at about $5,136,250,000 and they…

“SeaWorld’s Treatment towards Their Animals. Since the documentary, Blackfish, released the public have protested against SeaWorld and claim they abuse their Orca whales however SeaWorld says otherwise. Some of the people who disagree with SeaWorld are a part of PETA, which made a statement claiming SeaWorld injects their orcas with drugs that force them to do as their trainers command. SeaWorld defends their facility by releasing detailed information about how their killer whales are treated.…

Radiolab is a podcast that focuses on discussing a wide variety of topics that are found in our world today. A concept that was discussed on the podcast was one that connects one of the largest creatures in the world to a human. In the Radiolab podcast episode titled, “Animal Minds”, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, along with their guest, Mick Menago, analyze the idea that animals can express emotions similar to those of humans. In today’s society, people often associate human qualities, such…

For many years, the whaling industry was an extremely commercially profitable business that many nations took part in. Whaling fleets from around Europe and North America set sail to capture the whales as people thought they were an excellent source of oil, whalebone – for corsets, skin, meat, blubber and ambergris for perfume in the 18th, 19th and 20th century. Whaling became so successfully profitable that many species during this period were almost hunted to extinction. As technology…

The wind blew through the hair of the passengers aboard the Empress which was everyone, except Kristi’s dad, he’s bald. Kristi’s dad, Scott, owned the Empress and was letting Kristi take her friends on a whale watching ride. Scott was a marine biologist and he inherited the boat from his father and started a whale watching business. Kristi’s friends Tatum, Chandler, and Brielle had never gone whale watching, let alone on a high class boat on a private whale tour. Kristi had baked chocolate chip…

Have you ever found out something you should’ve known before? In the novel Marino Mission we meet Alexa who is experiencing something she never thought she would. Alexa’s mission exudes secretly because she gathers information behind the backs of others, works with Jose to test DNA and does all of this in a classified and protected military space. Alexa goes around collecting information from the backs of others to better understand what’s happening at Marino Mission. To start, Alexa gets up…