While marine parks wither in western countries, they are flourishing in China, sparking fresh concerns about captive killer whales.

Killer whales are the star marine species. They were listed in IUCN Red List in 2013. Although killer whales have not suffered from extinction, the population plummets because of hunting, oil spill, toxic pollutants, marine transportation, and now the entertainment business.

As more and more western marine parks give up the killer whales’ performance and even protection laws for killer whales are adopted by some countries, Chinese marine parks are picking up the leftover from the spree of sea creature performance, a major tourist driver in China.

Russia, who hunts for killer whales every year, is one of the major killer whale suppliers of Chinese marine parks business. On 16 November 2018, Haichang Ocean Park unfolded another scene of killer whales’ performance.

However, the rapid expansion of the marine parks has resulted in overcrowded tanks killer whales cannot turn over while they are supposed to roam freely under the vast blue sea. Lack of compassion while training the killer whales will also lead them to injury, or even death, in the end, being abandoned without knowing.

Yet it seems that the unpleasant situation successfully escapes from the eyes of the investors and tourists. It will be difficult for the general public to understand killer whales’ true fate and living condition through the kaleidoscope of entertainment without educational efforts.

The CCTV news and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration both appeal to the public to refuse to support wild animal performance and domesticating wild animals. CBCGDF Endangered Wildlife Fund also calls on people to stop watching the wild animal performance and has reported several cases of illegal performance and animal abuse. Sadly, the business of this kind is still surging, and the public has always been kept in the dark.

The online search engine shows the video results of "killer whales' performance". (Photo credit: CBCGDF)

(Photo source: Internet)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/7219.html

By / Cat