SeaWorld has certainly had their fair share of bad publicity recently, but now another whale has died at their San Antonio, Texas Park. He was an 18-year-old orca, named Unna, and with his death, there have now been three this year at SeaWorld alone. Unna had been dealing with a resistant strain of Candida, a type of fungus.
A beluga whale died in November due to gastrointestinal complications. Another beluga whale had died months prior, after a premature birth. SeaWorld has released the following statement:
“After a review of each of these cases, none of the issues were related to each other, or to the care that the animals received, which is the care that SeaWorld is world-renowned for.”
There are many who oppose the parks practice of keeping captive orcas and they want better answers than what they are receiving. Public opinion of the park has been waning since the 2000 documentary, Blackfish, which showed killer whales and their lives in captivity. Unna was the daughter of the whale featured in the documentary.
A former trainer at SeaWorld who appeared in the documentary, John Hargrove, has now written a book. The book deals with the parks practices. Hargrove has stated that Unna had been sick for years and the information offered about her death by SeaWorld is not true.
SeaWorld has stated that Candida is commonly found on whales and has also been responsible for their death in the wild. Traditional treatments were not able to manage Unna’s Candida, so experts from veterinary medicine, nephrology and fungi experts came together to adapt a treatment for the whale that would typically be given to humans. Some researchers are speculating that Unna’s illness may have been a result of stress and a compromised immune system.
In California, activists are working to remove the SeaWorld orca program and they appear to be making headway. Recently, the California Coastal Commission halted the breeding of orcas in captivity. They also stopped the sale, trade or transfer of those animals. Shortly after these decisions, SeaWorld San Diego made the announcement that it would no longer feature it’s Shamu performances.
(Images: Twitter, R29, Inside Edition)
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