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PETA tries to keep pressure on SeaWorld

A pair of killer whales, or orcas, jump as they perform during the Shamu's One Ocean show at SeaWorld in San Diego.
(Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)
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SeaWorld may have announced last month that it is phasing out captive orcas for public display but the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants the theme park to go even further and send its marine animals to what’s called “seaside sanctuaries.”

But at a Wednesday news conference at the Sheraton Mission Valley in San Diego, PETA officials did not offer specifics about who would run the sanctuaries, how much they would cost, how many would be constructed or how big they would be.

“At this point it’s impossible to know until the plan comes through — when you know how many animals will be released, where these sanctuaries are going to be, but it’s do-able,” said Lisa Lange, PETA’s senior vice president of communications. “And it wouldn’t be all of the animals at once.”

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A seaside sanctuary was used to reintroduce Keiko, the orca made famous in the “Free Willy” movie, from captivity to its home waters before dying in 2003.

“We have an opportunity whereby all the captive marine mammals — particularly dolphins and orcas — need to be removed,” said Jean-Michel Cousteau, president of the Ocean Futures Society, which took part in the Keiko project. “Those orcas need to be moved there now. Time is of the essence.”

But SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby has called seaside sanctuaries “a nice fantasy” that is problematic.

“You’re taking an animal from one captive environment into another,” Manby said in a recent interview with the Orlando Sentinel. “And you’re introducing all kinds of risks: pollution, oil slicks, hurricanes, PCBs. So you’re trading new risks for what benefit? That they might have a few more square feet to swim? And who’s going to pay for it? Who’s going to take the risk?”

The Humane Society of the United States worked with SeaWorld to adopt its new policy earlier this year.

The organization’s president and CEO Wayne Pacelle told the Union-Tribune he would have to wait to hear details about a range of issues, including the size of the sanctuaries and how the orcas would relate to each other, before passing judgment.

“Sea pens have their own challenges,” said Pacelle, whose group was a primary backer of the Keiko project. “It is not an easy thing to contemplate.”

PETA’s Lange said SeaWorld should pay the lion’s share for the sanctuaries.

“They owe these animals that much, at least,” she said.

Neuroscientist Lori Marino, one of the experts brought in by PETA, said the sanctuary program will have “approximately 35 to 40 experts ... probably not going to be headquartered in any one particular place.” She also said “there are a number of elements” that drive where the sanctuaries would be located.

“Nobody is saying everything is going to be perfect, but the fact of the matter is that a seaside sanctuary is going to go as far as it can to restore what has been taken away from these animals,” Marino said.

But SeaWorld officials said Wednesday in a statement that the discussion is a non-starter. Given the ages of the animals, the length of time they’ve spent with humans and the relationships they’ve formed with other whales, SeaWorld said transporting the orcas to sea pens would do more harm than good.

PETA is “welcome to do it but we’re not going to do it with our animals and if something went wrong, you know who would be held accountable for it? We would,” Manby told the Orlando Sentinel earlier this month. He said there is no science “that says that would be a better environment. To me, it doesn’t pass the smell test.”