The folks at SeaWorld can’t buy much good fortune from the public these days. Since the 2013 release of Blackfish, plenty of activists, including Kelly Slater, have called for everything from building sea pens to the outright release of the park’s Orca population. Legislation has been proposed banning Orca captivity, Southwest Airlines terminated their decades long partnership with them, the company’s stock plummeted, and by 2015 it was estimated the San Diego park had lost a million visitors. It’s fairly safe to assume the downward spiral, and the fact that nobody seems to like SeaWorld anymore, was motivation for releasing a recent PR video. But even that message is taking heat.
In the two minute video, Chief Creative Officer Scott Helmstedter opens by assuring viewers that Sea World’s top focus has and always will be the health and safety of the animals they have in captivity. That value system, he follows with, is the inspiration behind Project Blue World, an expansion of killer whale pools and environments. It’s a project designed by trainers and caretakers to create a better environment for the large animals. In plain, dumbed down english, they say they’re building bigger pools. That’s not necessarily the case though, according to a former Sea World trainer. In an interview with The Dodo, John Hargrove said, “They’re already deceiving the public about the size of these enclosures. They’re proposing to use the already existing space of the Shamu pool and they’re making people think it’s this big improvement. It shows the culture of deception.”
Further, a spokesperson for the California Coastal Commission told the website that SeaWorld’s proposal hasn’t even been legally approved yet. The park will go to the commission for that approval in August, making the video more of a PR push for public support than proof of their good intentions.
In direct response to that proposal, a petition blocking the approval of Project Blue World has been started through MoveOn.org. It seems no matter what efforts SeaWorld goes to in hopes of getting back in the public’s favor, they will be facing opposition on anything short of releasing their captive Orcas into the wild.
