Talking Whales Are Cute And All But Why Are We Still Keeping Orcas In Captivity?

It’s a dangerous road when we start teaching killer whales how to speak. At least, it’s dangerous for the researchers keeping them in captivity, because they’ll most likely start to scream ‘LET ME THE FUCK OUT OF THIS TANK’.

Researchers from Marineland at Antibes, France have taught a whale how to say ‘hello’, ‘bye-bye’, count up to three and say the name of her trainer ‘Amy’. Check the video out below too see Wikie in action…

I know, I know, it’s a scientific breakthrough, it’s really bloody cute, but all I see when I watch a video of an orca mimicking human speech is a wild animal being experimented on. Folks, strap yourself in for a journey of inner ethical turmoil.

The scientific breakthrough of this should not be underestimated. Whales are already known for their impressive styles of communication, ranging from clicking to singing to engage with other whales even 100 miles away from them. This takes that to a whole new level. Mimicking human speech using bursts of air from their nasal passages, it’s even more impressive than humans learning to speak since they do not have the same vocal abilities as us.

While this is all amazing and yet again proves how intelligent orcas are, it’s also a sad reminder that humans continue to treat animals inhumanely purely for our own scientific research and entertainment.

Wikie belongs to a marine park in France, where she has lived for her entire 16-years, one of many whales born into captivity. Captive breeding was banned in France in 2017, however Wikie had already been artificially inseminated 8 years earlier, with her calf, Moana, being the first orca born through artificial insemination in Europe. She gave birth to a second calf in 2013 called Keijo.

All of the whales in Marineland perform in Orca shows for visitors, like circus animals doing tricks for treats. In case this isn’t distressing enough, and you haven’t seen Blackfish, Orca’s in captivity are notoriously mistreated. They’re kept in tanks nowhere near big enough for such a huge wild animal, separated from their herd upon capture and from each other after being forced to breed. They are known to cry and scream for each other upon capture, just watch this heart-breaking snippet from Blackfish below…

It gets worse. The point of Bafta-norminated documentary, Blackfish, was to highlight that Orcas who attack their trainers are case-en-point that they shouldn’t be kept in captivity. Focused on the now-deceased Tilikum, it opened all of our eyes about why Orcas attack and along with Harry Styles (random, I know), put pressure on marine parks like SeaWorld to stop breeding programmes.

But Orca attacks are few and far between, right? Marineland couldn’t possibly have a history or Orca attacks? Surely, they wouldn’t promote further experimentation on Orca’s if they thought the whales were dangerous?

Well, get ready to be stunned. Not only does Marineland Antibes have a history of Orca attacks, the attack in question was from no other than the adorable talking whale, Wikie.

YEP.

In 2009, Wikie pushed her trainer underwater during a show, although the trainer managed to escape and was seemingly unharmed. There have allegedly been a number of other small incidents since this attack.

Essentially, Wikie, our beloved science experiment, has shown time and time again that she does not want to be in captivity. Yet, the park continues to push her boundaries and keep all five whales in their capture in a 210 feet long, 100 feet wide and 40-foot deep tank. That might sound big, but it’s not the sea, so it’s not good enough.

Lauren Choplin, from the Nonhuman Rights Project, told The Debrief:

'Research of this kind merely reinforces the fact that these cognitively and emotionally complex beings don't belong in captivity in the first place. We humans need to do a better job of listening to what orcas are already communicating to us about how they suffer when we deprive them of their freedom.'

So, when your done cooing over how Wikie pronounces ‘three’, have a read about Marineland and all the other marine parks that keep Orca’s captive. Better yet, watch Blackfish on Netflix, you’ll never coo at a whale performing tricks again

Animal news you can actually smile about? Check out all of these ADORABLE dogs to cheer you up...

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.