Sea World

Lauren Powell

Sea World

Sea world, a place most known for its positive and exciting atmosphere filled with animal shows and exhibits, has lost that reputation rather quickly. For those of you that haven’t seen the documentary Black Fish, I highly recommend watching it. It documents the cruel actions taken by Seaworld to capture, contain, and house their whale friends.  Sea world has done wonders for San diego's economy bringing in tourists looking for a fun get away, but since Blackfish, Sea Worlds standings have crumbled.

Blackfish Is a documentary that focuses on the captivity of Tilikum, one of Seaworld's Orcas.   The coverage of Tilikum includes his capture in 1983 off the coast of Iceland, and the stories of the three deaths he’s responsible for. It shows the horrible truths behind Sea World and how traumatic captivity truly is for these poor animals.

Before the Documentary was released in 2013, Seaworld had an average of about 24.4 million guests a year. Since 2013,the count has dropped to 23.4 million customers. It may not seem like a large drop but thats a whole one million customers. If you divide 1,000,000 by 4 (the average family size of America), that’s 250,000 less hotel rooms being booked, cars airplane tickets being bought, and reservations being made in the city of San diego, there for having a negative impact on their economy.

Not only has Seaworld's income dropped but their stocks have as well.  Records show that the day Seaworld announced it’s quarter earnings, following the documentary, their stock dropped 2.66 percent that day.  Following that week, a bill was proposed in California stating that Orca shows should be outlawed at all Seaworld's and zoos. The week following the proposed bill, stocks dropped another 7%.  As of July of 2014, Seaworld's stock has officially dropped 25% from it’s highest point in time.  

Although there is no denying that the recent drops in attendance and cost have come from the documentary and truths revealed, the company has tried to convince America otherwise by blaming it on “bad weather” and other non realistic theories.  This has also presented the company with a decision regarding opportunity cost. Do they spend more money, money they are already losing to convince the public that everything Blackfish has said is lies, or do they just let it go and lose customers. They chose to release statements calling the documentary “shamefully dishonest” and “nothing but lies”.  Seaworld has also made sure, through the use of advertisements and newspaper, to make it clear that everything that has been released are “inaccurate reports” while reiterating their beliefs in their Orca’s well being. Although they have given a clear and hard effort by investing in larger whale tanks and housing conditions, there is no denying the fact that Seaworld is starting to crumble and will for sure be a loss for San diego's economy.

For years Seaworld has been one of the number one tourist attractions in San diego but all that is beginning to change.  All the money that San Diego’s economy benefited off of the tourists buying hotel rooms, and dinner, is all about to turn to dust. Due to declining customers and stock, Seaworld's positive reputation is slowly beginning to fade. If you have not watched Blackfish, take a look and decide for yourself if you think the treatment of the Orcas is fair or not.

." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 15 Sept. 2014. <http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/13/investing/seaworld-earnings/index.html>.

"SeaWorld Stock Drops." Norbert Haupt. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2014. <http://norberthaupt.com/2014/01/02/sea-world-stock-drops/>.

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