As society evolves, an increasing number of individuals are becoming conscious of their own difficulties with mental health. Humans, as social animals, are influenced by society in all aspects, and these influences could be presumed negative; economic and social predicaments can exert pressure on humans to varying degrees, triggering the emergence of mental illness. Some animals, similarly, can also experience emotions like depression. Some that do, for example, are whales.
Whales are intelligent animals who do not wish to engage in combat with humans but prefer \ to live, play, and socialize with their own kind. Without companions, whales lose their instinct to breed and their determination to survive.
According to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium the whale populations are declining dramatically worldwide,In the past decade, the whale population has seen a 28% drop, with increasingly indiscriminate human fishing threatening their survival; they gradually lose companions, which has an extreme psychological impact on them: they are beginning to lose the will to live.
Different groups of whales have other social structures, with their specific ways of communication, food preferences, hunting methods, and distinctive physical characteristics. Take orcas as an example. According to the CFCA study, when biologists put orcas from different orca groups inhabiting different environments together, they do not interact, communicate, or mate with each other. Essentially, putting these orcas together does not necessitate their social needs nor improve their mental health. According to the illustration below (Figures 1 and 2), the killer whales in Russia are North Pacific orcas with three ecotypes: the resident type that preys on fish, the transient type that feeds on marine mammals, and the pelagic type that prefers to eat bony fish or sharks.
Figure 1. Northern Hemisphere Killer Whale Ecotype
- First line: residential
- Second line: transient
- Third line: offshore
Figure 2.
- Left： offshore
- Middle： residential
- Right： transient
Furthermore, it is apparent that whale shows in oceanariums - irrelevance to it's legitimacy - is an extreme threat to wildlifes’ mental and physical health. Whales are confined in inadequately sized for them, performing and training day after day In addition, the whales and dolphins’s living environment in the Oceanarium is often in deplorable conditions. Pools are old, unwashed, covered with green algae. Many of the guardrails have been bent by collisions with whales and dolphins. Traces of corrosion and biting damage - signs of aggression which are atypical in wild populations - are observable on the fences.
Figure 3.
- Lolita is the U.S.'s oldest orca and has the tiniest tank. The 49-year-old orca was captured from the wild as a 4-year-old calf in 1970 and raised in the Seaquarium's small tank, which is four body lengths long and 20 feet deep.
Figuree 4. Dolphins‘ living pool
This imprisonment is a nightmare for marine animals. The whales - their intelligence allowing them to wholeheartedly realize the cruelty - hiss and bite futilely at the railings as they silently shout to the visitors: Save me, leave me alone."
Orca
The orcas are not whales; they are classified in the dolphin family. They are highly social creatures with an outstanding level of intelligence. Neuroscientist Lori Marino and a team of researchers have discovered orcas' level of intelligence is comparable to that of a 15- or 16-year-old human. The combination of intelligence and sheer size makes them the 'dominant creatures of the sea.' They are not, however, aggressive towards humans, and there are many examples of orcas helping humans throughout history. Yet, we do the very opposite.
In 1983, a whaling ship located an orca playing with his mother and father in the Icelandic seas. The whalers then seized the baby orca and cruelly slaughtered his parents, who, risking their lives, remained close to the ship to beg humans to return their son.
The whaling boat then sold the young orca to an oceanarium in Iceland and named him Tilikum. There were six other orcas older than him in the new oceanarium. These six ocras lived in this small and cramped environment for so long that they gradually developed psychological illness and became highly aggressive. As a result, young Tilikum, who just joined the group, was hence often attacked, always seen covered with bruises. Tilikum nevertheless had to complete his daily training and performance.
Figure 5. Tilikum Show
By February 1991, Tilikum's intelligence and size had increased progressively, and when his handler accidentally fell into the pool during one of his training sessions, Tilikum began his revenge. He repeatedly pushed her back into the middle of the pool when she was about to swim to shore until she died from drowning. And that was Tilikum's first kill.
Then Tilikum was sold to the Orlando Marine Park, where he continued to suffer from the encirclement. The Oceanarium sold Tilikum's sperm all over the world for more profit. He was forced to breed 21 times, begetting 11 offspring. According to Joelle's report, 54% of the world's captive orcas are offsprings of Tilikum.
In 1999, an audience member sneaked into Tilikum's pool late at night and was eventually killed. This was Tilikum's second murder, bringing him to the public's attention again. After this, Tilikum began muting itself, banging its body against the pool wall to bruise itself. He carried mental illnesses for 11 years. In 2010, he had a nervous breakdown during a performance and dragged his handler into the water and tore him apart. The trainer eventually died and Tilikum became known as the "killer whale."
Figure 6. victim
This is undoubtedly a mockery. Humans have taken away their freedom and violated their territory. Humans killed their family in front of their eyes. Then sold into aquariums where they were forced to perform day after day for profit. Humans ignore their cries out of pain. ; Their hisses and their bruises. Indifferently, we watch them suffer as our red-lined account book thickens.. And when their suffering exceeds its capacity, we point fingers at them as we condemn
“Killer whales, how cruel they are!”
Citation：
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“Whatever，为了不得抑郁症。.” Whatever，为了不得抑郁症。|虎鲸|海洋馆|鲸豚_新浪新闻, 21 Mar. 2019, k.sina.cn/article_2627373652_9c9a8a5402700faek.html?from=science.
网易. “杀人鲸‘提里库姆’，一生杀死三名人类，背后真相令人痛心疾首！.” 杀人鲸“提里库姆”，一生杀死三名人类，背后真相令人痛心疾首！|海豚|凯尔|虎鲸_网易订阅, 16 July 2022, www.163.com/dy/article/HCDS7RBN05449D4A.html.
Joelle. “Father to Most of SeaWorld’s Orcas Was ‘Sexually Stimulated’ by Trainers.” Peta2, 16 June 2017, www.peta2.com/news/seaworld-tilikum-father-orca.
“‘Things Are Grim for the Species’: Endangered Right Whales Continue to Decline in Atlantic.” USA TODAY, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/10/25/endangered-right-whale-population-declines-atlantic/10588097002. Accessed 13 Feb. 2023.