SeaWorld Expansion of Orca Tanks Up for Coastal Commission Vote Thursday

“Breeding is a natural, fundamental and important part of an animal’s life and depriving a social animal of the right to reproduce is inhumane”, the park said.

The commission had received 200,000 emails and 50,000 letters over the issue of SeaWorld’s proposed expansion and had to move the meeting to Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center from the Long Beach Hall to accommodate the 500 people who gathered for the hearing, while almost 150 people stood outside, CNN reported.

The ruling was a blow to SeaWorld and a stunning victory for animal rights activists who have blasted the park’s treatment of whales.

The company reportedly said it was disappointed with the conditions imposed on its “Blue World” exhibit expansion, under which it wanted to expand the pool from 5.8 million gallons to 9.6 million gallons.

SeaWorld’s plans are estimated to cost $100m (£65m) and include the building of two orca pools that together would represent an increase in water volume of nearly 3.8m gallons (14.4m litres).

SeaWorld helps the plight of orcas, which were hated and feared before SeaWorld began opening its parks, spokesman David Koontz said in an email to The Associated Press.

John Hargrove, a former SeaWorld trainer in California and Texas who has written a book about his experiences and appeared in the “Blackfish” film, said whales are heavily medicated and family structures that define life in the wild are broken.

A plan to protect the whales from noise during construction of the pools is also said to be one of the pre-requisites for experts to approve the project. Among the restrictions placed by the commission, no new whales from the wild can be kept there, to which SeaWorld responded that it had not captured wild orcas in 30 years.

Jared Goodman, director of litigation for PETA, said pressure from animal rights groups pushed the cities of Los Angeles and Oakland to ban bull hooks, the tools used by circuses to train elephants.

“PETA is calling on the California Coastal Commission to vote down SeaWorld’s Blue World Project, because what these orcas need is to be released into a seaside sanctuary, not a rebranded prison”.

SeaWorld has faced heated criticism and declining business since the 2013 documentary “Blackfish” presented a dim view of how the company treated orcas.

But SeaWorld officials opposed the condition, saying it would mean that the park’s population of 11 whales would be the last orcas held in the park.

Opponents said the larger tanks are still a harmful environment for whales.

“They don’t belong in captivity”, she said.

SeaWorld says negative media attention is partly to blame and there is also increased competition among Florida theme parks and other factors.