AWI Expresses Disappointment over SeaWorld’s Lawsuit against California

The Coastal Commission, which oversees development along California’s coast, voted in October to add the no-breeding condition after hours of testimony by critics of SeaWorld, who called on the park to free the whales.

But in a surprising move, it included a ban on breeding at the planned facility and prohibitions on the sale, trade or transfer of the whales.

SeaWorld San Diego’s population of 11 killer whales is integral to its longstanding Shamu show, although company CEO Joel Manby recently announced that the iconic theatrical performance would be overhauled, beginning in 2017, and replaced with an attraction that focuses more on the marine mammals’ natural behaviours.

While the Coastal Commission approved the habitat expansion in October, they said it could only be done under the condition that SeaWorld no longer breed captive killer whales.

“The coastal commission is not the overseer of all activity that takes place in the coastal zone – its jurisdiction extends only to the regulation of development that affects the coastal or marine environment, including public access thereto”. According to the group, it was obvious that the intention behind the Blue World project was to confine the extended tanks by breeding the orcas.

“The orcas are not, in any way, part of the coastal or marine environment”.

SeaWorld claims restrictions imposed on plans to revamp its orca exhibition would effectively kill off the show.

SeaWorld has been battered by negative press in recent years as former orca trainers have spoken out against the company’s practices, first in the documentary Blackfish and in a book, Beneath the Surface, by former trainer John Hargrove.

While the CCC permit conditions could have eventually accomplished this goal, SeaWorld’s challenge of the CCC’s decision makes clear that the only way to consistently and reliably protect the welfare of orcas in California is to do so by law.

“The Coastal Commission has neither the legal jurisdiction nor, accordingly, the expertise, to dictate the care, feeding or breeding of animals held exclusively in captivity under human care”, according to the lawsuit, filed by the Los Angeles law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, according to the L.A. Times. “Animal rights activists appeared at the Coastal Commission hearing and vilified SeaWorld”.