Thread: China embraces killer whale shows, even as SeaWorld ends them

China embraces killer whale shows, even as SeaWorld ends them

Violet Law, Special for USA TODAY 7:05 a.m. ET March 26, 2017

However, other countries and SeaWorld seem to be phasing out their orca programs at parks. Video provided by Newsy Newslook



(Photo: Mark Ralston,, AFP/Getty Images)

ZHUHAI, China — Forget the oohs and aahs. The recent debut of killer whales at China’s largest aquarium here has sparked concerns worldwide that the country is repeating similar mistakes that plagued some U.S. marine parks.

China is experiencing a boom in marine parks as an increasing number of Chinese flock to watch the sea creatures perform. That also has resulted in overcrowded tanks, poor water quality and ignorance about marine mammal illnesses at the attractions.

Park operators are ignoring animal welfare and worker safety, according to animal rights activists.

“They are going through a learning curve that is not necessary and completely outdated — and they’re taking an enormous risk,” said Naomi Rose, marine mammal scientist with the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington, D.C., who recently visited some of China's largest marine parks. “A trainer will be injured or killed sooner or later. It’d be sad because it’s totally avoidable.”

China currently has 44 ocean theme parks operating in 24 provinces, and 18 more slated to open, marking a 20% increase in just two years. The country still lacks a breeding program for the mammals, which makes it the world’s most active customer for marine animals caught in the wild.

Rose and other animal rights advocates said China hasn’t heeded the lessons learned by U.S. parks that kept killer whales in captivity. After an orca was implicated in three human deaths over the past three decades, SeaWorld San Diego stopped its orca theatrical shows this year. SeaWorld's parks in Florida and Texas are slated to end the performances in 2019.

"As society's understanding of orcas continues to change, SeaWorld is changing with it," SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby said in a statement earlier this year.

Located in this southern city abutting Macau and billed as China’s Orlando, Chimelong Ocean Kingdom has its trainers nuzzle up to orcas — which the Chinese call “tiger whales" — as though they were house cats. Some of the orcas sport yellow blotches, likely signs of a skin infection on their chins, said Rose. Even though the orcas are too young to mate, six were packed into one breeding tank.

Chimelong’s management didn’t address specific questions about safety concerns in handling the orcas but said in a statement: “All along we’re very much concerned about the conservation and propagation of these wildlife mammals.”

"The Chinese treat the mammals like commodities that they can throw away,” said Mitchel Kalmanson, whose consulting firm in Florida has overseen deliveries of marine mammals to parks in China. “They figure they can buy more if they can’t keep them alive.”

Chimelong’s orcas were caught in Russian waters and are not yet performing in shows. But beluga whales at Chimelong wow audiences and earn treats by dashing across a pool at jet-ski speed, acting as surfboards for their trainers. Visitors can pay to pat the bottlenose dolphins without first being disinfected.

“That’s how dolphins come down with human disease,” said Yuki Lui of the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, as she focused her camera on rake marks that she believed were signs of infighting between dolphins confined to a tight space.

Both Lui and Rose’s organizations are part of the China Cetacean Alliance, formed in 2014 by animal rights groups across East Asia and Britain to galvanize support for animal rights in China. Cetacean, derived from Greek for “huge fish,” is the scientific name for finned aquatic mammals such as dolphins and whales.

A visitor admires a beluga or white whale at the Beijing aquarium on Sept. 20, 2011. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)


Between 2010 and 2015, China has seen the number of marine mammals held in captivity doubled to nearly 500, according to the alliance.

“In China, it isn’t that people don’t care but that they aren’t aware of the real situation,” said Keiko Chen, the alliance’s China-based outreach coordinator. “Once people are aware of the real situation behind the scene, they’d feel disgusted and walk away from this form of entertainment.”

China’s Ministry of Agriculture in 2013 established clear guidelines for marine parks, including requirements on water quality, pool size, record-keeping on animals and their care.

But it’s unclear how officials ensure compliance, especially with rapid expansion.

A pod of five Chinese white dolphins, which arrived in Chimelong last fall from a shuttered park in Singapore, were living in a turbid tank carpeted with lime-green algae. The population of the dolphins, dubbed “pandas of the ocean,” has dwindled to less than 2,000 in recent years.

At feeding time, staff docent Candy Tang ended her talk to visitors on a hopeful note: “The more we know about these dolphins, the more we’ll cherish them.”

Her message, however, may not have reached all the tourists. After gazing at a tank of whale sharks, one man murmured about getting some shark fin soup.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...fety/99541052/

OK, a 'bad China' article. Well, maybe.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

OK, a 'bad China' article. Well, maybe.

It's only Sunday. It might be a long week for China.

Chinese pursuit of MoneyGram raises espionage fears


DoD concerned with Chinese investments in US high-tech startups


China Wants Total Access To Canada, May Seek To Import Its Own Workers

Kushners Set to Get $400 Million From Chinese Firm on NYC Tower

They built towering new cities in China. Now they're trying it in downtown L.A.

Rich foreigners use shell companies to buy up L.A. properties

china is responsible for poaching killing the last remaining few of many endangered species for "their so called cures" or just to be able to eat them and say "aren't I special"; e.g. endangered tigers, china has tiger farms for their parts but they want "wild tiger".

The chinese mafia are more than happy to kill endangered species for the price paid. The dininishing numbers of wild elephant is due to the ivory trade of china - one is killed every 10 minutes for their tusks; they even kill protected area rangers to get at the animals.

The sars virus was traced to their high priced exclusive restaurants placing wild civet cats on the menu acquired from deep in the jungle and so came a deadly virus not exposed before. They breed bears in a no room to turn @ concrete pit to extract their gallbladders while alive for another "so called cure" and bear gallbladder farms have been found in USA recently. Foreigners are req'd to assimilate to American ways, not bring illegal here practices.

They charge a hundred dollars for a bowl of shark fin soup acquired by capturing, slicing off the fin only and dropping the shark back in the water unable to swim, sinks to the bottom to drown. Check this video of a lemon shark in Florida asking a diver for help removing a hook and the gratuitous shark swim around in appreciation before leaving.

chinese also like bear & tiger paw soup and se asians, vietnamese, koreans eat dog/cat regularly. If tortured even better, they think they get the adrenaline rush from the animal by eating their meat. Dogs and cats are skinned alive at their market places.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fearless-fl...ry?id=46367080

Yet we continue to buy their trashy merchandise.

Most of the time, there are no other choices in merchandise and that needs to be changed by American made goods but $$$. The chinese are so slick, their prices are extremely low due to inferior components and slave labor. They produce a lot of junk that lasts a year if that and creates a lot of waste. They use lead pant on childrens' toys and the list goes on and on.

We shouldn't have our foods processed there either - no inspections, regulations and anything goes if it means more profits. Our Alaskan salmon is shipped there for processing, packaged and on our supermarket shelves marked product of china. We should be processing our own salmon. Read they will be processing chicken foods and sent here to sell. They bought Smithfield pork largest producer in USA.

Many products are made in mexico, vietnam - all 3 of those countries need to be limited in their imports.

Originally Posted by artist

Most of the time, there are no other choices in merchandise and that needs to be changed by American made goods but $$$. The chinese are so slick, their prices are extremely low due to inferior components and slave labor. They produce a lot of junk that lasts a year if that and creates a lot of waste. They use lead pant on childrens' toys and the list goes on and on.

We shouldn't have our foods processed there either - no inspections, regulations and anything goes if it means more profits. Our Alaskan salmon is shipped there for processing, packaged and on our supermarket shelves marked product of china. We should be processing our own salmon. Read they will be processing chicken foods and sent here to sell. They bought Smithfield pork largest producer in USA.

Many products are made in mexico, vietnam - all 3 of those countries need to be limited in their imports.

I agree 100%.

Also agreed, we seldom have any option other than Chines made goods. We do, however, have the option of not overbuying.

We buy tons of plastic, unnecessary geegaws.

We buy tons of clothes we do not need.

For some people, Friday night at Wal Mart filling their basket with shiny baubles is the highlight of their week. These are things that either they will throw away, break, or sell at a garage sale probably within a year.

The cost of living is high in this country, but much of the problem with working people's finances is the buying of junk they don't need, or will have to replace within a few months - year at the most.

That is what keeps China going and keeps Americans broke.

Yes, Mexico as well, as far as food stuffs.

They talk about how we need illegals to harvest food stuffs, while a majority of our veggies come from Mexico.

I read a story a few years ago, entitled, "So you think you have a nasty job."

It was a story of the divers who go down into Mexico's drains to unclog them. It stated the water from the drains are pumped out of town and directly onto the vegetable fields. They are not just talking about rain water drains, but sewers.

It ended with 'How do you like your tomatoes?'.

OK - I've made up my mind, we are definitely growing a gardent his year.