Australia kept Orca?
A little known fact, in the 1970’s, Australia held Captive Orca for entertainment. These Orca were transported by air, some 7300 miles, a trip that would take approximately 20 hours in today’s aircraft! How long would it have taken in 1969 or 1970? More on that shortly…
Village Roadshow Ltd. “The Master Plan”
In 2010 Village Roadshow Limited (VRL), the owners of Sea World on the Gold Coast in Australia, announced that they would be expanding their operations internationally. This was to be known as “The Master Plan” and it would focus predominantly on Asia.
At the 2011 VRL Annual General Meeting, the Chairman’s Address stated, “This new theme park in China will be an enormous undertaking by your Village Roadshow theme parks team of people; it effectively leverages the extraordinary value of our 40 years and more of world quality theme park expertise and without any heavy investment burden. This opportunity for our theme parks in China is an exciting long-term venture, and a platform for other theme parks elsewhere in Asia.”
In October 2012, it was announced that the company had struck a deal with Guangzhou R&F Properties to “assist in the design, construction and operation of two parks in China.” The proposed two parks would be based on the Sea World and Wet’n’Wild parks on the Gold Coast, Queensland and would be named Hainan R&F Ocean Paradise and Hainan Wet’n’Wild.
“The agreements utilise Village Roadshow’s expertise in design, development, construction management and operations management. The first agreement covers Village Roadshow’s involvement in the design and development of the project, and positions Village Roadshow as the lead consultant in a team that will draw on specialist expertise from around the world. The second agreement appoints Village Roadshow as the exclusive operator of both Hainan R&F Ocean Paradise and Hainan Wet ‘n’ Wild for a period of up to 20 years.”
***UPDATE*** In November 2015 Village Roadshow made a statement:“No cetaceans will be sourced from wild stocks at any park Village Roadshow Theme Parks manages nor are there any plans to house orcas”We still, however have no information regarding the MOU between Village Roadshow Australia & SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment in the USA – See more at:https://coveblack.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/australias-ocean-paradise-sinks-but-the-marine-park-roadshow-will-go-on/
Deals with the U.S.
In September 2014 SeaWorld USA announced that they had entered into a partnership with Village Roadshow to “develop parks in Asia and Russia” and in an interview for Business Week, Jim Atchison, SeaWorld’s then CEO, said, “SeaWorld can sustain its killer whale population entirely from its breeding program, in fact, SeaWorld can breed enough whales to seed another park. Our international expansion ambitions are fully within the structure of the animals we have. We can have another SeaWorld park with four or five whales in it pretty easily.”
At the end of 2014, Village roadshow’s Annual Report stated that there was in fact “An LOI (Letter of Intent) between VRL and the US-based SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment Inc. to co-develop theme park opportunities in China and South East Asia, India and Russia. “This collaborative development agreement has the potential to create exciting opportunities in Pan Asia and beyond.”
Trevor Long, Director of Marine Sciences, Sea World Gold Coast
In October 2014 Black Cove secured an interview with Trevor Long, Director of Marine Science at Sea World on the Gold Coast. In a lengthy and in-depth Q&A session via phone, Trevor stated that the park in China would be a “standard marine park.” He confirmed it would hold dolphins, beluga whales, polar bear and whale shark(s).
When asked directly if the park would have Orca, the answer was a strong “no,” yet later in the continuing conversation the answer was, “at this point in time there are certainly no plans to have Orca.”
When asked from where animals would be sourced the answers were quite ambiguous. “Our aim is that animals will come from captive sources.”
BUT….
“obviously some animals are going to come from the wild, so the collectors that we will be using will be collectors that are approved by the World Zoo and Aquarium Organisation”
When he was asked, “Do you know where the whale shark(s) will be coming from?” the answer was quite clearly from wild sources.
Trevor said “At this point no I don’t but I would actually make assumptions that it will be off Hainan Island.”
Black Cove questioned Trevor’s knowledge of VRL’s partnership with the US-based SeaWorld parks to which he stated he “knew little about it.” He did, however, go on to say “I do know that at this stage it is only an MOU. There are no specific plans for any development.”
US Connection Denial
Interestingly, 3 months later in January 2015 in an interview with the Gold Coast Bulletin, Trevor Long denied any connection with the US Company.
“There’s a common misconception that Sea World Gold Coast is associated with the US-based theme parks that have come under fire over the conditions it holds its captive killer whales. Sea World Gold Coast has been tarred with the same brush by people who think the parks are part of a worldwide franchise.” “Not true,” says Mr Long. “They are two separate companies and have nothing to do with each other.”
VRL’s investor presentation 2015 half-year results make it very clear under the heading:
’SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment Collaboration’
Preliminary site investigations and visits have taken place in China, South Korea and Malaysia
The cooperation model has been agreed upon, with VRL to be the primary point of contact and operator throughout China and South East Asia
Orca in Australia-Lolita’s Brother or Cousin?
Back to 1969/1970 and Australia’s attempts at keeping wild Orca. Sandra Pollard, author of Puget Sound Whales For Sale told us:
“Ramu II” was captured in Carr Inlet, Washington State, in April 1969 and flown to Brisbane, Australia, for transfer to Marineland, Queensland. He died just over a year later. He was one of 11 whales captured and it is likely he was a Southern Resident.
Ramu IV was, captured along with Lolita in Penn Cove, on Whidbey Island, in August 1970. He followed in Ramu II’s footsteps to Marineland, Queensland via San Francisco and, like his predecessor, died a year later.
Erich Hoyt gives him as a J, K or L pod whale, and we now know from photos taken of the capture that members of all three pods were present. We believe it was the whole of the Southern Resident community. We also know that Lolita is an L pod whale.
By 1987 all the Southern Residents captured during the capture era in Washington State (1965-1976) had died. Lolita is the sole survivor. Among the Northern Residents, Corky (captured in British Columbia in 1969) is the only survivor from that tragic time.”
Will The Master Plan Include Orca?
So will Village Roadshow have Orca in any of their parks? Is keeping Orca part of The Master Plan?
We know what animals they have told us they intend to have. However, the question still looms over what exactly is involved in the collaboration between Village Roadshow and SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment.
In Australia, Sea World must adhere to strict laws preventing it from obtaining cetaceans from the wild, and they are not able to import or export these animals or their biological breeding materials. (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999)
NOW they have a new partner who is very experienced in the practice of keeping Orca, albeit rather poorly, and who can provide them with all the materials, expertise and even whales that they may require. They have new venues planned in countries where there is little legislation to stop them from doing whatever they like. The lack of ethics surrounding these particular points is quite frankly, disturbing.
So Australia has unsuccessfully kept Orca in the past including a possible brother or cousin of Lolita. Will this history stop them from giving it another crack? Will they revisit the dark days of Orca captivity? Or will they maintain the stance of their Marine Science Director who has said, “there has never been an environment built that can support killer whales.”
And we say there never will be, their home is in the ocean.
*Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed on this website and in this article are solely those of the original authors.
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