Outrage over Chimelong Theme Park’s captive Orcas

The Chimelong Theme Park located in Zhuhai, China - designed to appear like a giant spaceship - has softly launched its offerings and attractions.

However, while the indoor theme park recently became the recipient of an unprecedented seven Guinness World Records, boasting the world's most extensive wave pool, the attraction has upset animal rights campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) along with other environmentalists because of the main tank becoming home to show performing orcas/killer whales.

Designed by Los Angeles-based Legacy Entertainment and filling 397,064 metre², Chimelong Spaceship is an aquatic theme park, built around what is now the world's largest aquarium facility (75,350,969 litres of tanks), with the world's largest single aquarium tank.

Chimelong Spaceship features orcas, which will live in the park's 56,450,136 litre main tank, which can generate waves up to 3.2 metres, making it the world's largest indoor artificial wave. The orcas are part of the Chimelong Spaceship's Whale Universe, one of 15 themed zones in the park.

Aiming to meet apparent demand by the Chinese public to see more killer whales in zoos and visitor attractions, China’s Chimelong Group, one of the country’s biggest amusement park operators, opened the first ever breeding centre for the cetaceans in 2017.

Chian’s Xinhua news agency at the time reported that the facility opened at the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom park in the south eastern city of Zhuhai with a total of nine orcas, including five males and four females aged between five to 13 years taken from the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia and being kept in the breeding facility.

The breeding facility noted their aim was to “help cultivate the public’s awareness of whale protection, develop related studies, and progress toward killer-whale breeding.”

Chimelong’s move into whale breeding and inclusion of orcas in attractions comes as other attractions and zoos around the world are shutting down similar facilities. 12 countries have placed outright bans on orca captivity including Switzerland, India, and Chile, as well as some states in the USA.

USA-based SeaWorld announced in 2016 that the theme park chain would end its orca breeding program. The decision came after ongoing criticism from animal rights activists and the increasing public disapproval of its treatment of the orcas.

The newest SeaWorld which opened in Abu Dhabi earlier this year, has no orcas among its exhibits.

Animal rights groups such as PETA and The Orca Project have long objected to the practice of whale captivity and breeding, arguing that captive orcas generally have a shorter lifespan than their wild counterparts and that many whales are driven mad while in captivity.

According to PETA Asia’s Vice President Jason Baker, the nine killer whales were snatched from the ocean as youngsters to live instead in what he describes as a "shoddy facility".

Baker told the UK tabloid Daily Star "In nature, these animals travel more than 100 miles each day with their family, feeling the ocean currents and raising and teaching their offspring – but when held captive for entertainment, they’re denied the opportunity to satisfy their basic needs.

Baker noted that while SeaWorld has ended its orca breeding program, Chimelong Group is moving in the opposite, wrong direction in a misguided money-making bid adding "at this shoddy facility, orcas are given anti-anxiety drugs to deal with the stress of their confinement, and when they’re not swimming in endless circles, they are forced to perform tricks for tourists. PETA urges Chimelong Group to do right by orcas by funding the creation of coastal sanctuaries where these animals can enjoy some semblance of a natural life."

According to the Born Free Foundation, more than 2,100 dolphins and whales are being held in captivity at 343 facilities in 63 countries around the world, the majority in Japan, China, the USA, Russia and Mexico.

Orcas live in family units, and they have sophisticated social structures. Orcas are curious and playful animals. In the wild, they swim up to 160km per day, forage freely and establish lasting bonds with their mothers, siblings and other members of their close-knit communities, with whom they usually remain for life.

Removing even one orca from the wild has devastating consequences for the pod and leaves lifelong emotional scars. All nine orcas at Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Hengqin, Zhuhai, were taken from their ocean homes. By buying these animals, wild-caught from Russian seas, the facility is supporting a merciless and mercenary industry.

Under the EU Zoos Directive, captive breeding of species is recognised as a legitimate conservation measure - but only “where appropriate”. 70 orca have been born in captivity (33 living and 37 deceased as of September 2020) yet not one could be released into the wild, due to a range of issues such as imprinting on humans and/or erosion of an individual’s ability to function in the wild through lack of survival skills. Therefore, each had little, if any, ability to contribute to genuine conservation of the species.