This summer’s blockbuster movie should be Free Shamu. At Sea World, orcas perform tricks for food and swim endless circles in small, barren concrete tanks. In the wild, these whales live in tight family units with bonds that may last a lifetime. No captive orca whale has lived past age 35—far shorter than the 60-year lifespan orcas enjoy in the wild.

In their ocean homes, dolphins may swim up to 100 miles a day, in “pods” of three to 100 individuals—or tribes of hundreds. In captivity, they are confined to a virtual bathtub, forever separated from their families.

Tanks are cleaned with powerful chemicals that have unknown side effects. Former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry, who trained dolphins for the television show Flipper, believes that excessive chlorine, used extensively in the past, has caused some dolphins to go blind.

Dolphins navigate by bouncing sonar waves off of other objects to determine shape, density, distance, and location. In tanks, the reverberations bounce off the walls and drive some dolphins insane.

Sea World, which owns most of the captive orcas and dolphins in the United States, has one of the worst histories of animal care. Thirty-nine orcas and 54 dolphins have died at U.S. Sea World facilities. The aquarium industry worldwide has claimed the lives of at least 150 orcas and 963 dolphins. And until it was exposed to the public, Sea World routinely shot hybrid ducks who flew in and joined Sea World's resident bird population.

After Sea World purchased and closed Marineland in California, it shipped the Marineland animals to various Sea World facilities. Within a year, 12 of them—five dolphins, five sea lions, and two seals—were dead.

STOP THIS ACTION NOW. OR WE'LL NEVER EVER VISIT AGAIN!

here's for more info: http://www.peta.org/feat/deadly/index.html