Update: Throughout the summer, PETA’s “I, Orca” team will also be taking this virtual reality experience to Orlando and San Diego, so would-be tourists to all three SeaWorld parks will be able to decide whether or not to support marine mammal abusement.
The following was originally published on July 29, 2016:
San Antonio tourists are seeing—and feeling—what it’s like for orcas held captive at SeaWorld. Set up right near the city’s famous River Walk, PETA’s state-of-the-art “I, Orca” empathy experience uses wireless Google virtual reality goggles to immerse participants in a world in which they can swim in the open ocean with their orca family—but simultaneously hear the cries of an orca imprisoned in SeaWorld‘s barren concrete tanks.
“I, Orca” sheds light on the lives of orcas at SeaWorld—floating listlessly in shallow tanks, unable to swim quickly, dive to any depths, or interact with their family pods. With an orca’s-eye view of the deprivation and misery endured by ocean-going cetaceans imprisoned in a tiny abusement park tank, the visceral experience leaves some participants forever changed.
What You Can Do
Urge SeaWorld to transfer the remaining orcas to seaside sanctuaries, where they can finally experience some semblance of a natural life.
