By Jeffery DelViscio, David Corcoran, Pedro Rafael Rosado, Kriston Lewis, Robin Lindsay and Abe Sater  A Complicated Cetacean: Orcas, known popularly as killer whales, are the subject of a new documentary that hopes to bring attention to problems they face in captivity.  Should some of the most social, intelligent and charismatic animals on the planet be kept in captivity by human beings?  That is a question asked more frequently than ever by both scientists and animal welfare advocates, sometimes about close human cousins like chimpanzees and other great apes, but also about another animal that is remarkable for its intelligence and complex social organization â the killer whale, or orca.  Killer whales, found in all the worldâs oceans, were once as despised as wolves. But in the last half century these elegant black-and-white predators â a threat to seals and other prey as they cruise the oceans, but often friendly to humans in the wild â have joined the pantheon of adored wildlife, along with the familiar polar bears, elephants and lions.  With life spans that approach those of humans, orcas have strong family bonds, elaborate vocal communication and cooperative hunting strategies. And their beauty and power, combined with a willingness to work with humans, have made them legendary performers at marine parks since they were first captured and exhibited in the 1960s. They are no longer taken from the wild as young to be raised and trained, but are bred in captivity in the United States for public display at marine parks.  Some scientists and activists have argued for years against keeping them in artificial enclosures and training them for exhibition. They argue for more natural settings, like enclosed sea pens, as well as an end to captive breeding and to the orcasâ use in what opponents call entertainment and marine parks call education.  Now the issue has been raised with new intensity in the documentary film âBlackfishâ and the book âDeath at SeaWorld,â by David Kirby, just released in paperback.  The film and book both focus on the 2010 death of Dawn Brancheau, a trainer, at SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla. She was dragged underwater by a whale called Tilikum, who had been involved in two earlier deaths.  The event led to two citations for safety violations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for an unsafe workplace, and an ongoing struggle over OSHA requirements that trainers be separated from killer whales. The most recent fine was in June, and SeaWorld is appealing both decisions.  Both the book and film argue that Tilikumâs actions were deliberate and that his behavior was a result of the psychological damage of captivity, not just at SeaWorld but also at another facility where he was first kept. SeaWorld has said the death was an accident, not a deliberate killing.  Beyond the death of Ms. Brancheau and the arguments over how SeaWorld manages its many facilities lies a fundamental disagreement about whether killer whales, and other cetaceans â the group of marine mammals that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises â should be held captive at all.  It is reminiscent in many ways of the movement to put all captive chimpanzees into sanctuaries, which recently scored two major successes when the National Institutes of Health decided to retire most of its chimpanzees and the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing all chimps as endangered, raising new barriers to experimentation.  But the situation for killer whales is different. There are many fewer in captivity â a total of 45 worldwide, according to the organization Whale and Dolphin Conservation â and thousands of people have come to love them partly because of the very exhibitions in marine parks like SeaWorld that disturb those who oppose keeping the whales in captivity. A great deal of scientific study of marine mammals has also been done in these marine parks.  But even some scientists who have worked with captive dolphins set orcas apart because of their size, their range of movement in the wild, and the close-knit nature of their social groups.  Diana Reiss of Hunter College, who has studied self-recognition in captive dolphins and who was not involved in the making of âBlackfish,â said that the question of whether animals like bottlenose dolphins should be kept in captivity is important and should be discussed.  But, Dr. Reiss said, she does not see ambiguity about killer whales. âI never felt that we should have orcas in captivity,â she said. âI think morally, as well as scientifically, itâs wrong.â  The animal in question, Orcinus orca, is actually the largest dolphin. Its name apparently came not because it was a vicious whale, but because it preyed on whales.
A film, a book and a trainerâs death have renewed debate among scientists and animal advocates on the wisdom and morality of keeping killer whales in marine parks.