The Whale Sanctuary Project's Dr. Lori Marino, a Safina Center Creative Affiliate, joins Dr. Naomi Rose and Dr. Veronica Slootsky in a discussion about chronic stress in captive orcas in a World Orca Day webinar.
People often assume that orcas in marine parks have a stress-free life with regular veterinary care, daily nutrition, and no outside dangers. But years of accumulated evidence has revealed that these whales live shortened lives characterized by high mortality rates from infections, abnormal behaviors and emotional dysregulation.
The three panelists were part of a unique collaboration of six experts across the fields of marine mammal science, veterinary science, internal medicine and psychiatry. Together, they examined the welfare of orcas living in concrete tanks and concluded that living at marine parks is the very opposite of stress-free. Instead, they found that captive orcas experience five major sources of chronic stress.
In this webinar they will discuss those sources of stress, explain how chronic stress impacts the brain, behavior and susceptibility to disease, and suggest a new sanctuary-based paradigm as an alternative to living in concrete tanks.
Register: https://bit.ly/2Z39jou
Read the paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2019.05.005
Send in your questions to the panelists ahead of time to info@whalesanctuary.org