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SeaWorld Suffers 84 Percent Drop in Profits After ‘Blackfish’ Documentary Made Park Controversial
Despite cutting ticket prices and spending $10 million on a marketing blitz, SeaWorld has suffered an 84 percent collapse in profits as customers have deserted the theme park following claims it mistreated orca whales.
The Guardian reports:
The company, which trains dolphins and killer whales to perform tricks in front of stadiums full of spectators, on Thursday reported declines in attendance, sales and profits because of “continued brand challenges”.
SeaWorld has been in the headlines since the 2013 documentary Blackfish detailed claims that its treatment of orca whales provoked violent behaviour contributing to the deaths of three people. Following the release of the documentary, attendance collapsed and the company lost more than half of its market value on Wall Street and its former CEO was forced out.
The company has since launched a nationwide marketing campaign to combat animals rights activists claims that, among other things, captive orcas die at younger age than their wild counterparts. …
The company’s financial report released on Thursday showed net income in the second quarter dropped from $37.4m in 2014 to $5.8m in 2015, a 84% decrease. Revenue fell from $405m to $392m. Attendance dropped by more than 100,000 from 6.58 million to 6.48 million.
Read more here.
—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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Source: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/seaworld_suffers_84_percent_drop_in_profits_after_documentary_20150806/
Good. Sea mammals in their natural habitat are happier and more entertaining than the ones cooped up at Sea World. If they rescue and treat injured animals and release them back into the wild, I’m all for it. To go and capture them for entertainment and big bucks is b.s. They can give a lame excuse that the captive animals generate revenue – blah, blah, blah.
They would generate more revenue focusing on rescue and conservationist efforts. If they want their visitors to see the animals, why don’t they have their own charter boats to take them to the ocean? There are sea critters showing off all over off the coast of San Diego. Another thing they should do is build an island off of sea world for the poor wild sea lions to park on. It’s better than those tiny tanks that they spend millions on to house naturally migrating whales in. They are all mostly gathered at la jolla cove. You see a bunch piled up on buoys all along the coast as well. (Kind of a sad sight.).
The last time I went, there was an over-heated penguin lying on his back in the penguin exhibit. Yes, it was a cooled area, but the scorching summer sun kind of canceled out the cool air pumped into the exhibit. I found a park attendant and pointed out the poor prostrate, flat like a pancake on the ground. He just made some lame excuse for it, like it was no big deal to see a penguin lying flat on it’s back. Like, how was he going to get back up??? After that, I swore I would never go back. The poor overworked Killer Whale that killed 3 people, was the icing on that s***cake of a marine park. Add insult to injury with their constant barrage of fireworks that probably really irritate the marine life housed there. It’s no wonder that some of those animals go nuts.
If they shut down, good riddance to them. They do more harm than good. Also, the CEO is a huge, insensitive greedy scum along the lines of the idiot former BP CEO. They are probably related genetically somehow. Who knows? I think one needs to possess an a**hole gene in order to become a CEO, but that’s another story.