I wonder when he was captured? If he had lived in the ocean for 10-12 years before capture I’d return him to the ocean. It used to be thought good to have animals in zoos because the public never got a chance to observe them. Today they are all over the TV (Nature, Public Broadcasting, animal planet, etc.) We don’t need them to be in zoos for the public to view or scientists to study. If they are endangered then programs in a truly natural environment should be used.
I think our “need,’ for zoos is over.
Captured near Iceland in November 1983, Tilikum “was housed in small tanks from the beginning,” said Blake. SeaWorld Orlando acquired the whale in January 1992, and put him in a breeding program shortly thereafter.