SeaWorld to Hold Last Orca Show on Sunday

The San Diego, CA location of aquatic park SeaWorld will hold its final “Ocean One” show—which features orcas performing tricks—on Sunday. The San Diego park will still keep marine animals in captivity, but instead of producing marine animal shows, the park will focus on developing other attractions such as the new Electric Eel roller coaster, set to open in the summer of 2018. SeaWorld has struggled to regain visitors’ trust after the release of animal-rights documentary Blackfish in 2013. Numerous deaths of captive marine animals at the park in recent years, compounded with plummeting attendance, profits, and stocks prompted CEO Joel Manby to cease payments on stockholder dividends late last year. To stay afloat, Manby began to reposition the park as a conservation facility after a California law banned the captive breeding of orcas in 2016. Last month, SeaWorld announced the development of an orca-free facility in Abu Dhabi slated to open in 2022.