I recently watched the film “Blackfish” which gave insight into the life of the killer whale, ‘Tilikum.’ The whale has been connected to the death of three humans to date and has since started performing again with trainers. The whale is known to be dangerous and yet SeaWorld continued and continues to use Tilikum to breed and to perform.

This came across as very interesting to me as it doesn’t really make sense that SeaWorld would continue to put both the whales safety and the trainers safety at risk. It then came to me that the reason SeaWorld would continue with such activities is because of profit. SeaWorld is a business and its purpose is to create profit. I can assume that Tilikum is a huge attraction to their park as he is currently the largest whale in captivity.

After watching the film and doing some further research, our class on business ethics came back to me. I noticed that SeaWorld  has been conducting itself in a way that is unethical; it is putting the safety of its employees at risk in order to create a larger profit. In addition, it has kept its employees in the dark regarding the true nature of Tilikum and the horrific events associated with the whale. Given the negligent practices of SeaWorld it is quite clear that it is not considered with operating in an ethical manner.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/killer-whale-tilikum-makes-big-splash-seaworld-13/story?id=13254217