Photo Credit: Eric M. Davis
On Wednesday, August 13th, SeaWorld held their quarterly call for investors around the world. One piece of exciting news shared is that SeaWorld will be working with Village Roadshow to open SeaWorld Parks in China, Russia, India and Pan-Asia.
While I viewed this as something to be celebrated, other marine parks and SeaWorld fans were quick to dismiss this idea as a “worst case scenario” for SeaWorld and its animals. I am here to tell you this is not the case and share with you why Asia and world will benefit from more SeaWorld Parks.
Our world is in trouble and our oceans are in dire need. It is for this love of our natural world that I founded AwesomeOcean. I am proud of what AwesomeOcean has accomplished and I am proud to share the amazing accomplishments of accredited zoological and marine parks from around the world in their efforts to save our oceans. Sadly, it is not enough.
Our oceans belong to the world and as global citizens, some of us treat our oceans better than others. Due to the great education, research and zoological parks like SeaWorld, people have been inspired here in North America and Europe to protect our oceans and the life therein.
The illustration above from a Reddit user illustrates that when you look at population distribution globally, more people live INSIDE the highlighted circle than outside. It might be a difficult concept to grasp that the majority of humanity is located in that circle, but we have to.
That circle also represents where a bulk of the world’s seafood is going and also tells who is doing most of the worlds’ fishing and harm to our oceans.
When SeaWorld first opened in 1964, it pioneered animal care. Since opening its doors, SeaWorld has created new and improved ways to care for the animals in its parks. SeaWorld is recognized around the world as a leader in veterinary care and cetacean care. Whenever a person sees a marine animal at another zoological facility, they benchmark that facility off of SeaWorld, because SeaWorld has set the bar (and set it high) for the care of its animals.
Because of that reason, the public should be thrilled that SeaWorld is going to open parks in China, India, Russia, Dubai and Pan-Asia. SeaWorld will be setting the bar high for animal care in these countries, and when the millions of guests visit these parks they will see animals cared for in ways they have never experienced before. That high level of animal care will then force older, more antiquated facilities to update and improve how they care for their animals.
As if those reasons weren’t good enough, opening SeaWorld parks overseas will also allow SeaWorld’s experts to assist and help those existing facilities to improve their animal care.
SeaWorld’s expansion into Asia is going to expose people to our oceans in ways they never imagined and will help people gain a new understanding, appreciation and empathy for the creatures who call the ocean their home.
So, don’t look at SeaWorld’s Asian expansion as something wrong, look at it as a brand new opportunity to share the love for our oceans.
-Eric M. Davis