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Joe Rogan called out SeaWorld’s treatment of dolphins and whales and he makes a great point.

The 2013 documentary "Blackfish" shined a light on the cruelty that orcas face in captivity and created a sea change in the public's perception of SeaWorld and other marine life parks.

This "Blackfish" backlash nearly deep-sixed SeaWorld and led Canada to pass a law that bans oceanariums from breeding whales and dolphins or holding them in captivity. Animals currently being held in Canada's marine parks are allowed to remain as well as those taken in for rehabilitation.

Podcaster and MMA announcer Joe Rogan saluted Canada's decision on a recent episode.

"First of all, what assholes are we that we have those goddman things in captivity? A big fucking shout out to Canada because Canada, mostly probably through the noise that my friend Phil Demers has created in trying to get MarineLand shut down, Canada has banned all dolphin and all whale captivity. It's amazing. I hope the United States does it well, I hope it goes worldwide," Rogan told his guest, economist and mathematician Eric Weinstein.

Rogan has been a big anti-captivity advocate and frequently has Phil Demers, a former walrus trainer at MarineLand in Canada, on his show to discuss animal abuses at marine parks.

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"I think it's slavery, I really do," Rogan said of whale captivity. "I think it's a different kind of slavery."

While some may be taken aback by Rogan's use of the term "slavery" to describe non-humans, he makes a compelling point. There is a long history of research on dolphins that shows they rival humans, intelligence-wise. As for orcas, "If anything, since orcas are the largest member of the dolphin family, their intelligence is perhaps superior to other dolphins," Lori Marino, a Emory University neuroscientist, told NBC News.

And, like slaves, they are held captive and forced to work for someone making a considerable profit.

Two orcas that have been enslaved the longest are Lolita and Corky, both in captivity for around 50 years.

Lolita is a female orca at Miami Seaquarium who lives in a tank so pitifully small, it would now be deemed illegal. She's been held in captivity since 1970 when she shared the tank with Hugo, a male orca. Hugo died in 1980 in an apparent suicide after bashing his head against the walls of the tank.

It's save the vaquita week. What you should know about the world's most adorable and endangered porpoise.

via Piotr Domanradski / Wikimedia Commons Hugo's carcass being removed from the tank in 1980.

Corky was first captured and put on display at Marineland in California in 1969. Shortly before that park's closure in 1987, she was sold to SeaWorld and has lived there ever since.

Throughout her time in confinement, Corky gave birth to six calves, all sired by her cousin and tankmate, Orky. None of them survived. Orky died in 1988.

via Bryce Bradford / Flickr

The Great Whales - Corky's First Calfwww.youtube.com

Rogan hopes the U.S. will wise up and put an end to whale and dolphin captivity, but will it ever happen?

In 2016, the state of California banned orca shows for entertainment purposes and breeding of captive orcas. Since, SeaWorld San Diego's shows have become more educational in nature.

In 2015, California Congressman Adam Schiff proposed legislation that would prohibit breeding of captive orcas and prevent wild capture for the purpose of display. The act would ultimately phase out all orca captivity in the U.S. but has not seen much movement through Congress since its introduction.

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SeaWorld's cruel breeding program comes to a very bittersweet end.

It's been a long time coming, but the breeding program is finally done with.

Three months ago, SeaWorld's orca breeding program came to a long-awaited close with the birth of one last whale: Kyara.

It was welcome news, too. For years, activists have fought back against SeaWorld's treatment of orcas, which has been widely described as "cruel." The 2013 film "Blackfish" put a spotlight on some of SeaWorld's frightening behind-the-scenes antics, and in March 2016, the organization announced a plan to put an end to the breeding program and phase out the public shows.

It was a huge win for animal rights activists, and Kyara's birth at SeaWorld San Antonio was a milestone in itself, as she would be final whale to be born and raised in a SeaWorld park.

[rebelmouse-image 19529071 dam="1" original_size="500x281" caption="Kyara with her mom, Takara. GIF from SeaWorld/YouTube." expand=1]Kyara with her mom, Takara. GIF from SeaWorld/YouTube.

In late July 2017, tragedy struck. Kyara contracted an infection and, on July 24, the 3-month-old orca died.

SeaWorld announced the heartbreaking news on its website and social media channels later that day, writing, "Kyara had faced some very serious and progressive health issues over the last week that the animal care and veterinary teams had been aggressively treating." While the specific cause of death isn't yet known, SeaWorld says that signs point to it being pneumonia, a common illness in whale calfs.

— (@)

Kyara's death is a powerful symbol of SeaWorld's marred reputation, a tragic — if fitting — end to an era.

The good news is that SeaWorld's breeding program is over, at least. SeaWorld's orca shows will be phased out by 2019 — also a positive.

Still, the question remains: What will happen to the more than 20 remaining orcas in captivity at SeaWorld? That's a fight activists aren't quite done with.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has called on SeaWorld to relocate its remaining whales to coastal sanctuaries. Whales that have spent a great deal of time living in captivity might not fare well being released into the wild, which makes the idea of a middle-ground solution sound appealing.

Unfortunately for PETA and other advocates, SeaWorld has rejected their proposition, calling the idea of relocating orcas to "unproven sea cages" dangerous.

— (@)

Many activists want SeaWorld to extend its ban on captivity breeding to other animals, such as dolphins. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Humane Society executive Wayne Pacelle said, "This is the beginning of discussions with SeaWorld, not the end."

For now, rest in peace, Kyara — and may this tragedy be the last of its kind.

[rebelmouse-image 19529072 dam="1" original_size="500x281" caption="GIF from SeaWorld/YouTube" expand=1]GIF from SeaWorld/YouTube

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Tilikum, SeaWorld orca whale and subject of 'Blackfish,' dies at 35.

Tilikum, the SeaWorld orca whale and subject of the documentary "Blackfish," passed away on Jan. 6, 2017. He was 35.

Image from Milan Boers/Wikimedia Commons.

The cause of death will be officially determined after a necropsy, but veterinarians were treating Tilikum for a bacterial lung infection and other age-related health issues at the time of his death, according to a statement from SeaWorld.

Tilikum was likely born in the fall of 1981, as the member of a larger pod of wild orcas.

A wild orca whale and her calf near the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 2014. Image from Mike Charest/Flickr.

Orcas, also known as killer whales, are social animals that often live in large, tight-knit groups led by older females. As a newborn, Tilikum would have likely lived with his mother, as well as aunts, cousins, and his grandmother.

However, in 1983, Tilikum was captured and separated from his pod off the coast of Iceland.

A pod of orcas off the coast of Iceland in 2014. Image from Brian Gratwicke/Flickr.

Tilikum was captured as part of a commercial hunt organized to supply orcas to aquariums and shows. He was kept at the Hafnarfjördur Marine Zoo in Iceland before being sold to Sealand of the Pacific, a public aquarium in British Columbia. It was there that he received the name "Tilikum," which means "friend" in Chinook, a Native American language.

In 1991, after Sealand of the Pacific announced that it was closing, SeaWorld became interested in purchasing Tilikum. And, after SeaWorld and the government of Iceland determined that Tilikum's release into the wild was not feasible, SeaWorld bought him in November 1991.

SeaWorld is where most of the public became acquainted with Tilikum.

Image from David R. Tribble/Wikimedia Commons.

While at SeaWorld, Tilikum often worked with trainers and took part in public shows.

“He had a very sweet personality," says Jeffrey Ventre, one of Tilikum's former trainers. "He was always excited to see you in the morning when you came in.”

But though Tilikum had a sweet personality, his life was not necessarily easy.

While in captivity, as a young whale, Tilikum was often bullied by the other orcas, both at SeaWorld and Sealand of the Pacific, says Ventre. Other whales would sometimes rake him with their teeth, leaving long, bloody gashes in his side.

SeaWorld often had to keep him from the other whales for his own protection.

“He was a picked-upon soul," says Ventre.

Tilikum in an observation tank. Image from Sawblade5/Wikimedia Commons.

Unfortunately, this also meant social isolation and boredom. Orcas are highly social animals and while trainers often worked with Tilikum and provided him with different toys, he probably did not get the level of stimulation that he would have in the wild.

And it may have been this combination of stress, isolation, and boredom that Ventre thinks led to Tilikum's darker moments.

Tilikum is perhaps best known for his involvement in the deaths of three people, which resurfaced in the documentary "Blackfish."

The first incident actually happened in 1991, at Sealand of the Pacific, before he arrived at SeaWorld, where Tilikum joined his two other orca poolmates in killing a student and part-time trainer. It was this incident, in fact, that led to Sealand of the Pacific's closure and Tilikum's move to SeaWorld.

The other two incidents occurred at SeaWorld: the first in 1999, when a nighttime intruder was found drowned in Tilikum's tank, and the second in 2010, when Tilikum held his SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau underwater until she drowned. Tilikum was temporarily removed from the public eye in 2010, but returned to performing in March 2011.

Image by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images.

These incidents and Tilikum's prior treatment at the hands of Sealand and SeaWorld were the subject of Gabriela Cowperthwaite's 2013 documentary "Blackfish," which inspired a significant backlash against the practice of keeping orcas in captivity.

Since these incidents and the release of "Blackfish," SeaWorld has implemented new safety procedures to limit and remove human contact with the orcas, has decided to end the orca shows at in U.S. locations, and more recently, announced that it is putting an end to its controversial breeding program.

On March 8, 2016, it was announced that Tilikum was suffering from a serious, potentially fatal lung infection. It may have been this infection that took his life on Jan. 6.

Whether you see Tilikum as a a magnificent, but inherently dangerous animal or a tragic captive, his death is a moment for mourning.

Tilikum during a performance at SeaWorld. Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images.

People who saw Tilikum perform or who watched "Blackfish" couldn't help but feel some sort of emotional connection to him. Perhaps because Tilikum embodied both the worst and best of the relationship between people and nature.

In the end, Tilikum's story inspired us all to care more — and for that, he's a creature worth saying a heartfelt good-bye to.

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News out of SeaWorld shows just how big of an impact 'Blackfish' has had.

In 2013, documentary "Blackfish" was released. And SeaWorld — or, more specifically, our perceptions of SeaWorld — changed forever.

The film explored the life of Tilikum, an orca (killer whale) living at SeaWorld Orlando that's been involved in three separate human deaths — in 1991, 1999, and 2010. While the knee-jerk reaction may be to cast blame on an unruly, dangerous orca, just the opposite is true: It was Tilikum's years in captivity that resulted in his hostility.

Tilikum, splashing around in captivity, in 2011. Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images.

Orcas are not naturally aggressive to humans. But living in captivity can significantly reduce an orca's life span, affect its health, and inflict a great deal of stress, which likely contributed to Tilikum's aggressive outbursts, animal rights activists have argued.

For the record, SeaWorld has maintained that "Blackfish" "paints a distorted picture" of orcas in its care and argued that many key facts about its parks' conservation and rehabilitation efforts were left out of the film. But the facts spoke for themselves — and people weren't pleased.

In the months following the release of "Blackfish," SeaWorld's profits dropped a whopping 84%.

Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images.

The company cited “continued brand challenges” as the reason for its major dip in park attendance, The Guardian reported. (That's code for "the truth about our orca program is reaching far and wide.")

Fortunately, out of the goodness of its heart (and its plummeting sales), SeaWorld has been changing its ways.

For the first time, a new SeaWorld park is opening without any killer whales in it. Instead, the park will rely on other innovative attractions to bring in visitors.

The park, set to open its doors in Abu Dhabi in 2022, will have a marine life research and rehabilitation center (a first in the United Arab Emirates) — but no orca breeding program or controversial killer whale shows, CNN reported.

Although specifics have yet to be announced, the park will focus on different (less harmful) thrills for guests.

— (@)

It's not the first bit of good news out of SeaWorld for animal activists this year. In March 2016, the company announced it's phasing out its orca breeding programs and killer whale shows for good (although many of its orcas are young, so they will still be kept in captivity for years to come).

The new orca-free SeaWorld is a great reminder that we especially need right now: to use your voice (and wallet) to make a difference.

A controversial new president-elect is sending shock waves around the globe. War-torn Syria is grappling with unconscionable human tragedy. Native Americans have to protest Big Oil in historic numbers in order for the world to pay even the slightest bit of attention. These problems seem too big to fathom for many of us.

"Blackfish" persuading people to spend their vacation dollars somewhere other than SeaWorld these past few years proves that one thing is always true: Real change is possible.

Funds have poured into causes most at-risk during a Trump presidency. Rallies around the world are demanding we don't look away from the atrocities in Aleppo. And, just this month, the Standing Rock Sioux won a resounding victory in stopping a destructive pipeline from ruining its sacred lands (although the work there is far from over).

It's a good lesson to remember in 2017: Stepping up and speaking out does make an impact.

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A new law in California will change everything about keeping orcas in captivity.

You can't breed orca whales in California anymore.

On Sept. 13, 2016, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that'll make it illegal to breed orca whales in California. It'll also majorly rewrite what captivity itself means for the whales.

The law comes into effect next June, and it'll change things in a big way. Places like SeaWorld, for instance, won't be able to breed orcas at all anymore nor use them for entertainment or performances.

Instead, the only way you can keep an orca in captivity is if you're a bona fide educational or science institution or if you're trying to save its life after a rescue. Under the law, orca whales currently in captivity can stay there, but the facilities holding them will need to conform to the new standards.

This is a big deal, partly because it's a result of major public outcry about keeping orcas in captivity.

Two orca whales during a performance at SeaWorld. Image by Gerardo Mora/Stringer/Getty Images.

Orca whales are large, smart, social animals, and it's often really, really difficult to keep such animals in captivity. Some people have said it's even cruel.

And although some people have pointed to scientific progress that's only been made possible through such close contact with them, the public outcry has been, on the whole, pretty deafening.

Though it's not the only institution to hold orcas in captivity, SeaWorld has been a major target for the outcry, starting with the 2013 documentary "Blackfish."

Photo from Matt Stroshane/Getty Images.

The documentary focused on the life of Tilikum, an adult male orca whale at SeaWorld who killed one of their trainers. Since the premiere of the documentary, SeaWorld has come under major pressure to change its orca whale shows and keeping practices.

In March of this year, SeaWorld (which has 24 orcas in captivity in California, Texas, and Florida) promised to stop its breeding program and end its use of orcas for entertainment purposes. It will still keep them on their property, but there are plans to transition the whales to a more natural, education-oriented focus.

"SeaWorld has been listening and we're changing," said the company in a statement, as reported by The Independent. "Society is changing and we're changing with it. SeaWorld is finding new ways to continue to deliver on our purpose to inspire all our guests to take action to protect wild animals and wild places."

With this new law, SeaWorld will be able to keep the whales they currently have, but they can't really breed or bring in new ones.

This law should hopefully help protect orca whales in captivity while still allowing for good-faith rescue attempts and education.

It's huge progress for animal activists everywhere and for orcas, mostly made possible by people — regular people — like you and me. And that's pretty cool.

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How SeaWorld's empire collapsed — a tragedy in 3 acts.

Like in a Greek tragedy, SeaWorld stepped onto the stage with good intentions and then crumbled its own empire through hubris, selfishness, and the mistreatment of a kingdom it claimed to love.

Photo by Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images.

In three acts, this is how SeaWorld's orca program collapsed:

Act I. In the beginning, Sea World convinced us to love orca whales. And we listened.

"Americans' attitudes about orcas have changed dramatically," wrote SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. "When the first SeaWorld Park opened in 1964, orcas, or killer whales, were not universally loved, to put it mildly. Instead, they were feared, hated and even hunted."

Who do we have to thank for that shift in whale PR? According to Manby: SeaWorld.

Photo by Matt Stroshane/Getty Images.

Of course, back in 1971, when the "Shamu Goes Hollywood" show premiered, no one knew that SeaWorld’s methods of acquiring the whales were questionable enough to get them sued by Washington state in 1976 and land them in a three year court battle in 1983 while trying to capture whales illegally in Alaska.

Given that most people’s knowledge of killer whales came from SeaWorld, we believed the company when it said orcas only live to be 30 years old, that dorsal fin collapse was normal, and that whales at SeaWorld were kept with their biological families.

Families vacationed at SeaWorld, children left the park carrying armfuls of Shamu stuffed animals, and the amusement park raked in profits by the hundreds of millions.

SeaWorld built its empire and cemented itself as the best place to see the world's new favorite creature for decades, and, with money coming in by the truckload and a public that loved seeing the whale tricks, it had a lot to be proud of.

As always, though, pride cometh before the fall.

Act II. "Blackfish" premiered, and we learned things were not as happy as they seemed.

Despite news coverage of two tragic deaths happening on Sea World properties in 1999 and 2010, no event in SeaWorld's history affected the company's public image more than the release of "Blackfish."

The2013 documentary focused on the story of Tilikum, the Sea World orca responsible for those deaths, and the treatment he experienced at the park that may have led to his behavior.

"Blackfish" director Gabriela Cowperthwaite at the Sundance London Film and Music Festival. Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Sundance London.

After the documentary premiered, attendance at SeaWorld dropped, and profits plummeted by a staggering 84%.

Though SeaWorld maintains that "Blackfish" misrepresented its treatment of whales, the facts continue to prove that orca whales do not belong in small tanks, forced to perform for eager crowds. The millions of people who saw the film could never erase it from their image of the theme park, and we as a culture became irreversibly aware of how whales in captivity actually live.

The so-called Blackfish Effect culminated in further profit losses for SeaWorld over the next two years as well as a wave of protests.

In 2014, 19 people were arrested during the Tournament of Roses Parade in Los Angeles for trying to stop a SeaWorld float mid-parade, and four people including a 13-year-old girl jumped the barricade at the 2014 Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City to stop a SeaWorld float from progressing.

Photo via Prayitno/Flickr.

"Jackass" star Steve-O went to jail in October 2015 for scaling a massive crane with an inflatable orca in his own protest, and One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles shared a tweet imploring fans to stop going to SeaWorld. Protests became a regular occurrence outside SeaWorld locations and even at the airports of cities that SeaWorld called home.

Act III. SeaWorld swallowed its pride and finally began responding to the public outcry on behalf of the whales it had taught us to love.

Last year, SeaWorld announced that it would begin phasing out orca shows, marking the official end of days for its most famous (and infamous) attraction. On March 17, 2016, the company made waves again when it announced that it would officially end its controversial orca breeding program.

"SeaWorld has been listening and we're changing," the company said in a statement released on its website.

The park hasn't collected an orca from the wild in almost four decades. With the breeding program shutting down, the whales currently under SeaWorld's care will be its last. Of course, many of those whales are young, and some of them are pregnant. So it will be quite a while before orcas disappear from SeaWorld all together.

Photo by Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images.

And another thing that should be noted about this announcement is the timing — after all, Tilikum (the subject of "Blackfish") is currently dying of a bacterial lung infection.

Tilikum is in his 30s, and despite being connected to three deaths, he's SeaWorld's main source of breeding. When he dies, the SeaWorld breeding program would likely die with him, with or without SeaWorld's decision.

The collapse of the orca show is as much a victory for public opinion as it is for animal rights.

Despite the park's wealth and a team of lawyers that included Eugene Scalia (son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia), SeaWorld's orca shows simply couldn't survive the backlash of an angry public.

More important than anger, though, is evolution. It's one thing to be angry about how whales are treated, but "Blackfish" only highlighted something that had been going on for years.

The real victory here is that, once we were shown how bad it was, we voted with our wallets to let SeaWorld know that the mistreatment of animals is not something we support.

Photo by Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images.

That's not just a victory for the whales, it's a victory for our culture.

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2 years after 'Blackfish,' SeaWorld is finally listening to criticism of its orca shows.

The 2013 documentary "Blackfish" took SeaWorld to task for keeping killer whales in captivity — which the film argued is highly detrimental to the creatures' mental health.

An orca show at SeaWorld Orlando. Photo by David Bjorgen/Wikimedia Commons.

Since then, SeaWorld has come under major fire — from animal welfare organizations, celebrities, and lots of people in between.

Harry Styles of One Direction publicly criticized SeaWorld back in September. Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images.

The economic consequences to the company have been enormous. The company's profits dropped 84% between the second quarter of 2014 and the second quarter of 2015.

Today, the company finally decided to take action to try to quell the criticism.

As reported by Lori Weisberg in the San Diego Union-Tribune:

"SeaWorld intends to phase out its longstanding killer whale show at its San Diego park next year as part of a comprehensive strategy unveiled Monday to re-position the embattled company amid persistent criticisms of how it treats its orcas."

While ending shows at one park won't (and shouldn't) stop people from criticizing SeaWorld, it's a welcome first step.

Ending the shows could help make life much safer for SeaWorld's trainers, many of whom have been injured or killed in orca attacks, which some argue are triggered by the stress of confinement.

SeaWorld still has a long way to go, however.

Photo by Gordon2448/Wikimedia Commons.

Ending the shows doesn't address the underlying issue — that keeping orcas in captivity puts the animals under an enormous amount of mental and emotional stress.

California Representative Adam Burbank plans to introduce a bill that would ban breeding orcas in captivity and would make capturing them in the wild illegal.

But starting to phase out the shows means SeaWorld is listening.

Credit is due to the dozens of people who held the company's feet to the fire and the thousands who voted with their feet — and their dollars.

Hopefully there's a lot more change on the horizon.

Update: Keep your excitement on hold for now. Slate reports there will still be orca shows at SeaWorld, but they'll be ... "natural" or something. Let's hope the new shows represent an actual improvement for the animals and their trainers, rather than just a cosmetic one.

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