Surfing Sensation Kelly Slater Voices Concern for Environment While Recalling His Favorite Childhood Memory: ‘Made Me Super Excited’

The surfing legend and environment advocate Kelly Slater recently expressed deep-seated concerns regarding the marine park’s impact on marine life and ecosystems for his beloved childhood memories: Sea World Orlando. Sea World park has grown from a place where visitors can watch marine life from a distance to an immersive world where they can interact with the wonders of the sea.

One often tends to overlook marine resorts as their thirst for curiosity trumps reason. Kelly Slater has been vocal and vociferous regarding his stance and his recent clarion call about SeaWorld’s dark gloomy tale and took to his IG handle to issue a PSA, whilst speaking about an anecdote. Surfing legend Kelly Slater has made sure the truth will out, and how.

Kelly Slater sounds clarion call over Sea World Orlando’s environmental impact

Recently, UrgentSeas posted a video on their Instagram handle showing the Sea World in Orlando, Florida. In that video, Katina, a 49-year-old female captive orca, was recently reported as ill and moved into a medical tank. Reposting this video on his Instagram story surfing legend Kelly Slater, who has a lot of childhood nostalgia for SeaWorld, shows concerns captioning, “made me super excited as a kid.” Further, he raised concerns on Sea World theme park saying, “I understand why people go to these places and realise they don’t comprehend the harm it does supporting them.”Sea World Resort has been the bedrock of significant controversy after issues raised in the documentary “Blackfish,” which was released in 2013.

In 2018, a PETA veterinarian documented dolphins at Sea World park with open wounds and extensive scarring, raising concerns about animal welfare. More than 40 orcas have died at SeaWorld parks, and the death toll continues to skyrocket.

SeaWorld, which was first opened in 1964, has faced a lot of flak for animal abuse. Sea World also came under the scanner for their dolphin and orca breeding programs (which stopped in 2016). Males were ejaculated by their trainers for sp**m, and females were forcefully impregnated. Due to this systemic abuse, Slater released a statement, “I would love to see Sea World Orlando, and other facilities around the world shut down in their conventional form and turned into strictly rescue and rehab operations for local wildlife we could support.” Sea World Resort’s business model heavily relies on entertaining the paying public, making the behavior of their animals vital for success and Slater has been an avid proponent of fair treatment.

Kelly Slater dons many hats

Slater has always been outspoken about concerns regarding the environment, and he is an ardent environmentalist. He had raised concern about the way plastics are harming oceans. Slater had once said that “we are ruining numerous ecosystems by overwhelming them with physical and chemical pollution”, “plastic pollution seems irreversible and so horrible”. Kelly Slater also raised concern about red tides harming marine life in Florida.

Despite receiving numerous calls urging modernization and the cessation of animal entertainment, SeaWorld has yet to heed these pleas, prompting ongoing criticism. On this, pro surfer Slater posted on Instagram supporting wildlife, “but as it stands now these operations should be considered criminal organizations against the natural order of cetaceans and other wildlife.” So what are you waiting for? Let us know your thoughts below!

Read More: Kelly Slater $20 Million Surfing Property: Barack Obama, Jason Momoa, and Many More Neighbors?