We arrived in Australia and spent the first few days running errands, getting set up for our expedition and spending time with the Perry’s. Our kids got on famously with their 3 girl cousins whom they had not seen since Fiji. 6 kids in one house ... surprisingly civilised!! We had pre-negotiated for summers birthday (March) going to a theme park or two but summer (being the animal lover she is) chose SeaWorld and the Australia zoo instead. And so 2018 became the year I finally visited Sea World after many debates. I was feeling conflicted about entry into this park even though the orcas were long gone. I’m certainly not an advocate for patronising parks where education is thinly veiled entertainment that somebody profits from. However I do believe until you have seen and judged it for yourself your opinion does not carry the same amount of weight and I was curious to see whether SeaWorld Australia fell into this category. From my amateur observations the sea enclosures certainly seemed spacious. There was plenty of room to speed, roam and play. The dolphins appeared outwardly as physically healthy. And content. What captivity does to mental state is another matter and I cannot comment with any authority. It got me thinking about the value we place on certain animals (mammals in this instance). Would I be as internally conflicted about the choice to visit captive animals and whether it was right or wrong on my moral ladder) if it wasn’t the popular benign, intelligent species of dolphin and instead was some less popular species with humanity as say the crocodile? I’ve certainly seen crocodile enclosures that are small (the one at Butterfly creek in Auckland springs to mind) without room to hunt, and roam but I wasn’t eternally conflicted about visiting that. If we are truly concerned with an animals welfare is it fair to place certain species in higher esteem than others? I would say it’s not fair but it’s also completely normal because as humans we have problems staying objective because emotional triggers play a huge part in our decision making. The kids certainly loved it. It was a fantastic family day out with the dolphin and seal shows, thrill rides, aquarium and other marine life areas. The dolphin show was the clear highlight. It was incredibly well run, hugely entertaining and just as enjoyable for every parent in the audience to watch their child’s face completely enchanted by the dolphins and their tricks. Which again got me playing devils advocate in my own mind. While we can probably all agree that the wild is certainly a better and the rightful place for mammals and animals alike, is certain individuals captivity worth the sacrifice to educate the public? In Seaworld for example, the kids did come away knowing a bit more about dolphins, their plight, and also more about the rehabilitation centre there for seabirds and turtles. What SeaWorld puts back into conservation is also very substantial and needs to be taken into consideration. Their SeaWorld research and rescue foundation contributes over $1 000 000 a year to the research, rescue and rehabilitation of marine life. They provide grants to independent marine research, fund marine debris clean ups and operate a turtle hospital (which rescues in average 40-70 turtles a year). They also provide outstanding services such as a marine rescue team being on call 24/7 year round to rescue any marine animal. So a huge amount of good does come from providing this entertainment/education blend of profit making. But is that worth the right or sacrifice to freedom for the individual animals? Which of course opens a whole other can of worms about those born into captivity which I’m not going to raise today. It’s all food for thought though and each persons moral compass will land somewhere different.