March 09, 2015 By David Kirby

David Kirby has been a professional journalist for 25 years. His third book, Death at Seaworld, was published in 2012.

SeaWorld San Diego’s decision to suspend its sea lion and otter show so that trainers can help rescue hundreds of starving sea lion pups in California has left the company’s critics in something of a paradoxical pickle.

The company on Saturday stopped the popular show for two weeks as six trainers from San Diego, along with staff members from SeaWorld parks in San Antonio, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, loaded into rescue vehicles to assist in the effort to pull 20 emaciated sea lion infants each day from San Diego County beaches.

A scarcity of prey fish in coastal waters is thought to be behind the crisis.

So far, SeaWorld has rescued at least 400 pups in 2015, twice the number it usually saves in a full year. The animals will be sheltered in two temporary tanks being installed at the San Diego park.

“These experts will…provide the added benefit of tremendous experience working with sea lions,” SeaWorld said in a statement.

For years, anti-captivity activists have argued that SeaWorld should abandon its animal performances altogether and focus exclusively on the company’s stated mission of “rescue, rehabilitation and release” of wild marine mammals. That sentiment increased dramatically after the 2013 release of the documentary Blackfish.

Many SeaWorld critics are lauding the decision to suspend the show, but they maintain that it does not let the company off the hook when it comes to its treatment of captive marine mammals.

“I'm encouraged to see SeaWorld direct its considerable resources toward helping in this tragic situation for California sea lions,” Samantha Berg, a former trainer at SeaWorld Orlando and an anti-captivity activist who was featured in Blackfish, said in an email.

“However, their efforts need to be held in light of the ethically unjustified source of their business resources: captivity and circus-style animal entertainment,” she added. “Let’s encourage SeaWorld to explore true conservation and education as a new basis for a sustainable business model, leaving animal exploitation and silly shows as a thing of the past.”

Berg noted that other organizations along the Pacific Coast are also helping with sea lion rescues, but they are nonprofit groups funded through donations, not from revenue generated through shows.

“Kudos for rescue and rehab,” Jeffrey Ventre, another Blackfish cast member and former SeaWorld trainer, said in an email. “It’s bittersweet, though, and doesn’t justify circus shows.”

Ventre noted that SeaWorld has been cited by state regulators for polluting San Diego’s Mission Bay, adding that “environmental degradation is one reason these sea lions need rescuing.”

SeaWorld spokesman Fred Jacobs did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it’s clear the company has no intention of permanently shuttering its sea lion and otter shows.

SeaWorld San Diego suspended the show for at least two weeks but plans to resume it at some point. In San Antonio, the show is on hiatus until May, pending an exhibit redesign.

In Orlando, a revamped sea lion and otter show was just unveiled for annual pass holders.

“The new setting is the halls of academia,” the Orlando Sentinel reported. “The set now resembles scenes from a high school,” the newspaper said, adding that the new show “has an emphasis on the importance of learning.”

Show segments include tango and salsa lessons “and a comic bit with Seamore feigning a flipper injury in order to get out of gym class,” the Sentinel said.