Article: SeaWorld has suffered an 84% collapse in profits – customers have deserted the controversial aquatic theme park company because of claims that it mistreated orca whales.
  The company trains dolphins and killer whales to perform tricks in front of stadiums full of people. They have suffered declines in attendance, sales and profits because people think they don’t treat their animals well.
  SeaWorld has been in the news since the 2013 documentary Blackfish said that its treatment of orca whales made the whales act violently and that this caused the deaths of three people. After the documentary was shown, attendance collapsed and the company lost more than half of its market value on Wall Street. Its former CEO also had to leave the company.
  Animal rights activists say that orcas kept in tanks die at a younger age than wild whales. SeaWorld started a marketing campaign to show that this isn’t true.
  It cut ticket prices and spent $10m on marketing but SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby had to admit that the company is still struggling to convince the public that it treats its whales well.
  “We realize we have much work ahead of us,” Manby said. Talking about the company’s reputation, he said, “Early feedback on our campaign has been positive. However, we recognize that solving our image problems in California will be challenging.”
  “We will continue to fight with the facts because the facts are on our side,” he said.
  Manby, who joined the company as CEO in 2015 to help the company recover, said he would give a presentation on his vision for the future of the company at a special event on 6 November.
  There are already plans for a new shark exhibition in Orlando and an attraction in San Antonio that will allow customers to swim with dolphins in a “naturalistic” setting.
  The company’s financial report, released on 6 August, showed profits in the second quarter dropped from $37.4m in 2014 to $5.8m in 2015. This is an 84% decrease. Revenue fell from $405m to $392m. Attendance dropped by more than 100,000 from 6.58 million to 6.48 million.
  Analysts will now be closely watching SeaWorld’s sales and attendance numbers in the third quarter, which is traditionally the company’s most profitable and covers the summer holiday season. Attendance may suffer from a fresh scandal in July 2015 – it was alleged that a SeaWorld employee had infiltrated animal rights protest groups against the company.
  Jared Goodman, director of animal law for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), said: “SeaWorld has a spying scandal, animals are dying in its tanks and tens of thousands of people are against its plan to build a new orca prison. Families just don’t want to buy tickets to see orcas going insane inside tiny tanks. SeaWorld’s orcas won’t recover and SeaWorld’s profits won’t recover either until it empties its tanks and builds sanctuaries by the coast.”
  SeaWorld’s shares, which were worth $39 in 2013, fell to just under $18 in August 2015.