BUDDY LINES: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AUGUST 2010

Thoughts and feedback on what constitutes a safe diver, tipping your dive crew, adaptive scuba diving, and remembering Andy Letourneau, all in this month's edition of "Buddy Lines."

EDITORIAL, MAY 2010: ISN'T IT TIME?

By Alex Brylske
Photo by Joseph C. Dovala
(Readers, please comment at bottom of editorial)

Unless you were on some other planet recently, you no doubt heard about the recent event at Orlando’s SeaWorld in which a trainer was killed by an orca. Clearly, it was a tragic situation made worse in that it was apparently a very public spectacle. And unlike what was initially reported by authorities, the victim did not fall into the pool, but was grabbed and dragged into the water by the whale. Some were surprised that the animal wasn’t put down, as would have been the case with a dog; and many even expressed alarm when it was made public that this was the third fatality involving the whale, Tilikum. (Although, in fairness, it’s far from certain that he was the cause of one of those deaths.) Personally, I was heartened to learn that Tilikum wasn’t euthanized. It also made me question the purpose and true cost of turning marine mammals into circus performers.