ORLANDO, Fla. – Shortly before the first daily performance of their killer whale show at Shamu Stadium, SeaWorld trainers working with the animals in a rear pool run the whales through several husbandry exercises, including rolling over on their backs.
The behaviors allow veterinarians to collect blood, urine and milk samples that company officials said are frequently used in scientific research.
[WEB EXTRAS: Killer whale study conducted by UCF researchers | VIDEO: Extended interview with Dr. Chris Dold ]
"The killer whales at SeaWorld are the perfect control (variable)," said Dr. Chris Dold, SeaWorld's vice president of veterinary services. "We call it a living laboratory, where we can get very detailed science, and we can validate a lot of the new technologies and the new advances that scientists are trying to apply to wild killer whales."
Last week, SeaWorld announced a $1.5 million donation to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, an organization created by Congress to fund conservation projects. SeaWorld's latest donation is part of the company's pledge to spend $10 million over three years promoting the study of wild killer whales.
The money given to the NFWF will be used to create the Killer Whale Research and Conservation Fund Program, according to SeaWorld officials. The program will primarily focus on supporting Southern Resident killer whales, an endangered community located in the coastal waters off Washington State.
"There are estimated to be about 80 killer whales, which was a dramatic decrease over the years in the Southern Resident community," said Dold.
He and other marine mammal experts blame the killer whales' plight, in part, on pollution and a dwindling food supply.
"These killer whales are known to eat one kind of fish -- Chinook salmon," Dold said. "When the numbers of those fish go down, the whales don't have anything to eat."
In one recent study funded by SeaWorld, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Vancouver Aquarium flew a drone over Northern Resident killer whales in British Columbia to document whales appeared to be thin -- a possible indication of malnutrition. A similar study will be conducted on Southern Resident killer whales, according to SeaWorld officials.
Before taking the drones out to sea, researchers flew the unmanned aircraft over SeaWorld's park in San Diego.
"In order to make specific measurements of wild killer whales, the scientists first needed to (calibrate) their cameras and figure out how you measure a killer whale from directly above," Dold said. "With our killer whales, we're able to have them slide out and get a weight from them, so we know detailed information about our killer whales."
Scientists are also concerned that female Southern Resident killer whales poisoned by contaminants in the water may be passing toxins on to their offspring.
"Very few calves are born to those endangered populations of killer whales, and so scientists want to understand what's happening between the mom and the calf," Dold said. "So we can use our killer whales that work with our trainers to give us voluntary samples, like blood or milk samples. This is the kind of test you would not be able to get to ever gather from a wild killer whale."
Some critics of SeaWorld believe the company and other marine parks contributed to the problems facing wild killer whales by capturing many of the animals in the 1960s and '70s. SeaWorld no longer collects wild killer whales.
"SeaWorld is responsible for the endangered status of the Southern Resident killer whale clan," said Jeff Ventre, a former SeaWorld trainer who spoke out against killer whale captivity in the documentary "Blackfish."
"(SeaWorld) can get involved in salmon restoration, along with ending captivity, and be heroic," said Ventre, who applauds the company's financial support of wild killer whale research. "People, including myself, support rescue efforts and contributions to science, but SeaWorld's use of its resources to help some animals does not justify the captivity of others."
SeaWorld officials dispute suggests that marine parks contributed to the Southern Residents' decline.
"It doesn't appear, based on the science, that SeaWorld played any role at all in hurting that whale population," said Dold. "While animals were collected from the Southern Resident and Northern Resident groups, their numbers rebounded dramatically after that. So the highest population on record occurred after those years they were brought into zoological parks."
Besides funding wild killer whale research, SeaWorld frequently invites outside experts into its marine parks to study the company's collection of captive whales, according to Dold.
"A lot of the scientific projects that are done with killer whales at SeaWorld are done by outside scientists -- scientists from universities, scientists from Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, scientists from the University of Central Florida," Dold said
In 2013, Dold conducted a study with UCF biology professor Graham Worthy and other scientists trying to understand how much food a killer whale needs to survive. The researchers studied the amount of calories burned by a captive killer whale that was resting. The report, published in the online edition of Marine Mammal Science, notes that it is impossible to collect such data from wild killer whales.
"This study was designed to ensure that the findings would be directly comparable to resting rates of wild animals," states SeaWorld's website.
However, in the published study, the researchers point out that since "these data relate to only a single (captive) adult whale, where a variety of factors may influence metabolic rate, caution must be exercised when extrapolating to (wild) whales."
After pointing out that fact to SeaWorld, they changed their website. It now states, "And since basic metabolic systems behave similarly within a species, this study gives a solid initial data set for BMR in killer whales. Further, it was a very well controlled study. However, since this is data from a single whale and not all individuals are exactly the same, extrapolating these results to the rest of the species should be done cautiously. Testing more whales will refine the dataset and strengthen the model for the species."
In an email to Local 6, SeaWorld spokesman Fred Jacobs said, "Thanks for bringing it to our attention."
Dr. Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Animal Welfare Institute and outspoken opponent of killer whale captivity, questions whether studies of captive whales can help wild populations.
"Most killer whale researchers have never gotten a dime from SeaWorld," said Rose, who is suspicious of the timing of SeaWorld's $10 million pledge to fund killer whale research. "They've been around for 50 years -- it's about time."
Although SeaWorld is in the midst of a major campaign to rebuild the company's reputation in the wake of allegations of animal mistreatment made by "Blackfish" and animal rights activists, Dold insists that such donations are not new for the company.
"SeaWorld has been contributing funds ever since we began," said Dold. "It's not enough just to hold (killer whales) in our parks and allow the guests to see them. While that's inspiring and incredible, good solid science and the study and understanding of killer whales is part of that obligation we hold so dearly for keeping killer whales in our zoological parks."