Oct. 09--A California agency dealt SeaWorld Entertainment a major blow Thursday evening when it ruled the company can only expand its San Diego killer whale tanks if it ends captive breeding.
The California Coastal Commission approved the expansion but voted 11-1 for an amendment forbidding SeaWorld from breeding, selling or transferring its whales, a spokeswoman said.
"We are disappointed with the conditions that the California Coastal Commission placed on their approval of the Blue World Project, and will carefully review and consider our options," SeaWorld spokesman David Koontz said in an email. "Breeding is a natural, fundamental and important part of an animal's life and depriving a social animal of the right to reproduce is inhumane."
The vote came after a day-long meeting attended by hundreds of people, including actress and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals supporter Pamela Anderson.
A coalition of animal and environmental protection organizations had proposed the conditions. Animal-welfare activists declared victory shortly after the vote.
"The California Coastal Commission did right by orcas," PETA said in an emailed statement. The commission's vote, PETA said, "ensures that no more orcas will be condemned to a nonlife of loneliness, deprivation, and misery."
PETA had encouraged people to email the commission in protest of the tank expansion. The agency received 200,000 emails, overwhelmingly against the project. It received about 50,000 letters and postcards that SeaWorld had collected in support.
Orlando-based SeaWorld announced plans for the tank expansions in August 2014, two days after posting poor quarterly earnings that sent its stock plunging more than 30 percent. SeaWorld acknowledged then that controversy over its whales after the 2013 anti-captivity documentary "Blackfish" had hurt attendance.
The company said then it would expand the orca habitat in San Diego, then in Orlando and San Antonio as well.
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