Ever since I saw The Cove my thoughts on keeping dolphins in captivity have changed. When I was on holiday this summer most of the people wanted to go to a sea aquarium to see them and take pictures with them. I didn’t feel like going and enjoyed a day at the beach. Blackfish is not about dolphins, but it is about what goes on in places like Sea World, in particular in regards to the killer whales. These huge animals are impressive to look at and have been trained extensively to perform all different types of tricks, but that is the only side the public sees of the killer whales. When one of their trainers, Dawn Brancheau (who had a lot of experience and had worked with the animals for years) was killed by one of them the public only saw a news story and a statement by Sea World that the cause of the death was a trainer error. Blackfish investigates if this really was the case and questions the practise of keeping these animals in captivity.
Blackfish dives (no pun intended) into the history of killer whales in captivity and shows that these animals were taken away from their parents when they were still young and swimming in the ocean. They were kept in very tiny places and spent most of their time in confined spaces. Killer whales are very social animals who live in groups. They have their own way of doing things and each group even has their own language. When you put killer whales from different groups together they don’t always get along and even can attack each other.
What really impressed me was to see how many former Sea World trainers were interviewed for this film. They mostly talk negatively about their former employer and question the information they were given, not only about the animals, but also about incidents which occurred through they years. Dawn Brancheau wasn’t the only person to get killed by these animals and as this documentary shows many other incidents took place, not always lethal, but very frightening to see. It makes a strong case against keeping these animals captive and will change opinions on places they are kept. One which only made my opinion about them that much stronger.
I, too, felt the same after viewing THE COVE. This was released over here, only for a short stint. Sorry I missed it, but am anxiously awaiting November when it’ll come available on disc/streaming.
Yeah, The Cove really is a documentary which will have an impact and so does this one.
Stuff like this makes me terribly sad. I want to go and free all the animals and send them back to the wild — except so many of them have nowhere to go. At least we haven’t entirely killed the oceans. Yet.
I heard a couple of weeks ago that if fishing will remain at the current level, tuna will have died out before 2020….that’s a sad thing indeed.
The biggest animal I’ve been in the water (open water on the Caribbean) with are whale sharks so I can vaguely imagine how it must be like to be in the water with these whales. That said, I can’t understand how they would think it’s good for an animal, who roams the oceans, to stick them in such small spaces.
I’ve been following Tilikum’s story for a very long time, ever since Dawn’s death so I’m glad this has come out. I haven’t seen the movie but I know that some believe that whales like Tilikum need to be gradually re-introduced into the wild. I understand that. I get it. But I also feel that at this point of the story, it would be better if he died a death of survival in the wild from not knowing how to catch his food to dying a slow death in a tank at SeaWorld.
Seeing as that there are quite a few dolphinariums here, it may be a while before I get to see this so if anyone knows when they are streaming it on CNN, let me know.
It really shines a light into the practises of keeping these animals captive and the issues it brings. I also thought it was shocking to hear that Sea World provides wrong information on how long these animals live in nature (if I remember correctly they say 30 years, which in reality is closer to a human life).
This was definitely hard to watch. It makes me re-think my childhood trip to SeaWorld entirely. As much as I love Orcas, they definitely shouldn’t be in small pools turning tricks. Especially one like Tilikum, who has proved to have a temper. He needs to be in a sea pen since he’s been in captivity for so long.
I can imagine it did that. Doubt anything will change though (unfortunately).
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