Last night, I watched the famous documentary, ‘Blackfish,’ which exposes the cruelty in SeaWorld. The movie took on a different approach and perspective than I had been expecting, but in the end, it was an amazing film, and I highly recommend watching it as soon as you can (it’s on Netflix!)
First of, when I say the movie took a different approach than I expected, what I mean is I thought the documentary would focus more on the unethical treatment of the killer whales, like physical punishments for noncompliance, but it actually covered almost everything wrong with SeaWorld, and gave me a different view on the same opinion I’ve always had: SeaWorld is a horrendous place, and should be shut down immediately.
The movie begins with audio clips of 911 calls on February 24th, 2010, following the death of Dawn Brancheau. During this, we are shown beautiful videos of killer whales swimming. Before I continue this review, I would to say one thing first: My God, these are majestic animals. Just incredibly beautiful beings. Female killer whales can grow to be 26 feet long, and the males 28 feet. They can weigh up to 6 tons. They are gigantic, yet graceful. Truly a gift from nature.
Anyway, back to the movie. After the audio clips end, we see the famous SeaWorld commercial, featuring killers whales ‘swimming’ through the clouds. A talking head interviewer comes on the screen, by the name Hargrove, who goes on to explain he has always wanted to be a SeaWorld trainer, ever since he saw the show when he was younger. Another interviewee, Breg, and around five others say the same thing: They’ve always wanted to be killer whale trainers since they were young.
They describe in depth and great detail how incredible these animals are, and how shockingly huge they are in person.
The film then takes a sad tone, once the interviewers begin talking about Brancheau. We begin to hear audio from a taped interview with a SeaWorld paramedic named Thomas Tobin, elaborating the details involved in Brancheau’s death. Tobin goes on to say: ‘She was, uh, scalped, and there was no blood so, pretty much, we knew then that the heart wasn’t beating.” The interviewer asks if Tilikum ever let go of her arm, and Tobin replies no, implying to viewers that Tilikum ate her arm, which is true.
They begin speaking about the OSHA case against SeaWorld, following Brancheau’s death. Their case was that killer whales are completely unpredictable, and it is irresponsible to allow humans to be in physical contact with them. OSHA goes on to say that SeaWorld only made changes to its policy because this story went viral and enraged the public, not because they worried for the trainers.
The caption in the next scene says 39 years later, and explains how SeaWorld even began doing what they are doing. The story is absolutely horrific and sickening. In 1970, at Puget Sound in Washington (I’ve been there!), SeaWorld sent out divers to capture orcas. They brought boats and aircrafts, so there was nothing the whales could do to escape. The divers began throwing bombs into the water to herd the whales into coves. With this being said, the divers didn’t understand how smart these whales really were. The whales remembered the last time these men had come to capture them, and they understood that the small whales, the babies were in danger.
So the male whales sacrifice themselves by leading the boats to a cul-de-sac where they were cornered. The fishers noticed that there were no babies, so they knew something was up. The whales probably would’ve gotten away, if it hadn’t been for the plane they brought. As the baby whales and mothers were swimming for their lives, eventually they had to come up for air, and when they did, the aircraft spotted them, and herded them into another cul-de-sac and began capturing the babies.
The most heartbreaking part of this story is that even after the babies are captured and the mothers are let go, they refused to leave. They stayed outside the boats and called to their children, crying out to them. It sounded almost exactly like a baby crying.
Even worse was the end. According to one of the fishermen present at the time, after they released the net, there were three dead whales inside. The fishermen were then instructed to cut the whales open, fill them with rocks, and then tie anchors to their tails to sink their corpses.
The state of Washington told SeaWorld to never come back, to which SeaWorld responded by capturing whales in Iceland instead. The next captioning says: In 1983, a male killer whale was captured from the Atlantic. At 2 years of age, he was already 11.5 feet long. They named him Tilikum.
We see another ridiculously positive SeaWorld commercial, which transitions into several interviewees talking about seeing Tilikum at Sealand, an entirely different company than SeaWorld. Sealand was hardly even a habitat. The pool was incredibly small and hard to live in. They go on to explain the torture Tilikum was put through, including, but not limited to, physical punishments, starvation, and being attacked by the other whales.
At night, the trainers would leave Tilikum and the other whales locked up in a 20 by 20 foot pool, only 30 feet deep. The whales were almost completely immobile. By starving the animals, they could make do anything they wanted. It was extreme manipulation.
Suddenly we are shown clips from news media reporting the death of Keltie Byrne at Sealand.
February 20, 1991, two women went to Sealand. They reported that the water was gray and disgusting, and it looks like it was one its last leg. Byrne began to climb down a ladder after feeding Tilikum fish, and when she came off the ladder, she slipped. The killer whale bit her foot and pulled Byrne in. The other whales joined in the attack. The cause of death was ruled a drowning, even though everyone knew it wasn’t. After the death of Byrne, Sealand closed, which SeaWorld jumped on. Even though Tilikum had killed human being before, SeaWorld bought Tilikum for breeding purposes.
According to the interviewees, they were under the impression Tilikum and the other whales would be used for breeding purposes only, that “the event was so highly stimulating for them, they were bound to repeat it.”
Then they begin showing a preview for a movie called ORCA. This movie is all about how evil killer whales are and completely played into the fear and controversy of everything that had happened at Sealand.
What I found incredibly interesting was that one of the interviewers claimed there has been no record of an orca attacking a human in the wild, which isn’t exactly true. There have been six recorded incidents of killer whales attacking humans in the wild. First, a photographer was almost tipped off an ice floe. Second, a schooner was shoved in by a pod of orca whales, forcing the six passengers on board to retreat in a life boat. Third, a Californian surfer was bitten by an orca in the ocean, requiring 100 stitches. Fourth, a 12 year old boy was bumped by an orca while swimming in four feet of water. There is speculation that the orca misidentified the boy as something else. Fifth, during the filming of the third episode of ‘Frozen Planet,’ a group of orcas tried to tip the filmer’s boat over. And lastly, a free diver in Australia was pulled down for about 40 seconds by an orca before escaping.
So what the man said in his interview is not true, but that does not imply that what SeaWorld is doing is ok in any form.
Orcas have families and live to about the same age as humans do. The children, even when full grown, stay with their mothers for the duration of their life. Every family of orcas has a different language they speak. Orcas also have a part of their brain that humans don’t have that extends from the emotional part of the brain. This means that orcas have very emotional life and understand feelings.
The term blackfish comes from the natives and fishermen who look up to these creatures as great sources of power and sacred.
They begin showing the arrival of Tilikum at SeaWorld, recalling brutal attacks by the other whales, stating that orca culture is very matriarchal. The abuse became so bad that SeaWorld removed Tilikum from the other whales into isolation, only to be used for breeding purposes then, although SeaWorld denies this. Tilikum was very friendly to humans, although whether or not this was because he actually cared about them or that he was just really hungry is up for speculation.
The scary part was the lies SeaWorld was telling its own employees, the most at risk! SeaWorld repeatedly told the trainers that the two female whales were the cause of Brancheau’s death, when in reality, it was Tilikum who killed her. With that being said, SeaWorld would continue to lie to their workers, but at that same time, would not allow women to be around Tilikum at close range.
SeaWorld Head Trainer Kelly Clark is quoted lying in court against OSHA, saying that they never saw any behavior that worried them about Tilikum, and also, oddly, brings up a weird rape-sexist example against the male prosecutor, saying that just because he can rape, doesn’t mean he will. Just because Tilikum can kill, doesn’t mean he will, which to me is an extremely poor example and a very dumb thing to say.
One of my favorite parts in this documentary is one of the trainers basically repents for everything she had done at SeaWorld, saying she said what they wanted her to say, and that she is mortified for being apart of something like that. It’s amazing to me to see people change their views so drastically on something, and for the better.
When I first moved in with my grandparents, my grandma was a raging homophobe. Now that I’ve lived here for four years, and have come out a transgender, and she sees how happy I am, she’s completely changed her mind. Can you imagine, a 72 year old changed her mind on a very important issue. Normally older people are very stubborn and set in their ways, but she proved to me you can always change for the better. It’s absolutely beautiful to see something like that.
They begin speaking about baby Shamu, who was the new attraction of SeaWorld, but even before Shamu, was Kalina. The problem with Kalina was that she was so attached to her mother, she was getting in the way of performances. At 4 and half years old, they removed Kalina from her mother. Kalina’s mother reacted in the same way humans do when being torn away their children: she screamed and cried. She stayed in the corner of the pool and wouldn’t move. The other whales would come check on her, and she would push them away.
There was another incident with a mother whale and her calf in SeaWorld, too. Kasatke was the mother and Takara was the baby. They were completely inseparable, until SeaWorld transported Takara to Florida. Kasatke, in an effort to find her child, was making calls that had never been heard before by researchers or scientists. At this point, she was trying anything to bring her baby back.
One of SeaWorld’s most infamous lies is about the life expectancy of orca whales in the wild. They report that they live to be about 25 to 35 years old, and that they live longer in captivity. This has been proven many times over to be false. Killer whales in the wild live to be about 100 years old. Another lie is about the floppy dorsal fin. SeaWorld reports that 25% of killer whales in the wild will exhibit a floppy dorsal fin, when this is false. The theory as to why orca whales have floppy dorsal fins in captivity is because the shallowness of their pools force them to surface more often than they would in the wild, leading to exposure to UV rays.
SeaWorld also claims that the whales do have families, they have their pods, but this is not true. Just because every whale looks the same to us does not mean they all look the same to each other. They know they are all strangers, and do not react well to each other.
A prime example of how this kind of whale mixing is problematic is Corky. A whale named Kandu and a whale named Corky were fighting each other for dominance. Corky meant to rake, which is when whale forcefully scratched another whale with their teeth, Kandu, but missed, slamming herself into the side of the pool. She broke her jaw, severing an artery. 45 minutes later, she sank to the bottom of the pool.
Again, we start talking about Brancheau, and describing her personality. She was very safety conscious person, which made the killing so shocking.
We switch from Brancheau to John Silick, a whale trainer who was crushed between two whales during a performance. Watch the jaw dropping video footage of the incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhUz9ILSje4
SeaWorld kept their employees in the dark about the subject the whole time. They also did not inform their employees about Tamarie, another whale trainer who was attacked. Now, I would say, in Orkid’s defense, she was taunting her the whole time. She was stepping on her head and messing with her. Tamarie was completely alone, except for the thousands of people watching her in the stands, but she had no spotter to protect her from the attack. Suddenly, Orkid grabs her foot and begins pulling her in the water. As Orkid begins the attack, the other whale in the pool begins attacking Tamarie as well. They begin pulling her under water, meanwhile, no trainer knows this is happening.
Tamarie’s forearm was snapped in half, causing a compound fracture.
There are 70+ attacks from killer whales on trainers and on participants. It’s unclear whether or not the whales are playing or acting violent, but whales don’t understand their own strength, so either way, it is very dangerous.
There are numerous detailed attacks in this documentary, which I, as a viewer, was very thankful for, because I don’t believe anything until I see real proof. This movie gave me more proof than I could’ve imagined. Beyond the attacks in the wild comment, everything is this movie is backed by fact.
There are some gross scenes where we see whale trainers basically jerking Tilikum off, keeping his sperm to impregnate the females.
I’m leaving out part of the end of the movie, mostly because I have things I need to do today that can’t wait for later, but all in all, I recommend watching this movie and showing it to everyone you know.
Before I go, though, here are some ways you can help! The easiest way to help would be to boycott SeaWorld. Never buy a ticket, never go to a show, or allow your children to. Here –> https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2945 you can sign a petition to end cruelty in SeaWorld.
With this in mind, have a great day, and remember the whales!
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