Blackfish Documentary Analysis
Blackfish In the documentary Blackfish, the director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, uses experiences from trainers that used to work at Sea World, examples of the inhumane treatment of the whales that are kept in captivity, and the injuries and deaths to convince people to not support Sea World by going there to view the huge attraction. People see Sea World as a happy, family environment because of the advertisements they put out to the public. The commercials and ads make it look like the whales are happy being kept in captivity at Sea World. In reality it is quite the opposite. The documentary features many people that used to work at Sea World. Each one of them said that the head people of the amusement area kept secrets from them about the whales. It turns out that Tilikum, also known as Shamu, was bought from Sealand in Canada after he killed Keltie Byrne, one of the trainers there. Sea World kept this information from their whale trainers. Sea World also kept the information as to why they bought Tilikum. Sea World had the intentions to breed him with the female whales that they already have even though they knew of
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Tililkum’s aggressive behavior. Tilikum seemed to enjoy working with the trainers, but some of them noticed that Tilikum’s behavior was odd at some points. He was caught on video lunging at one of the trainers, but the boss told the video recorder to get rid of the video. There were two more deaths at Sea World but also many more injuries. All that information was kept from the public just so that they could get the business that they wanted. The inhumane treatment of the orcas is what led to the behavior that the whales displayed towards the trainers. The way that the whales are grouped together is inhumane itself. Orca’s in the wild swim together as a family. The people that go out and capture the baby orca’s randomly pick and choose which ones to take. When Tilikum was still at Sealand in Canada, the pool that he was kept in was measured to be twenty feet across and thirty feet deep with no light. The whales that were kept with Tilukum were immobile for the most part. When he was moved to Sea World the pool area was bigger, but as punishment for the Dawn Brancheau accident, he was isolated for a year in a tiny enclosure. A picture was shown of the area and the audience could see that Tilikum’s nose and tail could touch each end of the pool. During training for the shows, if one whale didn’t do a trick correctly, then all the whales would get punished by depriving them of food. There was also physical punishment involved. All the stress, frustration, and anger that Tilikum had was shown through his aggressive behavior.
The death of Keltie Byrne that was mentioned earlier is one of the results of Tilikum’s behavior. The newspaper said that the death wasn’t Tilikum’s fault, but Keltie’s. Once Tilikum was moved to Sea World from Sealand, he was attacked by the other orcas placing more stress and sadness in his life. Dawn Brancheau, one of the best trainers at Sea World, was the main trainer of Tilikum. Even though they had a very close relationship, Tilikum’s frustration and aggression ended up taking the life of Dawn as well. Once again, the newspapers never talked about the truth of the incident. They said that it was Dawn’s fault and bad timing to cover up for Sea World’s reputation. There was one other death and over seventy injuries that happened to the
trainers. All this information that was collected by the director of this documentary is all an effort to inform and persuade people that go to Sea World or are thinking about going to Sea World to think twice about their decision. The information that is presented in this documentation gives real facts from trainers and people that used to work for Sea World. They have experienced everything first hand and know how Sea World really is. Sea World just wants to keep their business because it makes a lot of money. That alone is not worth the torture that the whales go through. They are suffering and Sea World isn’t doing anything about it except lying and giving the audience they attract false information. Gabriela Cowperthwaite uses many valid examples as to why people shouldn’t support Sea World by going there. Sea World not only lies to their trainers, but also to the public about the dangers of the whales. They treat the whales so inhumanely that it causes them to have constant stress, frustration and anger. All that led up to the deaths and injuries to some of the trainers that deal with the orcas. It is the sad truth that Gabriela wanted people to know.
Work Cited
Cowperthwaite, Gabriela. (2013, January 18). Blackfish. Netflix.
Tililkum’s aggressive behavior. Tilikum seemed to enjoy working with the trainers, but some of them noticed that Tilikum’s behavior was odd at some points. He was caught on video lunging at one of the trainers, but the boss told the video recorder to get rid of the video. There were two more deaths at Sea World but also many more injuries. All that information was kept from the public just so that they could get the business that they wanted. The inhumane treatment of the orcas is what led to the behavior that the whales displayed towards the trainers. The way that the whales are grouped together is inhumane itself. Orca’s in the wild swim together as a family. The people that go out and capture the baby orca’s randomly pick and choose which ones to take. When Tilikum was still at Sealand in Canada, the pool that he was kept in was measured to be twenty feet across and thirty feet deep with no light. The whales that were kept with Tilukum were immobile for the most part. When he was moved to Sea World the pool area was bigger, but as punishment for the Dawn Brancheau accident, he was isolated for a year in a tiny enclosure. A picture was shown of the area and the audience could see that Tilikum’s nose and tail could touch each end of the pool. During training for the shows, if one whale didn’t do a trick correctly, then all the whales would get punished by depriving them of food. There was also physical punishment involved. All the stress, frustration, and anger that Tilikum had was shown through his aggressive behavior.
The death of Keltie Byrne that was mentioned earlier is one of the results of Tilikum’s behavior. The newspaper said that the death wasn’t Tilikum’s fault, but Keltie’s. Once Tilikum was moved to Sea World from Sealand, he was attacked by the other orcas placing more stress and sadness in his life. Dawn Brancheau, one of the best trainers at Sea World, was the main trainer of Tilikum. Even though they had a very close relationship, Tilikum’s frustration and aggression ended up taking the life of Dawn as well. Once again, the newspapers never talked about the truth of the incident. They said that it was Dawn’s fault and bad timing to cover up for Sea World’s reputation. There was one other death and over seventy injuries that happened to the
trainers. All this information that was collected by the director of this documentary is all an effort to inform and persuade people that go to Sea World or are thinking about going to Sea World to think twice about their decision. The information that is presented in this documentation gives real facts from trainers and people that used to work for Sea World. They have experienced everything first hand and know how Sea World really is. Sea World just wants to keep their business because it makes a lot of money. That alone is not worth the torture that the whales go through. They are suffering and Sea World isn’t doing anything about it except lying and giving the audience they attract false information. Gabriela Cowperthwaite uses many valid examples as to why people shouldn’t support Sea World by going there. Sea World not only lies to their trainers, but also to the public about the dangers of the whales. They treat the whales so inhumanely that it causes them to have constant stress, frustration and anger. All that led up to the deaths and injuries to some of the trainers that deal with the orcas. It is the sad truth that Gabriela wanted people to know.
Work Cited
Cowperthwaite, Gabriela. (2013, January 18). Blackfish. Netflix.