Orca Whales In The Film Blackfish

In the documentary Blackfish, orca whales are portrayed and deeply appreciated as entertainment through SeaWorld's whale shows. Considering the orca whales at SeaWorld are away from their natural habitat, the film takes a look at the reality of orca whales in captivity. The producer, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, observes not only the whales' lives, but also how SeaWorld handles the whales and their trainers. Upon death incidents involved between SeaWorld trainers and an orca whale named Tilikum, through this documentary, Cowperthwaite aims to discover the facts behind the aforementioned whale incidents, with the intentions of questioning whether whales should be kept in captivity. Cowperthwaite employs the techniques of inductive reasoning, expert
Through inductive reasoning, which is creating a general conclusion from specific instances, Sealand considers that since SeaWorld "knew more than [Sealand]", Tilikum would have a “bigger pool, better food, better care", and, therefore, a "better life" in SeaWorld”(as qtd. in Cowperthwaite 23:25). That is to say, SeaWorld bought Tilikum from Sealand particularly because the business needed a whale breeder, disregarding the fact that Sealand had closed due to Keltie Byrne's death inflicted upon by Tilikum. In this way, SeaWorld hardly considered Tilikum's previous killing, which questions SeaWorld's irrational reasoning towards buying the breeder. To further support how SeaWorld's system is not trustworthy and overall flawed, expert testimony proves that SeaWorld did not even tell the trainers the full details of Keltie's incident. In fact, former trainers expose that SeaWorld had previously claimed there was no expecting Tilikum to come of the water, but it is clearly stated in his profile that he "sometimes [lunges] towards control trainer"(Cowperthwaite 34:47). Altogether, spectators and trainers realize the lies SeaWorld feeds out of their establishment, logically understanding the proof behind how SeaWorld is lying to the trainers. In effect, spectators can view SeaWorld as not
Inductive reasoning, expert testimony, and anaphora in the film happen to help the audience of past, present, and future spectators to believe the reasoning why whales are not suitable for captivity situations, like SeaWorld has presented them in. That being said, the documentary remains entirely effective as animal-rights activists and the decline of spectators places the company under high pressure to change their system. Thus, the company has announced plans to end orca shows by 2017, shifting the company's display of whales to "new, inspiring, natural orca encounters"(Citation). Not only did Blackfish change how the audience viewed SeaWorld, but the film was able to change how SeaWorld saw themselves by putting their own company through a different perspective. As SeaWorld saw how their captivity practices are wrong, they now continue to work towards animal welfare and finding the best solution to help their orca whales live out the rest of their lives, in regards to Blackfish for uncovering the facts that SeaWorld overlooked about their business. Overall, Cowperthwaite's attempt at discovering the truth of the orca whales at SeaWorld has accelerated the movement to appreciate whales in more natural practices, and audiences will be able to acknowledge SeaWorld's response of changing their business as they move on