Blackfish Quotes

In the documentary “Blackfish”, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, she discussed the harmful events that have occurred when keeping killer whales contained for show and entertainment purposes. Cowperthwaite argued the fact that the killer whales become aggressive when held captive in an area too small for them and separated from their families. Throughout the documentary there were many horrifying stories about the attacks told by people who had saw the tragedies first-hand.

Any little child is able to connect the name Shamu to the massive black and white creatures that dwell in the ocean waters, termed orcas or killer whales. However, the recent release of the film “Blackfish” has aimed to revise the common opinion of killer whales who are known by the title Shamu. As the film strikes marine life parks such as SeaWorld with apparent reasons as to why these orcas should not be in captivity, the question of “Blackfish”’s validity arises. How truthful can a film be that was created to persuade its viewers to ceases visiting attractions such as the killer whale shows? Since the release of “Blackfish,” animal rights activist, writers, and amusement park aficionados have been expressing their speculations on the “Blackfish”

On its website, SeaWorld asserts that several key points made in Blackfish are untrue. One of the film’s primary claims is that orcas in the wild live significantly longer than those in captivity, which bolsters the film’s thesis that captivity harms orcas. Great controversy surrounds this

Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite in the documentary, Blackfish (2013), argues that captivity triggers aggression in killer whales. Cowperthwaite supports her argument by demonstrating shocking footage and emotional interviews to present a convincing case against keeping these animals in captivity and for human entertainment. The author’s purpose is to show the problems that are caused by captivity in order to aware the audience that keeping killer whales in captivity affects their behavior mentally and physically. The author writes in resentful tone to Sea World, the people who visited Sea World, and those who were present during the killer whale incident. Gabriela Cowperthwaite argues that keeping killer whales in captivity at SeaWorld affects their mentality due to how they are being treated. She makes this argument by applying pathos, ethos, and logos.

Captivity Kills The documentary Blackfish reveals the horrifying story of the capture and torture of orca whales at the well-known amusement park, SeaWorld. Blackfish revealed the heartless treatment of the orca whales to the public eye. Tilikum, a featured whale in the documentary, was taken from his family at a young age and forced to live in a small concrete pool for most of his life. His experiences revealed a large part of the problem of placing whales in confinement.

Most people today have visited or at least heard of the popular tourist attraction, Seaworld. These tourists may think of it as a place to see marine animals do trick, like killer whales interacting with humans in a fun and entertaining way- but do we ever stop to think about the treatment or feelings of these creatures? After visiting Seaworld and seeing the famous Shamu, the thought of how living in captivity affects the animal had not crossed my mind. After researching I am now extremely concerned with the way these whales are impacted by spending their lives in bathtubs and forced to do tricks for food, all while humans are blindly funding this billion dollar business.

If you have ever been to Seaworld you would have had to go see the Killer whales in fact its one of the top attractions there. Through the eyes of a child, these gentle giants seem to be happy, healthy, and enjoying a playful game with their trainers. The question is are they really happy, do they get treated the right way, and why have there been deaths and injuries. Many people wonder about these things and after the movie Blackfish came out more and more people began to question how well Seaworld treats their animals. “The truth is that Sea World keeps its animals for entertainment and money and helps no one but themselves.”- Animal Legal Defense Fund

“All whales in captivity have a bad life. They’re all emotionally destroyed. They’re all psychologically traumatized. So they’re ticking time bombs.” This is a statement by Lori Marino from the documentary, Blackfish. Many statements like this one are common and believed to be true due to the proof that the documentary provides. There are many incidents that prove Orcas, also known as Killer Whales, are harmed in captivity and that their trainers are often harmed because of this, too. Orcas should not be kept in captivity since it is harmful to both Orcas and humans.

At SeaWorld, animals have access to 24/7 veterinary care, so they should be healthier than their wild counterparts, but that is not the case. Many factors determine the overall well-being of an animal, so the average lifespan of an animal remains a crucial factor. In orcas, this remains one of the biggest differences between captive and wild whales. The lifespan of an orca drastically reduces in places like SeaWorld, because they live in captivity. Scientists expect wild female orcas to reach 100 years of age, and wild male orcas to live roughly between fifty and sixty years of age. On the other hand, all captive orcas live approximately thirty years (Blackfish). When living in captivity, an orcas lifespan decreases by twenty

Since 1961, 157 orcas, or killer whales, have been ripped from their homes and shoved into captivity. 127 of these orcas are now dead. With the number of captured orcas plus the number of those born into captivity, The W.D.C. (Whale and Dolphin Conservation) reports that, “At least 162 orcas have died in captivity, not including 30 miscarried or stillborn calves” ( “The Fate”1). Out of the 127 taken into captivity, 44 have died in SeaWorld. There are currently 58 orcas residing in 14 marine parks in eight different countries. 24 of those orcas are held in SeaWorld’s three parks in the United States. Since 2002, 14 have been taken out of the wild and put into these marine parks. (“The Fate”1) It is not fair for these innocent creatures to be physically and mentally manipulated and damaged. Such brutality would not be condoned if it were targeted towards a human, and it should not be condoned when targeted toward an animal. Orca whales should not be held in captivity because they are forced to live in subpar conditions, they are mistreated while in captivity, and they are led to aggressive behavior.

The orcas on film have suffered greatly as a result of their captivity. The area in which SeaWorld

The documentary Blackfish was debuted by CNN in 2013, shortly after the death of SeaWorlds’ orca trainer Dawn Brancheau. That, and other strange “accidental” deaths, brought up a controversial issue debating whether or not seaworld is telling the truth or just covering it up. In the film, director Gabriela Cowperthwaite reveals the problems within the sea-park industry, human relationship to nature, and how little has been learned about these highly intellectual

SeaWorld has shone on the radar of public peruse and activist criticism since experiencing its first animal-motivated death on July 6th, 1999. The victim, 27-year-old Daniel P. Dukes, had ambiguously evaded park night-security and entered the Orca tank under the cover of darkness. He was found dead the next day, drowned; but although declaring Dukes’ primary cause-of-death as pulmonary edema, Orlando’s District Nine Medical Examination Office also detailed vivid lacerations and avulsions - specifically of the genitalia. The severity of Dukes’ mutilation beaconed the public to his attacker: Tilikum, the largest Orca ever to be held in captivity - and not one new to, or finished with, killing. In response to Tilikum’s violent and arguably tragic history, film director Gabriela Cowperthwaite organized an ambitious, journalistic undertaking to expose SeaWorld’s inhumanity to the public; this undertaking would eventually translate into the 2013 documentary, Blackfish. Blackfish is, at its core, a project of entertainment, so the 1 hour and 30 minute film extensively fuses artistic expression with factual evidence to persuade its audience into condemning SeaWorld and its conglomerates, as well as to stand with Blackfish in its battle against the organization for its abusive conduct.

A large part of why people agree with the argument in Blackfish relates to the ethos, the credibility that the writer generates within the piece of the work. There are two forms of ethos: extrinsic, the reputation of the author outside of the intended argument and how it affects the credibility of the work and intrinsic, how the author creates trust within the speech (Inventing Arguments). First, the filmmaker, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, made sure to gather a team with experience and credibility, two things that create effective extrinsic ethos within the documentary. Gabriela Cowperthwaite is a documentary filmmaker who, for more than 12 years, has directed, produced and written for well-known companies such as ESPN, National Geographic, Animal Planet, and Discovery Channel. On her team she recruited an associate producer, Tim Zimmermann, who wrote an article on Dawn Brancheau, a SeaWorld trainer who was killed by the famous “Big Splash” orca, Tilikum. Cowperthwaite’s Blackfish documentary was also funded by CNN, a company that many audiences would find trustworthy due to their authority and reliability when it comes to reporting the news. During the documentary, there are four, former SeaWorld trainers who are interviewed: Samantha Berg, Jeffrey Ventre, Carol Ray, and John Hargrove. These are professionals who were not only employed at SeaWorld, the company that Blackfish is trying to build a case against, but who also worked next to Dawn Brancheau and many of the other orcas that have reacted violently towards their trainers. The fact that they are speaking out against the treatment of these whales immensely helps the ethos of the documentary because of the background and firsthand experience they have. Last, another extremely trustworthy source that appears numerous times throughout the documentary is OSHA, or the

The death of Dawn Brancheau made national news back in 2010. Dawn was working as an orca trainer at the SeaWorld of Orlando when the tragic accident occurred. While doing a relationship session with Tilikum, the largest orca in captivity, Dawn was pulled into the water and drowned. It was a story that not only shocked the nation but left people wondering how something so horrible could happen. Gabriela Cowperthwaite‘s use of the accounts of retired SeaWorld trainers exposed the harsh reality of captured animals in her documentary Blackfish. In creating a piece focused on the life of one orca, Cowperthwaite has allowed viewers to look into the lives of captured animals and has shown the greater social issue of animal rights, the treatment