From Truth Out: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17851-blackfish-documentary-exposes-negligence-corruption-in-seaworlds-quest-for-profit
By Martha Sorren
Saturday, 03 August 2013
In 2011, SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment had a banner year with core earnings topping $380 million. But for decades animal activists have been arguing that this is blood money. Blackfish, a new documentary about the well-known theme park, finally might prove them right.
Directed and produced by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the film follows the story of Tilikum, a baby orca captured in the open North Atlantic Ocean in 1983. He made headlines in 2010 when he caused the death of senior SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau.
As the documentary leads you through the events leading up to Brancheau’s death, it takes the opportunity to look at the larger issue of whale captivity and the wide net of negligence and corruption SeaWorld has cast as it consistently put its animals and staff in danger to make a profit.
Blackfish utilizes interviews from a variety of reputable sources, including former SeaWorld trainers and whale researchers to compile evidence against the marine park.
“The situation with Dawn Brancheau didn’t just happen; it’s not a singular event,” whale researcher Dave Duffus explained. “You have to go back over 20 years to understand this.”
John Crowe recalled his whale hunting in 1970 in Puget Sound, Washington, and how haunting the mothers’ cries were as he separated the babies from the pod. “I lost it. I just started crying. I just couldn’t handle it,” he said in the film. “Just like kidnapping a little kid away from her mother. I can’t think of anything worse than that. The worst thing that I’ve ever done is hunt that whale.”
Tilikum, affectionately nicknamed Tilly, was captured and separated from his mother when he was only 2. In the wild, orcas never leave their mothers, and some of these pods can have as many as four generations traveling together.
Continue reading at: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17851-blackfish-documentary-exposes-negligence-corruption-in-seaworlds-quest-for-profit
