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Argumentative Essay On Blackfish

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Blackfish is a film on the various incidents involving orcas in SeaWorld, focusing on Tilikum especially, who killed three people. Blackfish argues that captivity causes psychological harm to orca. It claims that because orcas are used to swimming up to 100 miles per day, keeping them in small enclosures has a detrimental effect on their mental well-being. A neurologist interviewed in the film says that all orcas in captivity are emotionally scarred, traumatized, and are thus “ticking time bombs”. Evidence in the documentary is used to suggest that orcas exhibit signs of stress, hyperaggression, depression, and frustration, which, especially with Tilikum, seemingly manifested itself as violent outbursts against the trainers, and other orcas …show more content…

This much was made clear when many SeaWorld trainers said that up to 25% of orcas in the wild have collapsed dorsal fins, something other scientists believed to be untrue and argued that it only happens in 1% of orcas in the wild. Moreover, Blackfish claims that orcas in the wild live much longer than its fellows in captivity—though SeaWorld trainers claimed that orcas live longer in captivity than in the wild. Interviewees in Blackfish said that female orcas live up to 100 years while males live 50–60 years; in SeaWorld, they had a tendency to live 30-40 years. Something that was interesting, though, is that there is not enough study on orca lifespans to determine with enough confidence what the actual average …show more content…

It supports this by presenting the various incidents involving orcas in which they attacked and injured or killed their trainers. The film suggests that theses incidents were all a direct result of the orcas’ distress from being in captivity. It contends that the inherent wild nature of orcas, as well as their size and strength, makes them unsuitable for both captivity and close interaction with humans. While this much may be true, Blackfish really focuses on instances of aggression that SeaWorld says are isolated cases and do not represent the overall behavior of orcas in captivity. They emphasize the millions of other safe interactions that humans have had with orcas and claim that Tilikum was an isolated case separate from other orcas. Just because there have been many more safe interactions with orcas than dangerous encounters does not necessarily mean that all orcas are safe, however. While not all animals become dangerous in captivity, certain species are not suited for small, artificial spaces. Orcas certainly are part of this group, as they are not only large and strong but apex predators in their habitat that have complex social structures that do not do well living in a confined space with other

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Blackfish written by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. From the start attraction at Sealand of the Pacific in 1969, the aquarium grew attention for their orcas that would perform. Years later a two year old whale was captured and arrived in 81’. His name was Tilikum, coming in at two years old and 4,000 pounds. How do you go about taking orcas out of their setting, changing how they feel, and go about certain lies of how situations occurred?

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Director, writer, and producer, Gabriella Cowperthwaite, in her documentary, Blackfish, describes the shameless hunting and treatment of killer whales. Cowperthwaite’s purpose is to persuade us into opening our eyes to the reality of what we are doing to killer whales by confining them in captivity. She invents an emotionally wrenching tone in order to transmit to the adult viewers that living in captivity may not be acceptable life for the whales. The film effectively showed that the whales should not be kept in captivity by giving the audience examples of their signs of aggression and displays of emotion. Cowperthwaite begins her documentary by showing how killer whales can become barbaric when held captive.

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The first reason why I think should not be in captivity is of what happens in their tank. The first piece of evidence from the PETA practical “Aquariums and Marine Parks” is that since the tanks for the orcas are usually small for them, they get insane because of the echolocation they use. This makes me think that since their fin sometimes curves, that they would get injured while swimming. In addition, this might make the whale die faster than what they are supposed to live to. Other people might say it might non’t affect it

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Unlike in the wild, where orcas tend to avoid human interaction, there have been dozens of fatal and non-fatal incidents involving captive orcas and humans. The most famous example of this features the largest captive orca in history, Tilikum, who was initially owned by Sealand in Victoria, B.C, before being sold to SeaWorld for their breeding program. Over the course of his life, he directly caused the deaths of three humans: two trainers, Keltie Byrne and Dawn Brancheau, and one trespassing man, Daniel P. Dukes. The most well-known of the three deaths, Dawn Brancheau, was witnessed by a live audience during a SeaWorld Orlando show in 2010, during which she had been suddenly yanked into the water by Tillikum, who not only scalped her and tore off her arm, but also refused to release her body for nearly an hour. Years of abuse and mistreatment had accumulated to anger and exhaustion in the orca, and eventually, he snapped and lunged towards the closest human, who unfortunately happened to be Dawn.

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Blackfish: DROWING IN BIAS!!!! The 2013 expository documentary Blackfish, directed by 2-time award-winning Gabriela Cowperthwaite, sheds light on SeaWorld’s abusive orca captivity program and the death of SeaWorld trainers by orcas such as Tilikum. Intended to educate and bring awareness to a wider audience, the documentary sends a powerful message that SeaWorld’s abuse and negligence towards orcas, blinded by their profit-hungry mentality, jeopardizes orca wellbeing and trainer safety. The film utilizes various techniques and persuasive devices to influence audiences and portray its bias agent SeaWorld that they are a heartless, greedy, and corrupt company.

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For many years, people have enjoyed going to SeaWorld to see the shows they would present. However, based on the documentary, Blackfish, that has changed drastically. People are now opening their eyes and seeing the inhumane treatment that these whales are being put through. Tilikum, a SeaWorld-owned killer whale, would attack the trainers during shows and, most of the time, kill them. SeaWorld denies that they are responsible for the cause of the Tilikum’s behavior by saying that the trainers should know the risks of working with killer whales.

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In 2013, the documentary called Blackfish was released, a story about a killer whale that over the years at SeaWorld killed several people. It highlighted some of the major problems with animals in captivity. SeaWorld, known for having several different animal attractions; Dolphin Cove, Dolphin Nursery, Orca Underwater Viewing, Shark Encounter, Wild Arctic (Habitat) and many more. The organization first started with the intention of learning more about animals in order to educate the public about different behaviors of each animal. Trainers at Seaworld are offered the opportunity to get hands-on training with animals and are eventually are allowed to entertain the public with the skills they have acquired.

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Blackfish (2013) is an American documentary film directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and produced by Manuel V. Oteyza. The documentary primarily concerns the controversy of captured Killer Whales at the theme park Sea World, primarily that of Tilikum, an Orca responsible for the deaths of 2010 SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau and two other individuals. The documentary begins with this incident but goes as far back to the 1970 's show the audience how young Orcas are captured in the wild and taken from their families and natural environments. Since its release at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival Blackfish has achieved both critical acclaim and caused controversy regarding SeaWorld 's treatment of its animals as well as retaliation from SeaWorld as to the legitimacy of the film 's claims.

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Starting from the way they are captured, these animals suffer all their life in confinement. Currently, 58 orcas are held captive in different marine parks around the world. (The fate of captive orcas). At the moment of their capture this animals are hurled in and the young ones are captured, leaving the parents in despair over their offspring’s. (blackfish).

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In 2013, Gabriela Cowperthwaite directed the documentary Blackfish. This documentary is about Tilikum, an orca from SeaWorld that has taken the lives of many trainers. The documentary makes the claim that orcas should be freed from captivity. While in captivity they are causing harm to both themselves, humans, and the other orcas. Blackfish is a great example of an argument that can be rhetorically analyzed because it has pathos, ethos, and logos.

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In 2013, a documentary called Blackfish was released to the public. This film was produced, written, and directed by a lady named Gabriela Cowperthwaite, as a way to show the world how poorly whales are treated and why they do not belong in captivity. Blackfish also shows how little people really know about the beautiful and highly intelligent orca whale itself. Her film was seen by many, and touched the hearts of a lot people, taking the debate of the topic to a higher level. The movie hits on a lot of main issues about captivity, told by reliable people, along with proven statistics to go along with them.

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In 2013, the film Blackfish was released into the wild world of propaganda. This documentary dives into the seemingly problems with the sea-park industry, specifically SeaWorld, and attempts to expose how intelligent these mammals are. Blackfish argues that these marine animals should not be kept in captivity due to their aggressive behavior mixed with SeaWorld’s workers lacking knowledge of orcas. With little statistics and only emotionally based, Blackfish attempts to tear apart SeaWorld with the idea that captivity of a wild animal results in a violent, barbaric creature that injures/kills the trained workers. This biased film does not show the reaping benefits of captivity of wild animals though.

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Blackfish The documentary Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite released in July 2013, explores the mistreatment of killer whales and the relationship between the killer whales and trainers as well as the significant problems of the sea-park industry, with a focus upon SeaWorld. Cowperthwaite positions the audience to feel sympathy towards the killer whales by making deliberate choices in sound, visual, language, and structure through the representation of trainers as unprofessional, and whales as mistreated, also experts as reliable information source. Firstly, Cowperthwaite uses effective language techniques to position the audience to view the trainers as undertrained and unprofessional.

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The orcas also spend more time exposed to air than they would in the wild, and often moving slowly due to their insanely small and prohibited size of their captive habitats. So, the orcas are prime feeding targets for mosquitoes. In fact, two captive orcas have died from mosquito-borne illnesses. The important thing to notice about this is that this is just another way the orcas can eventually die in captivity, when in reality, they can live in the wild, not having as many unnatural or uncommon ways to die. Wild orcas normally swim upwards 100 miles a day, while captive orcas are swimming in constants circles every day of their life, which is mostly the cause of dorsal fin collapse.

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Orcas are incredibly smart, so the mother orcas would swim away from where the herding was happening. As a result to this, SeaWorld began releasing planes that would fly over the sea and find the mothers, because the orcas had to come up for air eventually. They would throw bombs into the water, so the orcas would be forced to go into nets. One of the whales, named Tilikum, who recently died in January of 2017, was kidnapped from the ocean at the young age of two. A man named Ted Griffin, who helped capture the whales, killed a mother whale in front of her daughter, to later be named Shamu; the first performing whale at SeaWorld.

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