' Behind Closed Tanks: Documentary Analysis

Orcas’ Behind Closed Tanks

Imagine you are a four to eight year old child and you are on vacation with your family entering into a SeaWorld. The excitement has been built up from the commercials that show you these huge and majestic animals that are not like the everyday animal you see on a daily basis. The commercials have a way of taking your imagination to another level, and any child even an adult is at awe with the level of performance these orcas’ are putting on. Amongst the magic, laughter, and adrenaline that you feel you don’t question whether or not these wild animals should be contained like they are. Blackfish, a documentary released on July 19, 2013 by Gabriela Cowperthwaite and filmed by Manuel Oteyza, answered

Tilikum was not the only orca mentioned in the documentary but since he is well known (because of SeaWorld) caught they eye of many. Former Sealand trainers interviewed say that the park’s female killer whales would aggressively gang up on Tilikum especially when they were confined in a 20-foot-by- 30-foot pool overnight (Halverstadt). Aggressive behaviors has led to three deaths by Tilikum. Many say that this behavior comes from a aggressive side of Tilikum that is a side that doesn’t want to hurt anyone but has such a anger because he is being held captive.To be taken out of your water and away from your normal everyday living is very disturbing but what causes lots of emotions to go up is when we see that orcas are getting separated from other orcas they have lived with their entire lives or even birthed. The story that made it around the world and back, caused quite the controversy about whether orcas should be putting on shows was the senior SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau. Brancheau was a top SeaWorld orca trainer and people say she was very upbeat about her job, always happy, and loved getting to be a trainer at SeaWorld. Brancheau died in February of 2010 from being pulled into the pool and being forced underwater. This would have been the third death performed by

The Film misleadingly depicts a calf that is only days old, not 4 1/2 years old.” Blackfish supported their argument and responded by pointing out that separating orca families at any age is a problem. They also backed up the claim by doing research on where the young mother and baby orca was separated “SeaWorld has attempted to downplay these traumatizing events by saying they don 't separate mothers from their calves, and that Takara was 12 when they took her away from her mother Kasatka. SeaWorld further suggests that it was proud to have sent Takara to Florida with her own calf, Kohana. What they fail to tell you is the rest of this story: Kohana was indeed sent with her mother Takara to Florida but at only three years of age they then took her from Takara and sent her to Spain. There, they bred her unnaturally young. By the age of eight she had already given birth to two calves. With no mother or matriarchal figure to teach her how to be a mother she rejected both calves. The second died within a year.” Research done by top scientists that specialize in Orca behavior have all came to conclusion that killer whales live in tight-knit families, and this is a similar behavior