Blackfish: Underneath Sea World

Blackfish is a 2013 documentary film directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2013, and was picked up by Magnolia Pictures for wider release. Blackfish focuses on the Orca Tilikum and dangers of keeping the species in captivity. The documentary focuses  on the captivity of the killer whale Tilikum, who was involved in the deaths of three individuals and the consequences of keeping such a large and intelligent animals in captivity. The coverage of Tilikum begins with his capture in 1983 off the coast of Iceland, showing how he was harrassed by fellow captive whales and left in the dark for hours - incidents which Cowperthwaite argues contributed to the whale's aggression. Cowperthwaite also focuses on SeaWorld's claims that whales in captivity live longer; a claim that the film argues is false.

This news story is opening the eyes to many Americans' about the tragic story of the Orca whales. This movie is sad and extremely biased against SeaWorld. They show SeaWorld in a negative light and basically negatively showing the world how SeaWorld captured and trained the animals for entertainment. This story was run on CNN last night and caused quite controversy. SeaWorld before the movie was aired on TV Thursday night made statements about how this movie didn't show the benefits of Sea World. 

"Blackfish is billed as a documentary, but instead of a fair and balanced treatment of a complex subject, the film is inaccurate and misleading and, regrettably, exploits a tragedy that remains a source of deep pain for Dawn Brancheau's family, friends and colleagues. To promote its bias that killer whales should not be maintained in a zoological setting, the film paints a distorted picture that witholds from viewers key facts about SeaWorld -- among them, that SeaWorld is on of the world's most respected zoological institutions, that SeaWorld rescues, rehabilitates and returns to the wild hundreds of wild animals every year, and that SeaWorld commits millions of dollars annually to conservation and scientific research. Perhaps most important, the film fails to mention SeaWorld's commitment to the safety of its team members and guests and to the care and welfare of its animals, as demonstrated by the company;s continual refinement and improvement to its killer whale facilities, equipment and procedures both before and after the death of Dawn Brancheau."

The movie makes them seem like they don't care for the animals like they say they do. They show SeaWorld as a basically huge money making organization that doesn't take into consideration the affect they are having on the whales. Tilly is their distraught male whale that was torn away from his home and family, constantly beaten by other female whales as a child, and is extremely too large for his living quoters was part of the few reasons why he acted out in violent and vicious ways.

This is a story about pain and a struggle between money and what is moral. Morally they are committing serious felonies but because the conditions are with animals it's constantly being over looked. These creatures are smarter then what we give them credit for and parading them around like a circus act will only cause more human casualties. I would have agree that SeaWorld was educational but, the fact that facts they are teaching are incorrect and only there to serve the purpose of proving Sea World's actions valid make me not only skeptical but furious. I'm disgusted at how industries are more worried about losing money then actually what is safe for their employees and their animals.