Blackfish is a documentary that aired recently on CNN. It’s one that was brought to my attention about a month ago now via a FB status update of a friend in the US. I kept an eye out for it and we nabbed a copy once it had aired. I knew it wasn’t going to be a comfortable documentary. Blackfish is a very potent and persuasive text that demands viewers consider whether orcas in captivity are a good idea. Unequivocally the answer is no. I sat and watched it with Tim. We’ve both been to Seaworld and seen the orca show. Tim as a child (even as 6 year old he sensed something looked very wrong about the whole picture) and myself in 2010. Seaworld spends a lot of time, effort and money into convincing the world that the educational benefits of coming to their park and seeing the Orcas perform for the crowd are substantial.

I learnt very little other than the fact that I was glad I was wearing sunglasses because watching those massive and beautiful mammals perform for the crowd just elicited such a profound sense of sadness in me that I teared up. I couldn’t quite fathom just how wrong it felt watching these whales basically perform like circus animals (and hasn’t the world moved on from those types of circuses anyway by now?) in this tiny space compared to where they had come from. Oh they’re born in captivity it’s okay – they’ve never known the open oceans so they’ll never miss it. They’ll also live significantly shorter lives with a distinct drop in quality. This documentary just laid all those feelings bare and showed exactly the reason behind my reactions. Two things were revealed as clearly as the crisp, beautiful black and white markings on these whales – One, it is heinously wrong to keep them captive (given what science has uncovered about them so far re their emotional and social intelligence being so high off the charts they haven’t found their limits) and two, the lengths of deceit, hypocrisy and disinformation Seaworld management will go to in order to keep the money rolling in are diabolical.

The documentary maker, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, made herself available for viewers to go online and ask questions via the very useful reddit website. She had been inspired to create the documentary after reading this article here. One of the most popular questions from the public was – I’m just one person but I want to do something to stop this. What can I do? Her answer was to not give Seaworld any more money, to tell people why you’re not supporting the Orca’s in captivity and to join any protest groups that choose to stand out the front of the Seaworld parks helping to inform the public.To spread the word and awareness as far and wide as we could regarding the documentary.

As a teacher I feel very empowered with the last idea. Blackfish is going to become a standard text for my students. Every student I teach is going to see this documentary at least once. We’ll talk about it, we’ll do some further digging, look at the arguments from all sides. We may even debate and have groups involved in taking on representing the Seaworld juggernaut, the employee trainers, the public. There are many creative literacy activities we can do around it. Looking at the ethical and philosophical aspects, looking at the sustainability of captive populations and the impact on the wild populations. The possibilities are endless.

As a person who has now witnessed an Orca family in the wild off the coast of Alaska and seen them up close it is undeniable to me that these amazing marine mammals should only ever be seen in the wild for that is where they are the most emotionally, physically and socially happy.

A link to a recent article describing the fallout from the documentary can be read here.
A PDF paper on Orcas in Captivity is here. Seven things about Orcas you’ll never learn at Seaworld