Blackfish Documentary Analysis

Words: 1493
Pages: 6

Depletion of Impudent Entertainment
“We’re going to SeaWorld!” Many kids and adults dream of seeing amazing sea creatures in action, live right in front of their noses. What they don’t realize is what is actually at stake for these animals. The documentary Blackfish takes a deeper approach to the captivity of orca whales specifically. After this documentary was released, SeaWorld’s profit dropped 84% afterward (Rhodan). The first killer whale was put in captivity in 1961. Since then, many incidents have occurred dealing with humans coming into contact with them. This document mainly focuses on the capture of the whale Tilikum and the incidents he has been involved in. Tilikum is the largest orca whale in captivity. He was captured toward Iceland in 1984 only 2 years
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Orca whales are in the dolphin family. These mammals are extremely social and need to be surrounded by their families in order to live a stress free life. At a young age, these animals are captured and ripped from their families. During this process the pod of whales will make callings out to the baby that was captured and follow the boat for quite some time to try to stick with the lost family member. Almost every orca in captivity will produce a collapsed dorsal fin (Basic). The fin of an orca should stand straight up, but because of the stress being held in captivity causes, it starts to fold over. How upsetting is it to see all orca whales in captivity have a collapsed fin because of the stress they encounter in captivity. While Tilikum has a collapsed dorsal fin, he will also chew on his metal gates and the concrete sides of his impound. These animals still hold their predator instincts and when they cannot be acted out because of captivity the whales become stressed. They are highly intelligent animals and they are fully aware of what is going on. This is why their stress level skyrockets when they are held in