Undergoing human experimentation, prodding and poking, and irrelevant training exercises, whales in captivity are forced to live in an unnatural and inhibited manner. The line between animal cruelty and human entertainment is one that has been a blur in a recent studies. Human entertainment and boredom should not give rise to the mistreatment of animals in captivity. If parks wish to remain open, then special precautions must be taken to both ensure the safety of human trainers and workers as well as happiness and comfort of the animals. If held captive animals should be given habitats that are as close to their
Each animal enclosure needs to be updated to meet the specific necessities of each animal. One risk posed by the current habitat for killer whales, is how long these animals spend at the surface in captivity. The whales can become sun burned and two killer whales have died from being bitten by a mosquito (Lewis, 2013). This is unheard of in the wild because the killer whales are able to swim away from pests such as mosquitos. By having larger and deeper habitats, killer whales could swim away or dive deep to
It explains how whales actually act in the wild, tells the reader that killer whales are actually very dangerous animals in the wild, not the fun ones on the surface, and shows how many harmful actions SeaWorld is willing to do to earn money. SeaWorld’s visitors need to know about the truth of the parks they love to visit, and this book is perfect for teaching fans of SeaWorld what their favorite theme park truly is like beneath the
That makes this sources extremely dependable for my final paper due to all the good information it gives. This movie does a good job on the timeline of events. It starts in the beginning from where and how whales were captured to be put into sea-parks, and even follows the whales on their journeys. For example, the film mainly focuses on a giant whale named Tilikum and where he started, his events, where he moved, to and where he was last when the film was made. It also starts with the first sea-parks and how they grew into bigger ones.
Everything about placing orcas in captivity is wrong, and it all starts at the capturing of the whales. Its not just the fact that people are taking them from their natural environment, but it 's how the people do it. Pods are located and then hunted down in a quite aggressive manner. Pods are chased into coves with bombs, aircraft, and boats until captured in a corral made of net. One by one, the babies, who are supposed to stay with their mother their entire life, are picked out and kidnaped from the pod.
I, myself, have been to SeaWorld and have seen the way the animals are treated, with love and respect. Although it is terrible to see such beautiful animals out of their natural habitat, SeaWorld are unable to return them to their homes, as for many animals in the SeaWorld parks, it is their home. Many animals in captivity, such as the infamous Tilikum and Katina, are now too old to be returned to the sea, and frankly, too big. Many of these whales were in fact captured by fishermen many years ago, and have lived in a tank since, but to remove them from the environment at this stage in their life is unfair and would cause great trauma to
One of the biggest ways this issue strikes you on an emotional level is when tragedy strikes when orcas are kept in captivity. The documentary "Blackfish" highlights just one of these tragedies, when a trainer was killed at Sea World in 2010. So the question comes to all of us why if we know that captivity and this environment is negatively affecting the orcas, do we continue to support this practice by going to the shows and marine parks? The legislation that California has passed brings the ethical issues of keeping these beautiful animals in captivity into the discussion now as well. Even though Sea World has stopped all their breeding programs, and will not be acquiring any new orcas, the question is what will become of the orcas that are currently living at these marine parks.
These whales are being induced to have artificial behaviors. The organization PETA stated that Sea World has been sued over keeping these mammals in captivity: “In October 2011, PETA filed a law suit against Sea World on behalf of five wild-captured orcas…” The documentary, Blackfish is a 2013 piece directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite that focuses
In recent years, orcas, dolphins, and many other aquatic mammals, have been poorly kept captive in enclosures by Seaworld and many other marine parks; some people believe that these animals are professionally taken care of, but the reality is that marine mammals overtime will act aggressively towards humans and this can break family bonds or interaction with other marine mammals of their kind. When the first marine mammals were placed in captivity in nineteen sixty-four, people wondered to themselves if captivity of sea mammals was a good or bad idea since it seemed cruel to keep an intelligent animal in confinement; ever since people wondered about it, people, books, and documentaries like “Blackfish,” have “compellingly describes many of the reasons why keeping orcas in captivity is -- and always has been -- a bad idea” and this can be seen from the number of incidents and issues that have went public in recent years. The biggest issues with putting aquatic mammals in a small, water filled tanks include the following: these animals are rarely provided wide open
How can anyone look at the whale crying and think that is morality because it is not. Whale ate one of the trainers. Tilikum is responsible for the deaths of 3 individuals, including a top killer whale trainer, Dawn Brancheau. Blackfish shows the devastating consequences of keeping such intelligent and sentient creatures in captivity. They knew Tilikum was dangerous because in his profile information it states, “Sometimes lunging toward control trainer” 70 plus killer whale trainer accidents but no one talks about them.
Whaling fleets killed “an estimated 1 million sperm whales between the 18th and 20th century and hundreds and thousands of almost every type of baleen wales such as the right and bowhead whales” (McLendon). Bowheads have been hunted for nearly 400 years, eventually reducing their population to about 8% of its prewhaling average. The North Atlantic right whale now numbers around 300, and the population is nearly extinct. The decimating population of various species of whales will have fatal effects
Overfishing is certainly an environmental issue because it affects the planets ecosystem due to human interference. One example of this is when a marine species is exploited, other species are also affected directly. According to the article, ‘Global Consequences of Overfishing’ states that, “...recent studies suggest that overfishing of large shark species has had a ripple effect in the shark 's food chain, increasing the number of species, such as rays, that are usual prey for large sharks, which result in declining stocks of smaller fish and shellfish favored by these species” It is also important to mention that overfishing often leads to the killing of other animals unintentionally. This is called bycatching. Some marine species that are affected by bycatching are juvenile fish, bottom feeding organisms, sharks, whales, sea turtles, and birds.
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.
The movie Blackfish is a documentary about Orca whales and their abhorrent treatment throughout SeaWorld’s history, detailing how the whales should be freed from their enclosures and sent back into the oceans where they belong to protect not only themselves, but to the trainers and visitors of SeaWorld as well. Blackfish revolves around one Orca named Tilikum, at 12,000 pounds he was the dominant one at SeaWorld. However, Tilikum’s public murder of three trainers changed the way people looked at SeaWorld. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite released a documentary in 2013 titled Blackfish detailing SeaWorld’s horrific treatment of its marine animals, especially the Orcas, in captivity. Ms. Cowperthwaite’s vision of Blackfish entailed “reaching
The film Blackfish by Gabriela Cowperthwaite employs rhetorical strategies to convey the alarming misfortune that orca whales experience in captivity. The film follows the appalling story of the bull orca whale Tilikum and the three human fatalities he is responsible for. Ms. Cowperthwaite uses interviews with dismayed former trainers and whale experts as a vehicle to explore the gap between the conglomerate SeaWorld’s public image and its palpable reality. The wild orcas that researchers describe as highly socialized, gentle animals are juxtaposed with the creatures portrayed in footage from SeaWorld’s marine parks. The latter are abused, confined to dark cages, and live in small concrete pools that are nothing in comparison to the one