Blackfish

 

Did anybody watch that 2013 documentary? 

 

Years ago I went to Sea World for the first time just because I was in the neighborhood, no expectations, and was blown away by the killer whale show.  The power was overwhelming; the size of the beasts; handlers being launched high in the air in such a graceful cooperative precise ballet.  That moment left a mark.

 

We saw there was a documentary about orcas called Blackfish.  The documentary presents orcas as social sentient animals.  There are several distinct populations, sometimes overlapping, that don’t interact or interbreed.  They have complicated social structures in the wild consisting of pods and clans, each having their own dialect.

 

The problem was, this film was too heartbreaking to watch.  They maintain that these animals languish in captivity; away from their extended family structure.  Once they’re removed from their home in the sea and held for years, they can’t even be naturally released.  They have no place in a population foreign to them; that might not even speak the same language.

 

We had to fast forward through the saddest parts.  I doubt Blackfish is an unbiased view about keeping whales in captivity, we all have our agendas, but no matter how slanted this report is, if any part of it is true, it’s just too tragic to contemplate.  Of course, Sea World has their own slant on the subject and has mounted a vigorous campaign about how humanely they treat the whales, but the sight of Shamu will never be the same for me again.