BLACKFISH - Killer Whales at SeaWorld Documentary

I happen to love whales & dolphins ~ fascinated might be a better word, actually. Maybe it stems from growing up in a landlocked province, wanting what you can't have? Kinda like people who live close to the Equator wishing they could have snow? I don't know, all I know is I could watch them for hours if I lived along the coast. When I take a coffee break from yard or housework, I'm often clipping over to YouTube to catch a glimpse of the Orca, videos filmed by people while whale-watching. (I love chimpanzees, too, but that's a whole other post!)

So, I saw this on YouTube's sidebar as recommended for you & gave it a click. It's a  documentary about the Orcas at Seaworld; where they came from, what day-to-day life is like for them, and the outright lies told by Seaworld's staff. I really hope this comes to Edmonton, I'll be the first in line!!

Below is a my playlist on youtube with the trailers for the movie with a fabulous interview with the filmmaker/director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, on The Lip TV as the first video on the list. It's well worth watching the whole 39 minutes!

I am guilty of going to Sea World in Florida (and Bushe Gardens), as well as Canada's version of Seaworld, Marineland, which is in Niagara Falls. I spent the better part of one entire day in Niagara Falls at Marineland, with my hands on a Beluga Whale (they had it in a "petting tank").

I will never go again.

I'm shocked nowadays as to the "storage" of their animals, beautiful creatures locked in tiny tanks they can't swim around -- it's almost like a boathouse, just drive the whale in, close the door behind him & leave him. I didn't know back then they they were treated that way.

I also didn't know that they captured baby Orca, screaming for their mothers as they're put in carrying tarps (and mothers screaming back), and then put a bunch of them together in Seaworld that were from different family groups, thus speaking different languages.

AND I didn't know -- this part is gleaned from an older issue of National Geographic that I read a few months ago -- that there are at least 3 sub-species of Orca: regular resident pods that eat fish only; another group known as Offshores that not much is known about, since they spend their time away from the coasts; and lastly, Transients who live in very small groups, who are mammal eaters only, in fact have snapped up a moose or two having a drink of water where the freshwater rivers drain in to the Pacific along the BC coast!

All three types of Orca speak entirely different languages, if you will, and all three groups eat entirely different foods. The article actually mentions that Seaworld or another such park had captured 2 of the transient whales, continually tried to feed them fish, and one of the 2 actually died of starvation before they figured it out. Unfortunately, the article doesn't mention what happened to the second one.

The whales can be spotted as different for a few reasons: one because of the fin shape and another for the saddle patch (the white part near the dorsal fin). Resident orcas have a fin that is curved to the back, transients have a pointy fin, straight up triangle, and Offshores have smaller fins, and the white of the saddle patch is further forward than the other two. As well, residents "talk" nonstop, back & forth, they can hear each other from a fair distance. The transient only speak after they've made a kill. They did a few experiments with sea mammals that live along the BC coast, playing recordings of residents talking & the seals & otters all ignored it.
When they played recordings of the transients, all of the mammals fled to land, in terror. It mentioned that when transients are on the hunt, dolphins will fling themselves onto the rocks, even though it's a suicide run, just to escape the Transients on a hunt. Transients will bash into their prey & hold it unerwater to drown it, then eat and celebrate their success with playing & singing.

I can't tell if Tilley at Seaworld is a Transient whale, but I suspect that he is, since he has killed a number of people in his captive life. His fin has flopped over, which Seaworld says is normal, but any whale researcher will tell you that a flopped-over dorsal fin is due to stress or illness. The fact is that about 1% of Orca will have a flopped fin -- Seaworld trains their staff to use a acript that says that one quartre of all Orca have flopped fins. Hrmph. A pretty big lie, eh?

I would love to hear from you all as to what you think of whales, what you think about this & what experiences you've had at Seaworld or whale watching.