...In 1964 Seaworld was founded by four young men, David Demott, George Millay, Ken Norris, and Milt Shedd, who all graduated from The University of California, Los Angeles. These boys set out on a dream of constructing an “underwater restaurant”, however, “the concept grew into a marine zoological park on 21 acres along the shore of Mission Bay in San Diego” ( “Seaworld: Waves of Growth”). Seaworld began with merely sea lions and dolphins in one location, but the parks have evolved to now house 22 killer whales, along with thousands of other animals, which they have been successfully breeding for 40 years in their three different parks. This world famous theme park takes pride in the fact that they have not taken an orca from their natural habitat...
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...S hots fired to Gabriela Cowpethwaite, for her courage in exposing SeaWorld for its true colours. Yet, to my amazement, I’m shocked SeaWorld’s dirty secrets were unknown. With a long history of strange incident reports released by SeaWorld themselves, only Cowpethwaite had the nerve to recognize and end this reoccurring pattern-how miserable. Perhaps the concept of animals seized of their privileges, for our selfish desire, wasn’t “film worthy”, until now. Although it would be biased to assume Blackfish stood without fault, the evidence featured was beyond enough to financially, mentally and physically drown SeaWorld. Why is this type of industrial behemoth considered entertainment? Normally, you would expect SeaWorld, to constantly deliver advanced animal welfare. DON’T BE FOOLED! Thanks to Blackfish, after the embarrassment placed on SeaWorld, I’m not at all interested in thinking that any animals should be in captivity. If interviews and eyewitness scenes in Blackfish wasn’t evident enough, SeaWorld’s pathetic arguments didn’t benefit, since clearly it only stated the basic errors within this documentary. For instance, SeaWorld’s “strong...
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...Seaworld is a well known marine themed amusement park with three locations throughout the United States. They are most well known for their shows with their captive Orcas, also known as Killer Whales. Once a well loved park, it is now facing major scrutiny due largely to the documentary Blackfish that was released in 2013. This documentary is mainly about one of Seaworld’s captive Orcas, Tilikum, and how he killed several people while in captivity, but also discusses the species and its cruel treatment in captivity. Seaworld’s “profits have dropped 84% after the Blackfish documentary” (Time), their attendance has also dropped. In Response Seaworld launched a massive PR campaign in late 2013 to try to mend their tarnished image. They use images and quotes to try and make the public believe they care about the well being of their captive Orcas, but their advertisements and web campaign are rather deceiving....
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...SeaWorld is not as amazing as it seems. Where does SeaWorld get their killer whales? Tilikum was a killer whale that had been caught when he was two years old, taken out of his home in the wild to be brought into captivity for SeaWorld. Tilikum was one of the most known killer whales SeaWorld has ever had. In the article “All's Whale that ends Whale,” He was brought into captivity in 1983. He was captured off the east coast of Iceland. SeaWorld wanted him because he of how big he was. At two years of age he was 11.5 feet long and they wanted to use him for the shows. The trainers started to train him and he caught on easy but if he would mess up or that day he decided to not do as many tricks as he was told to do, the trainers would either not feed him as much food as they usually would or they would put him in a tank with two to three other females. Female killer whales love to show that they are more dominant than the males, so when they put Tilikum in a very small tank with three to four female whales, they would go after him and bite his skin away, cut him open, or hit him with their tail. Tilikum...
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...Seaworld houses many aquatic animals, including killer whales, nothing wrong with that right? Wrong, imagine being locked in one room forever. Being captive in confined space does many health damaging things. Holding a living creature captive for no logical reason, other than to rake in money, is a sick business that should be ended. Primarily, Seaworld claims that they assist killer whales that are in need. According to park spokesman Fred Jacobs, Seaworld has helped many whales who were lost or stranded but in at least three cases they have been more interested in sending them into a lifetime of captivity entertaining tourists than releasing them back into the ocean. Being removed from the ocean and sentenced to life in the show biz forcefully...
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...Tomas Hannacher 6/18/16 Block 6 Seaworld Under Fire & What It Means For San Diego. Seaworld has been surrounded by media controversy the last several years following an orca activist documentary titled Blackfish. Blackfish, was released in 2013 and originally premiered in the 2013 sundance festival where it picked up traction and attracted Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films who funded Blackfish for a larger audience and screen, where Blackfish flourished and earned over $2 million dollars over two weeks in the domestic box office. Overall, Blackfish mainly investigated the death of an orca trainer at Seaworld orlando. The documentary suggests that Tilikum, an orca was involved in three trainer deaths due to the extreme traumatic experiences...
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...com/problem-blackfish/ Summary-This article is a rebuttle to Blackfish’s thesis. It claims that Seaworld is actually not as villainous as Black fish makes them out to be, citing a statement seaworld made about how it rehabilitates animals, is a respected zoological foundation, and donates to conservation research. Despite this, even the writer of the article points out the easily disputable and vague statements which are cited in a message from seaworld to CNN to support the idea that Seaworld is not so terrible to it’s whales and humans. This makes for a weak rebuttle. Importance-This article is a terrible rebuttal. Characteristic of it’s failure is the fact that even the author of the article could not keep a straight train of thought to cement a solid counterargument. What this goes to show is that the counterargument truly is a weak one. Perhaps one of the only good points, presuming its true, that this article has to offer is the one to do with Sea World's monetary contributions to conservation. With Sea World going down the drains due to it’s poor orca practices it will obviously not be able to contribute to conservation, as it’s money is being drained in bad publicity and lawsuits. This will have some impact environmentally presuming that Sea World really was contributing in some meaningful way. http://www.indiewire.com/article/sundance-review-blackfish-ensures-youll-never-go-to-seaworld-again Summary- This article starts by summarizing key points in Black Fish’s basic...
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...“Captivity Kills Orcas” by Naomi Rose Naomi Rose shows the harmful effects that orcas are faced with by living in captivity in her essay, “Captivity Kills Orcas”. She discusses that captivity is not only bad for the orcas but also for the trainers. Three trainers were killed by the most famous orca at seaworld, Tilikum. Rose does a good job at explaining why orcas should not be held in captivity but fails to discuss how orcas got there or why Seaworld is now not forcing orcas to bread. The astonishing documentary, “Blackfish” is mentioned in Rose’s essay because it was the start to the outstanding media attention on how Seaworld handled the orcas. The documentary shows Seaworld workers stealing orca babies from their mothers and separating...
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...“SeaWorld’s Weird Science” stated, SeaWorld has been going through some difficult times since 2013. The reason why they have been under the microscope is because of what a movie by the name of “Blackfish” said about them. It stated that they have been keeping killer whales caged. The video specifically mentioned a killer whale named Tilikum that is kept for his sperm. Tilikum is approximately 33 years old and has fathered around 31 babies. His sperm is used to generate the majority of SeaWorld’s killer whale population. Also, it was referenced that SeaWorld responded to the film by using science as their primary reasoning for keeping an estimated 50 orcas in captivity. They stated that their purpose for having these mammals living in captivity...
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...Just ten days after Valentine’s Day in 2010, a captive SeaWorld orca whale named Tilikum brutally drowned a forty-year-old veteran trainer named Dawn Brancheau during a live show performance. In one quick motion, Tilikum grabbed onto Brancheau’s arm and dragged her into the million gallon tank. With a blood-curdling scream, Dawn was dragged to the bottom of the tank and tossed around. In the autopsy report, Brancheau suffered an enormous amount of blunt force trauma due to the massive force of the twelve thousand pound animal slamming on top of her. The violent attack even scalped a layer of Dawn’s head right off. Yet, it was noted that the cause of death was drowning with “approximately four milliliters of fluid in her sphenoid sinus” (Autopsy...
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...what she presents to us is just something that needs to be presented to all the people from the planet. She went to the park and met the chief zoological officer Andrews, he’s been in the park since 1986 and he explains “that while part of the goal is entertainment, SeaWorld's aim is to use the shows to educate and inspire visitors, as a way to help conserve the environment and support wildlife.” There are a lot of people that are making interview and giving their opinion for SeaWorld to close and one of theme is the 81-year-old primatologist Jane Goodall said “whales and dolphins should never be held in captivity, and that the entertainment company known for its orca shows should be shuttered.” This film exposed the misery endured by SeaWorld's trained orca and the dangers posed to trainers working with stressed-out carnivorous whales. But to continue with my argument let me explain to you what is the documental of Blackfish. Movie Summary Report John Hargrove and Samantha Berg, a former SeaWorld trainer, tell why they decided to work with these animals, other trainers continue telling their story about how the decided to be a trainer for killer whales. They just fell in love with these creatures and they knew that was their future. To become a trainer of these or other sea animals they have to be in a good shape, be a professional swimmer, have personality, be prepare for all type of situation since you don’t know what could happened in the moment. To enter to the water...
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...The blackfish, more commonly known as, orcas or killer whales. Has been known to give smiles to many. While seeing them in the wild or at parks, like SeaWorld, can both give people happiness and exciting feelings. Now take a minuet. What would happen if all people knew about the blackfish were incorrect? The only thing that was true, was the love for the mammal. The documentary by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Blackfish, is to show the importance of how these animals act. Some would disagree, bit if people dive deeper into their understanding, Orcas are similar to humans in their emotions. Blackfish has many different resources which makes this documentary convincing. According to Howard Garrett, an Orca Researcher, states that there has not been any record of any whale attack from a wild whale. On the other hand, there has been countless records of Orca whale attacks from captivity. The attacks come from many SeaWorld, zoos and other alike parks like SeaWorld, form other counties. This shows that whales get stressed in captivity because they don't have open, unlimited waters like the wild whales. Lori Marina, a neuroscientists, said her team looked at whales' brain, and found something amazing. They have an extended-paralumbic cleft....
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...Tilikum, also known as Tilly, is a killer whale who currently resides in captivity at the SeaWorld location in Orlando, Florida. In February of 1991, Keltie Byrne, who was a 20-year-old student studying marine biology and who was involved in competitive swimming, slipped into the pool enclosing Tilikum, Haidi II and Nootka IV while working as a part-time trainer at Sealand. “The three orcas submerged her, dragging her around the pool and preventing her from surfacing. At one point she reached the side and tried to climb out but, as horrified visitors watched from the sidelines, the orcas pulled her screaming back into the pool” (Tilikum). Other trainers tried to respond to her screams by pitching her a life-ring, but the orcas kept her distant...
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...Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite interviews former SeaWorld trainers and they explain when first employed, they were unaware of all the cases in which trainers were hurt while either training or performing. The trainers also spoke about how they didn’t know that Tilikum had been brought to SeaWorld after the death of a trainer of now de-functed Sea Land. Tilikum was the cause of three human deaths. Seaworld insisted it was the fault of the trainer and not the orca. These examples show how seaworld's is only interested in making money and does not care for its employees or...
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...Free Orcas How much do you really know about whales in captivity? Do you think the whales at sea world enjoy being there? Imagine you're walking down the street with your family when out of nowhere you're trapped in a net and being taken away from them. This happens to young whales almost everyday and is very unnecessary. Orcas should not be kept in captivity because it causes premature death, anxiety, and violent behavior. Many people would consider these results to be animal abuse. It has been confirmed that whales in captivity have higher mortality rates than those in the wild and these rates have only worsened over the years. According to the report “Killer Controversy: Why Orcas Should No Longer Be Kept in Captivity,” "Captive female orcas give birth too young and too often, leading to both high adult and high infant mortality." Also, the chronic stress of being confined weakens their immune system which leads to infection. This is the most common cause of death for captive orcas. The average life expectancy of a wild orca is 30-50 years. Orcas who have died at Sea World have an average age of death of 13 years old. The shocking fact is that over 161 whales have died in captivity, and it can easily be prevented by leaving them in the wild where they belong. Another outcome of the confinement is anxiety. Orcas who are not compatible with one another are placed in relatively small tanks which results in anxiety and tension. This tension often leads to brutal fights...
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