The Blackfish Documentary Analysis

The Blackfish documentary was made by Gabriela Cowperthwaite in 2013. In order to show that Blackfish is propaganda against SeaWorld, their claims about Tilikum and the accidents surrounding him as well as how he was introduced to SeaWorld, its claims about how SeaWorld functioned based on information from ex-employees some of whom haven’t worked there for over twenty years, incidents such as deaths and injuries occurring on and off of SeaWorld property, the claims and sequences where science and biology are stout contradictions to them.
The Blackfish documentary makes critical note of Tilikum and uses this particular orca as a foundation for many of the claims made in the documentary. The documentary shows video of an orca whale collection that had taken place over forty years ago in Washington state. The documentary implies that Tilikum had been obtained by SeaWorld in …show more content…
The picture that they had noted with this statement was when Tilikum had been placed into a medical pool. Blackfish uses anthropomorphism throughout its film, one specific incident being when they mentioned how the orcas were “screaming” due to being separated from their calf. Basic biology of these animals debunks this as orcas do not have vocal cords and are completely incapable of producing sound with their mouths. They instead use their blowhole to create different volumes, pulses frequencies and pitches to create their calls. According to former SeaWorld Orlando orca trainer Kittleson, K (2014). “Blackfish is a movie that is designed to make you feel. It is not a movie designed to make you think.” They also claim that SeaWorld contains their marine life in chlorine filled pools while this could not be more wrong. SeaWorld has sixty two individual filters capable of filtering one hundred and thirty two gallons of saltwater, recycling what they use each