Having just aired on CNN, the 2013 documentary "Blackfish," which details the disturbing events leading up to the death of senior SeaWorld orca trainer, Dawn Brancheau, filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite recently wrote about why she decided to make the film and what impact she thinks it will make on the general public and on SeaWorld.
Thirty-year-old orca whale, Tilikum, who was born in the wild in Iceland and raised in captivity, where he suffered horrific abuse from trainers and other captive whales, and later allegedly killed Brancheau during a training and interaction session at an Orlando, Fla. SeaWorld park.
Though SeaWorld denied that the whale was responsible for Brancheau's death, writing that "all evidence indicates that Tilikum became interested in the novelty of Dawn's ponytail in his environment and, as a result, he grabbed it and pulled her into the water," at the time of the film's release, Cowperthwaite's documentary, full of private footage and in-depth interviews with former trainers who worked with and knew Brancheau well, paints a very different picture.
Brancheau's autopsy report documents a brutal death, involving scalping, fractures, and blunt force injuries to all parts of the body. In "Blackfish," a haunting 911 phone call reveals that a whale "ate a trainer," and multiple trainers confirmed on film that once Tilikum had Brancheau's body, he didn't let go for hours.
Today, Tilikum floats in his exhibit, mostly staying in the same spot, isolated for other whales and only occasionally coming out for breeding or to do a simple trick for a whale show. He has been linked to the death of at least three people, including a Canadian trainer at the now-closed SeaLand.
Tilikum, however, was not the only whale to suffer alleged abuse at the hands of SeaWorld, as shown in the documentary. Mother and baby whales have been separated and flown to other parks, and whales that don't know each other have acted aggressively to each other and to their trainers.
As they are highly social and intellectual animals that stay in close-knit pods and can live up to 100 years in the wild, many people, including Cowperthwaite, argue that keeping orcas in captivity purely for human entertainment is immoral.
"I set out to understand this incident [of Brancheau's death], not as an animal activist - because I'm not one - but as a mother who had just taken her kids to SeaWorld, and of course as a documentary filmmaker who unfortunately can't let sleeping dogs lie," Cowperthwaite wrote on CNN.com. "I knew immediately that I wanted SeaWorld to have a voice in the film. We e-mailed back and forth for about six months. I gave them every chance to talk, but they eventually declined. At that point, however, I had already began peeling back the onion. And my journey of shock and discovery was well underway."
"I can't say this was an easy film to make. There were nightmares, too many autopsy reports, sobbing interviewees and unhappy animals...My hope is that we take the 'Blackfish' momentum and use it to help evolve us out of animals for entertainment. These silly marine park tricks are of no social, educational or conservational value. We advocate, instead, for captive killer whales to be retired into sea sanctuaries where they can live out the rest of their lives in a dignified, sustainable manner.
"We can't throw them back into the ocean because they don't know how to hunt, their teeth are broken from years of stress and biting on metal gates, and they're hopped up on antibiotics and might die in the open ocean. However, in a sea sanctuary, where a large ocean cove is cordoned off with a net, we could monitor their health, even feed them if need be. It is the best alternative."
As for whether or not she believes SeaWorld should be shut down, as has been the reaction of many "Blackfish" viewers, Coperthwaite answered that instead of shutting down their business, they could put it to use for a better cause. "They have tremendous financial resources and could play a key role in creating sea sanctuaries which could be a profit-making endeavor. I believe people would flock to a site where a killer whale is being a killer whale for the first time - something infinitely more satisfying than seeing a killer whale dance the Macarena."
