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Kyle Dahlin
Lynda Haas
Writing 37
13 March 2015
Intelligent Beings as Captives: Orcas Used for Entertainment
Most kids in their lifetimes have begged their parents to take them to a
zoo or aquarium. Even as adults, people are intrigued and captivated by
observing animals or creatures they would not normally see. The main
features of some animal theme parks, zoos, and most marine mammal parks
are orcas. Orcas are extremely intelligent and immensely popular and in turn
receive a great amount of attention from those wanting to display them.
Gabriela Cowperthwaites documentary Blackfish shows how the mind of a
creature such as a killer whale can be affected under the influence of
captivity. Blackfish uses the Aristotelian appeals to logos and ethos to
convince viewers that orcas are intelligent, perceptive beings that should not
be held captive for the purpose of human entertainment.
One of the many ethical themes presented throughout the film is how
orcas can be changed as a result of separation from their family. At the
beginning Blackfish demonstrates how orcas are taken from families at a
young age. The film shows footage of a fishing boat separating young orcas
from the rest of their community. All of the other orcas vocalize their pain

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into cries and protest the capture of their children. One member of a diving
team in the 1970s that captured orcas call the experience "just like
kidnapping a little kid from their mother" (Blackfish). This separation and
disruption of orca natural lifestyle continued even when the animals were
sent to the theme parks. Several former SeaWorld trainers explained that
"park management kept trainers in the dark about the violent histories of
these whales, and disregarded the whales mother-offspring relationship on a
number of occasions, knowingly causing the animals distress by separating
the families" ("SeaWorld Documentary"). Orcas in the wild stay with their
families for life and are not meant to separated.
Footage is presented in the film that shows how an orca's personality
can be altered for the worse when separated from her child. Katina, an adult
female orca, is shown crying out for hours and floating lifelessly in her pool
when her daughter was taken away. This event is extremely devastating for
any intelligent creature and "the separation between mothers and sons is
even more traumatic given that in the wild, adult males are extremely
dependent on their mothers and constantly stay by their side" ("SeaWorld
Documentary"). Many modern orca experts notice that "Because females are
being moved from their mothers and bred at unnaturally young ages, we are
seeing females rejecting their calves and acting aggressively toward them.
This type of behavior is not normal in killer whales" ("Tearing Apart Families
"). Orcas in human captivity act against their natural behavior and it is part
due to the lack of a family pod. The film argues that SeaWorld and other

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marine parks do not have the right to separate these animals from their
families and break them away from their natural familial order. Through
multiple video instances in the film the viewer is able to witness killer whales
acting unnaturally and draw conclusions similar to those presented in the
documentary.
Blackfish states many of the discrepancies between the life of a wild
orca and the life of a captive orca to prove how frustrated and unstable the
animals can become when removed from their natural habitat. The film lists
many different factors in the life of Tilikum, an orca who has killed 3 people
while in captivity, that have caused him to behave this way. The first park
that Tilikum lived at was SeaLand, a Canadian park located in a marina.
Throughout the film a lack of stimulation is shown to be one of the reasons
that orcas become frustrated. A former SeaLand employee stated that while
Tilikum was at SeaLand he was kept in a modular "which was 20 feet across
and probably 30 feet deep, as a safety precaution because we're worried
about people cutting the net and letting them go, and the lights were all
turned out. So, literally no stimulation they're just in this dark metal 20 foot
by 30 foot pool for two thirds of their life" (Blackfish). Wild orcas swim
hundreds of miles in a day and experience the ocean, while Tilikum and the
others were confined to a metal box. The film conveys the message that we
as humans have no right to enforce this kind of lifestyle onto another
intelligent being.

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Being held in captivity with orcas that are not from the same pod
begins to cause mental problems for the killer whales. Each community of
orcas possesses their own language and social norms and is the basis of how
the whales create social interactions. Being with a foreign group for an orca
is " seen as the equivalent of forcing a group of human strangers who speak
different languages and come from different cultural backgrounds into a
small room, and informing them that they must now spend the rest of their
lives together, whether they like it or not" ("Killer Whales Dont Belong in
Captivity"). Blackfish shows this difference of culture taking place when
Tilikum received several injuries from the other orcas in captivity. He was
repeatedly abused and outcast from the other orcas in both his time at
SeaWorld and at SeaLand. This kind of experience begins to affect behavior
and is one of the major reasons that killer whales become violent in captivity.
Over the course of the film Tilikum is shown to have killed three
different people over the course of his lifetime. This is entirely in part to his
treatment while in captivity. Many people believe that this is because he is a
killer whale and it is their nature to kill. The film refutes this belief and an
expert on marine mammals states that orcas " are amazingly friendly and
understanding and intuitively want to be your companion" (Blackfish).
Lashing out and attacking humans only occurs in captivity and " While orcas
are a carnivorous species there are no documented cases of wild orcas
attacking human beings" ("Killer Whales Dont Belong in Captivity"). the film
shows that a life time of frustration, a lack of proper social interaction, and

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disruption of orca natural lifestyle can adversely affect the mental state of a
killer whale.
The film also shows how the physical health of an orca can be
worsened as a result of captivity. An expert on orcas states that " [orcas]
have life spans very similar to human life spans. The females can live to
about a hundred maybe more" (Blackfish). Blackfish presents the claim that
it is morally wrong for us as humans to place these animals in habitats that
shorten their lifespan by over fifty years.
Biological information is also presented in the film when an orca is put
under an MRI machine. A part of its brain was more developed and bigger
than that of a human's and "the safest inference would be these are animals
that have highly elaborated emotional lives. It's becoming clear that dolphins
and whales have a sense itself, a sense of social bonding that they've taken
to another level much stronger, much more complex than another mammals
including humans" (Blackfish). The same expert that conducted the
experiment stated in an interview that " when you look at behavior of
dolphins and whales, especially in the wild, you see a level of social cohesion
that is really unmatched in other mammals including the humans" ("Inside
the Mind of a Killer Whale"). Logically, humans cannot fully understand the
social interactions that occurs between these animals and should not
attempt to interfere with their lifestyles. Forcing orcas into captivity disturbs
this part of their brain in a way that no human could hope to comprehend.

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Blackfish presents many logical and ethical arguments as to why

humans do not have the right to hold killer whales in captivity. Gabriela
Cowperthwaites documentary shows how the conditions of several
amusement parks can drive an orca to become vicious and attack humans.
These same arguments could be applied to any intelligent being and should
make any person question whether humans have the right or understanding
to keep any intelligent, sentient, being in captivity.

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Works Cited
Blackfish. Dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite. 2013. Film.
"Inside the Mind of a Killer Whale: A Q+A with the Neuroscientist from
'Blackfish'" The Raptor Lab Inside the Mind of a Killer Whale A Q+A with the
Neuroscientist from Blackfish
Comments.N.p.,14Aug.2013.Web.19Feb.2015.<https://theraptorlab.wordpres
s.com/20

13/08/14/inside-the-mind-of-a-killer-whale-a-qa-with-the-

neuroscientist-from-

blackfish/>.

"Killer Whales Dont Belong in Captivity Heres Why." One Green Planet.
N.p., n.d. Web. 19

Feb. 2015.

<http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/orcas-killer-whalescaptivity/>.
"SeaWorld Documentary, Blackfish, Movie About Captive Orcas | Global
Animal." Global
Animal.N.p.,24Oct.2013.Web.22Feb.2015.<http://www.globalanimal.org/2013
/10/24/bl

ackfish-dives-into-seaworlds-dark-depths/>.

"Tearing Apart Families: Controlling the Orca's Social Structure in

Captivity."Cetacean
Inspiration.N.p.,23Apr.2012.Web.22Feb.2015.<https://cetaceaninspiration.wo

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rdpress.c

om/2012/04/24/tearing-apart-families-controlling-

social-structure-in-

captivity/>.

the-orcas-