Thursday, March 20, 2014

Blackfish Review: The Psychological Toll of Captivity



By: Heather Hardison, PhD.



This is more than a film review. This is A Call to Action



As a human being, I was outraged and heartbroken over this emotionally driven film. As a psychologist, I was horrified, but not entirely surprised, to see the psychological toll this animal entertainment industry has taken on these beautiful creatures. In my psychological private practice, I see firsthand the devastation that can be caused by depriving a being from their true nature. Humans and animals are not all that different in that regard. We all experience depression, a lack of enjoyment and a loss of joy when we are kept from our natural surroundings, our comfortable routines and the socialization of family and friends. Isolation turns in to severe depression, which leads to the loss of the will to live. This film, along with many other documentaries on animal captivity, show these Orcas and other captive animals are depressed, frustrated and lonely. It is not surprising that they give up and often end their own lives. In fact dolphins become so stressed out from the capture and prolonged captivity that they often develop ulcers and either die from the stress or commit suicide. In other animal documentaries trainers discuss frequent turnovers with dolphins in shows because they struggle to keep them alive.




Seeing the majestic male Orcas with collapsed dorsal fins is gut wrenching. In the wild they have beautifully straight fins but 100% of the males in captivity have the collapsed dorsal fin. This is indicative of the loss of joy and contentment in life that usually comes from living free in their natural environment. They are lost and depressed due to being stuck in chlorine filled pools and small holding pools where they can barely move. Even when performing in shows for audiences the larger pools are nothing compared to their natural environment. At best they only have enough room to swim short laps for the amusement of others. Orcas give up their vocal calls in captivity which are such a large part of their social life in the wild, and there is no joy in their jumps as they are only animals for hire now. Seeing an Orca swim in the open ocean holds no comparison to their demeanor in their "jail cells" at aquariums.



It is clear that we are killing these beings by depriving them of everything that makes them Orcas. We deprive them of all of the wonderful stimulation of the ocean that keep them interested and engaged. Instead we blast them with loud music, surround them with crowds of screaming kids and demand that they perform on cue for several shows a day, every day of their life until they succumb to the stress or depression. Orcas only live at most to 25-30 years in captivity while their free brethren live 50-70 years. Most captive Orcas die around 10 years in captivity according to stats gathered on this site  http://www.orcahome.de/lifeexpectancy.htm


The more we learn about dolphins and orcas the more we see how intelligent and empathetic they are. We can no longer sit back and tell ourselves that they don’t understand what is happening to them and that they don’t know what they are missing in the wild. These animals are extremely intelligent, and they grieve for their families even years after they are captured and separated. The orcas do not forget their traumatic captures, and they will never fully adapt to their new confining surroundings. In fact there is a high rate of animal suicide with captive dolphins and orcas. They have to take conscious breaths every minute, and once they lose the will to live, they can decide not to take that last breath. Cathy, the dolphin who played Flipper in the popular 1960’s television series died in her trainer’s arms when she held her last breath and then sank to the bottom of the sea aquarium she had been held in. She had deteriorated so much from captivity that she could no longer endure this treatment. This experience impacted her trainer so deeply that he was transformed into one of the biggest advocates for dolphins, as he felt guilty for starting this love affair with dolphins which spawned the emergence of the marine parks in the first place. The stress and trauma that these corporations are putting these animals through for greed is never worth the massive price these magnificent beings are paying. These highly intelligent animals easily grow bored of these mundane routines and grow frustrated and exhausted by this constant abusive environment. And yet we as the adoring public allow this to continue for the sake of our amusement.


Psychologically, when humans and animals are not allowed to fulfill their destiny or feel that their true purpose is not possible to achieve, they begin to shut down internally. Parts of ourselves die off and eventually we give up completely. This is true for humans and animals. This film effectively shows all of the consequences that occur when humans mess with the natural order of this planet. Not only are the animals paying a steep cost, but human lives are cut short due to this unnatural set up. Blackfish chronicles the loss of 3 human lives including a trainer in Sealand by Tilikum in 1991, a young male who snuck in to Tilikum’s holding pool at night, and Dawn Brancheau in 2010(shown above). Dawn was an experienced and charismatic SeaWorld trainer who gave over 15 years of her life training orcas and was pulled into the pool by Tilikum and drowned, scalped and had her arm ripped off and swallowed by the massive 13,000 lb captured orca. Most of the film follows Tilikum’s story from the time he was tragically captured in 1983 to the present time where he is still performing shows at SeaWorld even after these confirmed fatalities. He has also been bred countless times over the past 20 years and it is estimated that he has fathered 54% of the current SeaWorld captive orcas. Some experts expressed concern that his sperm continues to be used given his aggressive nature. Many believe that Tilikum is kept at SeaWorld despite his aggressiveness simply because his sperm is worth a great deal of money. 

One of the most powerful aspects of Blackfish is the fast that several former SeaWorld trainers emotionally deliver their personal stories and journeys with the whales they cared for. They also stand up for their fellow trainer, Dawn, whom they believe was not at fault for her death, despite SeaWorld’s insistence that she made a mistake, which they labelled trainer error. These trainers love the whales they care for and many stated that they stayed at SeaWorld despite the horrific conditions they witnessed simply because they feared what would happen to the whales if they were not there to look after them. One trainer stated that they learned to compartmentalize their feelings because “if I leave, who will take care of Tilly.” “I stayed because I felt sorry for Tilikum.”



These trainers truly love their whales. Their hands are tied by a larger more powerful corporation that controls and dictates the conditions the whales are kept in. The trainers who spoke on camera in Blackfish were brave to speak out on what they experienced over the years, and their emotional attachments to these orcas was apparent. One trainer stated “I’ve been with this whale 17 years, I’ve seen her have all four babies. We grew up together.”



Several trainers witnessed acts of aggression by other whales, which could also lead to further frustration and learned helplessness. This bullying from other whales most likely contributed to future acts of aggression towards their human trainers. The whales can only take so much bullying and mistreatment before they break psychologically and start to act in ways that are far removed from their natural temperament in the wild. Trainers witnessed Tilikum being attacked viciously when he arrived at SeaWorld. He was ganged up on and attacked by the established dominant females at the park. The trainers explained that the whales are all “squeezed in close proximity.” They stated that Tilikum had no where to escape to when he was being attacked. SeaWorld responded by keeping him in constant isolation “for his own protection.” He is kept in the back pool and brought out for the end of show for “the big splash.” Then he has to return to his “jail cell” as stated by his former trainer. Tilikum had to be isolated much of the time as the females would not tolerate him in the pool with them. 



Female orcas are the dominant whales in the ocean. In the wild this isn’t a problem as they have plenty of room to spread out even when traveling together in their large pods. However, in captivity they are all confined to such small spaces and this creates a very hostile environment, especially for male whales. This aggression often leads to the deaths of whales by other whales. The whales also have a practice called “raking” where the whales scrape their massive and sharp 48 teeth along the backs of other whales, which is a painful and traumatizing experience for the orca. Photo below shows raking up close.


It is not hard to understand how these human deaths could have occurred after you explore how traumatized these whales are. The film reveals how the baby orcas are targeted and chased down by hunters to be snatched away from their mothers and their pods forever. The disturbing images of bombs being dropped by aircraft to frighten and disorient the whales and the speed boats pursing these babies was immensely upsetting. The orca mothers did everything they could to save their babies, and they even devised an intelligent plan to break from the rest of the pod to keep the babies safe, hoping that the boats would follow the rest of the pod. Unfortunately, the aircrafts spotted the detour from the air and they notified the speedboats to swoop into the cove and corner the mothers and offspring. It was a lost cause for the orcas at this point. Nets were cast, babies were ripped from their mother’s sides and airlifted to aquariums across the globe. One particularly heart wrenching scene filmed the mothers hovering close to the boats calling out to their babies even after they were airlifted out of the water. It is truly heartbreaking! 




One of the hunters spoke on camera describing this as “the worst thing I have ever done.” He stated that it felt like kidnapping a child from their loving family. He revealed that this has haunted him since. He was choking back tears as he explained that he was instructed to cut open the babies that died due to the stress of the capture and he was ordered to fill them with rocks to sink them as hunting orcas was illegal and the evidence must be destroyed. Animal behaviorists and marine biologists interviewed for this film pointed to this type of traumatic capture as the first psychological trauma suffered by the whales and went on to explain the further trauma that they suffer once they are housed in the aquariums. Former trainers at Sealand reported that the orcas, including Tilikum, were stored in a module only 20 feet across 30 feet deep. They were locked in this dark, metal pool for two-thirds of their life. Trainers tearfully admitted that they were ordered to lock them up from 5pm til 7am. “It didn’t feel good. It was just wrong.” Food deprivation was also used for training purposes as holding back food would create starvation and that was strong motivation to get them to enter the training pool and to cooperate in training sessions. When the new whales would resist or not cooperate, the trainers were told to use the whales against each other and would punish both whales until the cooperative whale realized they would not receive a reward until the new whale started cooperating. This caused the whales to become aggressive with the uncooperative whale until they broke down and submitted to the trainer’s will. This breaks an animal’s spirit and creates what we call learned helplessness. This is when the animals begin to give up and realize that there is no escape and that they are stuck in this situation no matter what their efforts are. This is psychologically scarring and leads to depression and hopelessness. Some experts in the film spoke about a psychosis that the orcas may be experiencing due to this mistreatment. They believe it may lead to their aggressiveness with humans. Photo below shows an orca pulling this trainer down to the bottom of the pool and keeping him there for a minute at a time. This continued for several minutes until the trainer got away and swam over a net to pull himself out of the pool. 




The mistreatment of the orcas is precisely why it is not surprising that whales would turn aggressive out of frustration. This is when human casualties will occur. There are no known instances of orcas harming a human in the wild. SeaWorld likes to publically state that Tilikum is not dangerous; however, former employees have spoken in news stories about the “Tilly talk” that they are given during their first week at work. They are told not to enter the water with Tilikum because “if you get in the water with him you will come out a corpse.” SeaWorld also tries to down play his involvement in the murder of the trainer at Sealand before they acquired him. They officially state that he was not involved; however, eye witnesses positively identified him as the whale that pursued her and held her down. SeaWorld purchased Tilikum from Sealand after this very public death, and they did not warn their trainers and employees at that time. This put hundreds of people in danger daily and ultimately ended in 2 further deaths by Tilikum that could have been avoided.


SeaWorld has responded to the release Blackfish and tried to save face by stating that they have not captured their orcas in 35 years and that they treat their animals with the best care. However, they are missing the point that any whale in captivity is being mistreated and abused by the very fact that they are lonely, isolated, deprived of food, separated from their family and controlled in every way. Orcas are extremely social and they only bond with members of their own pods. Mixing members from different pods, as SeaWorld does, is unnatural to them and they never adapt. The experts explain that all pods speak their own language with very unique dialects, and it is like they are from 2 different nations with different languages that they do not understand when they are thrown together. SeaWorld calls them their collection. Orcas are so social that their sense of self is considered to be wrapped up entirely in social roles. Thus, removing them from their social world basically destroys them.



What this film does beautifully is to show us how majestic these animals are, especially in the wild. The film educates us on what it means to be an orca. They are designed to roam free and travel great distances. They are highly verbal and social. They interact with their pods more than humans do on a daily basis. They only thrive when they are surrounded by their family. They grow depressed and lonely when isolated as they are in captivity. The isolation quickly breaks them down psychologically. One animal behaviorist in the film stated that 100% of the captured whales are traumatized and psychologically damaged from this mistreatment.


SeaWorld states that they are playing a vital role in marine biology by educating young children about wildlife. Their position is that allowing children to see these animals up close fosters an interest and admiration in these younger generations that will lead to a desire to help protect marine life in the future. While that may be so, the price of captivity is too high. We should love and admire these animals from afar in the wild as nature intended. If you want to view orcas up close then spend the $100 you would have spent on a SeaWorld ticket and take a chartered boat excursion off of Vancouver Island to see them in their natural habitat as they were truly meant to live. Seeing animals in captivity whether at SeaWorld, aquariums or local zoos should make us feel uncomfortable. No matter how well the trainers take care of them, nothing can compare to their natural environment. Anything less is robbing them of what it truly means to be an animal in the animal kingdom.




If a 2 year old child was kidnapped from their family, held captive for the rest of their lives and forced to perform for their abductor’s entertainment, then society would be outraged. When the abductor was found, they would be shunned from society, locked up in prison for life and the abused child would be reunited with their family. Until now most people did not give the slightest thought to how the orcas are captured and how that separation from their family negatively impacts them and their pod. Thanks to this thought provoking film we see just how devastating this is for all involved. For decades, society was oblivious to the animal’s suffering and their true emotional and physical condition in captivity and now we cannot sit in denial anymore. It is time to make a change and that will have to come about through the work of the general public. It looks as if SeaWorld will not make these changes on their own since there is a multibillion dollar industry at stake. If you have ever enjoyed a day at the parks and enjoyed the orca and dolphin shows, then now is the time to pay them back that appreciation by helping to free them from this life of torture and isolation.



Times have already started to change as the government will not allow trainers in water with the orcas anymore. It has been deemed too dangerous and too unpredictable for the humans. On May 30, 2012 a judge ruled that during shows, SeaWorld trainers must now remain behind barriers, separated from the orcas. The film not only covered deaths at the parks but documented numerous encounters with whales pulling trainers under water and holding them underwater for minutes at a time, nearly drowning them. The orcas are seen grabbing, pushing and slamming into trainers aggressively, often injuring them. The film states that there are 70 plus killer whale/trainer accidents/encounters officially on record. By the looks of these documented encounters, many of these trainers are very lucky to be alive.


In a recent interview, the filmmaker, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, stated that it was not her goal to shut SeaWorld down. She wants SeaWorld front and center of the evolution of the animal entertainment industry. She stated that she would like to see SeaWorld step up and build sea aquariums for the whales still in captivity. It is often too dangerous to release them back in to the wild as they have become too conditioned to receive food from their trainers for tricks and they might not be able to hunt and feed themselves. Also, they might not be able to reunite with their pod of origin, and orcas rely on the pod for food and survival. They work as a team for hunting, traveling and protection from other dangers. It seems the most humane thing to do for them now is to retire them from work and from the chorine pools into larger restricted areas within the sea. This way they are still protected and allowed to swim in their natural environment for the last years of their life. The idea is to let these captive orcas and dolphins rest and not have to perform for their food anymore. The goal that activists have in mind is to phase out the captive animals from the entertainment industry. This will take years and would involve not continuing to breed orcas in captivity and not to capture them from the wild anymore. As concerned members of society, we need to make sure this is the last generation of captive whales. 



Change will start with us. We have to unite and make our voices heard. Let SeaWorld know that this is not acceptable and that we will not continue to visit their parks and fork over our money to continue this treatment any longer. We owe it to the whales as they have no voice in this. We need to release them from this obligation of having to perform to entertain us. They do not deserve this treatment and they never did. If we refuse to buy tickets then SeaWorld can’t invest our money in the continuation of animal capture and captivity. Too long we have stood by quietly and let these animals suffer on our behalf. Too long have we turned a blind eye and thought the animals are surely cared for and are happy. They are not happy. Orcas are used to swimming 90-100 miles a day and dolphins swim up to 50-100 miles. They are fed dead frozen fish in captivity and are only fed when they perform and work hard. In the wild they are carefree, happy and eat fresh fish that they hunt. They live in very social pods and their family units are fully intact with the whales never leaving their mothers side even as adults. These pods are intact until humans come along and snatch the babies from their mother’s side.


SeaWorld will have to make a decision. They can either get on board for this evolution of the industry or they can refuse to help and continue to state that there is nothing wrong with holding these whales captive. If they chose not to be part of this inevitable change, then they will eventually be forced to close their doors. They have been a huge part of this problem and the only way they can try to salvage some of their reputation would be to get involved and advocate for the animals they publicly claim to love so much - the very animals that put those massive profits in their pocket and the animals that they are continuing to torture. They need to retire these whales, and they need to throw their power and money behind stopping the dolphin massacre in Taiji, Japan where 23,000 dolphins are brutally slaughtered every year. One of the main reasons that keeps this hunting practice in place is the fact that Japanese fisherman get $150,000 per dolphin that the trainers chose to take back to their aquariums to train for shows. The rest of the dolphins are brutally murdered and sold for meat to unsuspecting locals even though the meat contains toxic levels of mercury. Check out the documentary The Cove for more on this issue. The fisherman claim that they will continue this practice as long as money is coming in from trainers at these aquariums including SeaWorld. There is a lot at stake here and we have to rise up and demand that this brutality stop right now.


Even though this powerful film wasn’t eventually nominated for an Academy Award, it is expected to have a lasting impact on viewers. Hopefully it will ignite a movement that will forever change the animal entertainment industry. This film gave a clear message, and that message is that this is a problem that we can solve. It is a call to action. We have the ability to bring about change here, and it is our duty to these fellow mammals to follow through as they cannot help themselves out of this mess. The human race has tortured these animals long enough, and it is time that we take a stand for them. One thing is very clear from this film – this must stop!


Note to the filmmaker: In order to spread this message to as many people as possible to fuel this movement, I believe children will be the key to real and lasting change. However, as a psychologist, I am hesitant to condone showing young children and even young adolescents the entire Blackfish film, as it could be very upsetting and traumatic for young minds. It seems like it would be healthier for them to see a shortened version of the film. My suggestion is to edit a special version of the film and cut down the current film to maybe 30 minutes that only shows the conditions they live in and how it impacts the whales physically and psychologically. If the scenes where the animals killed the trainers and the scenes that chronicle the brutality of the capture of the whales were cut out, then the shortened film can be shown to children and hopefully in schools, churches, and homes across the country. I believe the children will be the key to making a difference here. It is easy to convince adults to boycott or speak out, but the children are the reason that families attend SeaWorld in the first place. Let's not forget that children were the reason for freeing Keiko in real life. Keiko was the captured whale who played Willy in Free Willy. Children banded together and raised money across the country in classrooms and took in $100,000. They didn't want him to live in this misery and they wanted him reunited with his family in Iceland. Children made this possible and got the attention of wealthy businessmen who donated the rest of the money needed to return Keiko to the wild. Children are a powerful force and could give this movement the momentum it needs to put an end to this whole operation. 

*Special Note - Due to the fact that SeaWorld was stating that Blackfish presented some false statements about their treatment of their captured whales, I explored this issue of animal capture and captivity in several related documentaries before writing this review. Everything was consistent in each documentary. Thus, I feel the information in this blog is accurate and well researched. Here is a list of related documentaries. I encourage others to keep researching this issue for themselves.

The Whale Trailer
The Cove Trailer

Saving Flipper Trailer

Frontline: A Whale of A Documentary

Lolita Slave to Entertainment
Keiko The Untold Story Trailer

Blackfish Trailer



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars: It was powerful, emotionally stirring, intense and gripping. Your inner activist will be unleashed!

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