The 74th Things Wrong With "Blackfish"

The 74+ Things Wrong With "Blackfish"

1.      Time Index 0:58, opens with excerpt of a 9-1-1 call on February 24^th 2010 after Dawn Brancheau had fallen into the water with Tilikum. In addition to the way it’s presented, it makes it sound like; in general, the trainers aren’t very safe around the whales. In addition, it is very vague what she is saying, and to a person without any background knowledge, it’s possible for someone to think that she might have just jumped into the water with a whale, not knowing that she wasn’t supposed to be in the water with that particular whale.  

2.      Time Index 1:02, shows a whale apparently “chasing” a trainer underwater. Also for the record, this shot is in Pool A, the main show pool, while the incident this is supposed to be depicting happened in Pool G, better known as the Dine With Shamu pool.

3.      Time Index 1:06, now we see a whale that looking like it has landed near the trainer it was chasing earlier, and looks ready to attack.

4.      Time Index 1:10, now we hear another 9-1-1 call, reporting a “dead person at SeaWorld” seconds after Mistake #3...

5.      Time Index 1:13, a whale is now “coming after a trainer” from below, with its head/rostrum heading toward the trainers feet. In reality, this is a whale coming from below, and ready to perform what is called a “foot push”, where the trainer places one or both feet on the rostrum of a whale, and is “pushed” around the pool. It is a trained behavior that is briefly shown on screen, and meant to look like seconds before the whale plans to attack the trainer.

6.      Time Index 1:18, yet another 9-1-1 called. “A whale has eaten one of our trainers.”  While there is some dispute over how exactly Dawn Brancheau died, it is gererally accepted that she was pulling into the tank by Tilikum by her long ponytail, and drowned. Nobody with half a brain believes she was eaten. (For the record, Dawn’s body was quickly recovered after the incident as well). This is setting a precedent just seconds into the movie the level of misinformation and emotional fallacies that Blackfish will show/present to the audience.

7.      Time Index 1:19, From the same 9-1-1 call as in Mistake #6, but this is the emergency dispatcher responding to the man who is calling, asking for confirmation, and he confidently responds “that is correct” (that the whale ate the trainer)

8.      Time Index 1:27, we now see a trainer and whale performing what is known as a “Hydro”, where the trainer jumps off the whale’s rostrum, and both trainer and whale fly through the air horizontally. The behavior is a little difficult to explain, but the point is that the “circus behavior” that most “animal-rights activists” would call it seems completely out of context with the previous moments of the movie.

9.      Time Index 1:51, we see a very young child making an amazing connection with Tilikum at the glass in the underwater viewing area at SeaWorld. Meanwhile, former-trainer John Hargrove describes his experiences of visiting SeaWorld and “being hooked” by visiting. In effect, Blackfish itself is proving why SeaWorld is important, and how it allowed people to make connections with animals, and learn to care about the natural world.

10.  Time Index 2:12, you meet “former-trainer” (which is extremely debatable) Samantha Berg describing her love for animals, but saying that she never actually went to SeaWorld as a child, planting seeds for what is later a major part of the movie, that SeaWorld trainers don’t really know what they’re doing, and are simply corporate puppets.

11.  Time Index 2:20, you are introduced to Mark Simmons, later author of Killing Keiko, and it is extremely important to know that the majority of what you see Simmons saying in the movie is taken out of context, and that he was encouraged by the directors of the movie to exaggerate what he was saying

12.  Time Index 3:02, one former-trainer says “I always thought you needed a master’s degree to become a SeaWorld trainer. It then cuts to a SeaWorld video that looks from the 1980s, with the narrator saying “it takes years… (to become a SeaWorld trainer).” We then go back to the former-trainer saying “it really is more about your personality and how good you can swim.” This further is the movie saying that SeaWorld trainers don’t really know what they’re doing and are corporate puppets. While it is true that personality is a major part of becoming a trainer (as with any job) and you obviously need to be a good swimmer to become a trainer, there are many other factors. And yes, you do need a master’s degree. SeaWorld recommends a degree in Psychology and/or Marine Biology.

13.  Time Index 3:40, we cut to another former-trainer saying that on her first day on the job as a trainer, she was told to “get in the water”. This quote has three major problems with it. Firstly, it is not clear whether she is being instructed to get in the water with any animals around, as there are mandatory swim tests trainers pass to remain or become qualified to work with the animals. Secondly, it is unclear what, if any animals are around at the time she is supposed to get in the water. But the movie wants you to believe she is just supposed to jump in the water with a Killer Whale. This leads to the third major problem:  it takes years of learning and building a relationship with the whales before a trainer will attempt their first in-water session with a whale. Holly Byrd (a current trainer) spent two years with a whale, Katina, before her first waterworks session.

14.  Time Index 3:56, Big example here of how Mark Simmons’ quotes are taken out of context. He talks about, what we are to believe is his first day, and putting on his wetsuit backwards. As a viewer, we don’t know the context in which this occurred, and also is-again-meant to make the trainers look bad.

15.  Time Index 5:15, possibly one of the biggest lies and most misleading scenes in the entire movie is Samantha Berg talking about her first waterworks session with a whale. She claims that she was not expecting “it”, and that she felt surprised and unprepared for her first waterworks experience. Furthermore, while she is describing the experience, clips are shown of Holly Byrd’s first waterworks session, a current trainer that happens to look an awful lot like Samantha Berg. As an audience, you are lead to believe that this is in fact Berg in the batter instead of Bryd. This is a perfect example of what is truly wrong with Blackfish, is that most lies are not specifically told, but rather as an audience you are fed the information through hints/implied details, out of context quotes, and emotional manipulation.

16.  Time Index 6:21, Mark Simmons, and other former-trainers talk about the relationships that were built with the whales, something that Blackfish and PETA (the movie’s primary funder and supporter) now completely ignore and ever make fun of. Relationships are a two way street, and that should go without saying.

17.  Time Index 7:56, you hear a voiceover by Samantha Berg saying that “what happened to Dawn could have happened to any of us.” This is planting the seeds for what later becomes an enormous theme later on that the whales in captivity are driven to violence because of insanity/mental problems. Oy vey.

18.  Time Index 8:37, we hear an excerpt of the official Orange County Sherriff’s Department investigation with a SeaWorld paramedic, saying that while most of Dawn’s body was recovered, Tilikum never let go of her arm, but ate it instead. There is zero proof of this, and in addition, we somehow do know the extent of the injuries to Dawn’s arm. There is no way we could have known that if Tilikum had, in fact, swallowed her arm.

19.  Time Index 9:02, OSHA sues SeaWorld, and suggests that swimming with whales is inherently dangerous. This is something SeaWorld has never shied away from: you can’t enter the water with the top predator of the ocean without obvious dangers. That, said, SeaWorld and their trainers are the experts in the field of animal training and welfare, not a government agency that doesn’t involve itself at all in animal science. The sections of government that do involve animals and animal welfare never came after SeaWorld before or after Dawn’s death in 2010.

20.  Time Index 9:19, we see a series of video clips of famous news people giving their, in many cases, uninformed opinion in the aftermath of Dawn’s death. The only people who really can speak to the dangers of swimming with whales on a daily basis are the people who have made it their life choice to interact with these whales, and that is the trainers. We are also introduced to the awful “bathtub” analogy, comparing SeaWorld’s killer whale habitats to a small bathtub.   

21.  Time Index 9:52, and here we arrive at the whole Tilikum, along with all captive whales are psychotic and could kill at any second. Nothing could possibly be further from the truth. Period.

22.  Time Index 10:00, we now begin to delve into the history of SeaWorld, how they captured whales, and how all captive whales have are extremely psychotic. How at this point, just 10 minutes into the one hour and 13 minute runtime of this movie, can anyone possibly believe that this still is a factual and objective documentary? Moving on…

23.  Time Index 10:17, we now enter a large section of the movie where we are shown how the capture of wild killer whales became a booming business. While this is true, and defiantly is not something to take lightly, SeaWorld was not involved in the capture of Tilikum. They did briefly capture whale for a short span of time, but quickly stopped. Tilikum was captured by a company, and sold to Sealand of the Pacific. Not SeaWorld.

24.  Time Index 16:13, Tilikum’s early life story is being told, and we see many of the flaws of Sealand of the Pacific. They had horrible facilities, and used punishment and food deprivation in their training techniques. This led to much frustration among the three whales, and Tilikum was often bullied by the two much larger and older females he was kept with. But just because he was bullied doesn’t mean he’s psychotic, the same as with humans. But if bullying does lead to psychosis, than we have a big problem with our school systems.

25.  Time Index 22:22, the movie is now telling the events of the death of Keltie Byrne, who died at Sealand of the Pacific on February 20^th, 1991. Two witnesses recall with graphic detail how Byrne fell into the pool, and seized by one of the three whales (Haida, Nootka, and Tillikum), and ultimately drowned. The problem with this is that the witnesses claim that Byrne was pulled in by the largest whale of the three (which they claim to by Tilikum). However, Tilikum was in fact, the smallest of the three whales at Sealand at the time, as he was still relatively young. An OSHA representative tells that we are not sure to this day which of the three whales pulled Keltie Byrne into the pool, but Blackfish makes the claim that it was without a doubt Tilikum, probably just to push their agenda forward. And just minutes before this clip, the movie specifically says that Tilikum was much smaller than the two females he was kept with, but by golly George, if two witnesses who are recalling events 20 years ago say it was Tilikum, than that it, right?

26.  Time Index 25:12, and now comes the part of the movie, where Blackfish claims that wild killer whale life spans are compatible to humans, ranging from 70-100 years, and this is simply not true. Countless independent researchers have concluded that killer whale lifespans if 30-40 years, including those in captivity. Blackfish clings to the fact that one single orca, known as Granny (a wild whale that resides in the Pacific Northwest), is ESIMTATED to be roughly 100 years old. The Blackfish writers and directors clearly need to learn an elementary school-level math concept called mean. Mean, by definition, is the average figure in a set of numbers. Therefore, the average age of killer whales should not and cannot be solely based on one exception to the rule.

27.  Time Index 25:16, here the movie makes a claim that “adult offspring never leave their mothers’ side.” While this is true in some pods of killer whales, it is certainly not true for all. There are many different types of orcas, and each type has a different social structure. Transient orcas, for example, live a very isolated lifestyle, and spend the majority of their lives alone.

28.  Time Index 25:33, now Blackfish tries to sell you on the theory that all orca pods have their own “language”, if you will, that is the pods’ unique form of communication (through various vocalizations). They claim that there is no overlap in “languages” from one pod to another, and again, this is simply not the case. Scientists have for years studied killer whale communication, both in the wild and in captivity. While it is true that some “languages” don’t share any overlap, some do (the same way that Spanish and French share a common origin, but English and Hebrew don’t).

29.  Time Index 26:31, here is a perfect example of Blackfish not directly lying to the audience, but strongly implying something. A neuroscientist is talking about whales and dolphins’ brain structure, and talking about their complex social structure. She reaches a point where she talks about mass strandings, and as an audience, you assume she is talking about killer whales, purely based on context. In fact one of the few species of cetaceans that does mass strandings is pilot whales. And ironically enough, the movie actually shows a very brief clip of a pilot whale mass-stranding. However, because of the context and how short the clip is, the audience was just hoodwinked into “learning” about killer whale mass-strandings (which, for the record, there has never been a killer whale mass-stranding).

30.  Time Index 27:35, it is worth noting that the clips that are shown of a pod of killer whales working together have voiced-over audio that is not original to the clip being shown. This is a perfect example of the movie trying to play with the emotions of the viewer, trying to get you to buy into their propaganda, based on your emotions (this is also known appeal to emotion, and is a logical fallacy).

31.  Time Index 29:04, another example of an indirect lie: you see a clip of a group of captive orcas swimming around, with one larger orca with a collapsed dorsal fin looking lonely and depressed in the background. This is, in fact not Tilikum, but Keto, a male killer whale who lives at Loro Parque in Spain.

32.  Time Index 30:10, Tilikum was never kept in isolation at SeaWorld. He currently spends most of his time with his grandson, Trua.

33.  Time Index 31:04, here one former-trainer talks about how Tilikum enjoyed working with his trainers, and enjoyed learning new behaviors. Yet the movie still would have you believe these whales are miserable, when they also tell you the whales enjoy learning and interacting. One of many clear contradictions in the movie.

34.  Time Index 31:17, here we see a clip of “Tilikum” interacting with one of his trainers, and playing. In reality, it is Trua, who is easily identifiable by his freckles below his jaw. Another case of misidentification by the movie.

35.  Time Index 31:37, now some former-trainers are talking about their “naivety” about working with Tilikum, and they didn’t know the dangers that came with working with him. In reality, there is an extremely limited number of trainers that work with Tilikum (usually about 8 that are assigned to ever work with him), and before any trainer, whether assigned to Tilikum or not, was given the “Tilly Talk” that explained that if you ever entered the water with him, you would exit a corpse. SeaWorld was never shy about fully informing the professionals who work with the whales every single day. 

36.  Time Index 32:27, again, former-trainers claiming that SeaWorld kept them in the dark about Tilikum, his history, and that he could be potentially dangerous. This, once again is just not the case. Blackfish continually tries to make SeaWorld look like this big, evil corporation, and placing blame on that, and that alone.

37.  Time Index 33:42, here one former-trainer tells of an incident during a show that he captured on tape (he was allegedly filming the show for SeaWorld) where Tilikum lunged at one of his trainers. The former-trainer tells that he was instructed that the tape was “no longer usable” because of that, yet as an audience you are not told what purpose the tape was to be used for. There are many possibilities for why that tape was no longer usable, beyond what the movie wants you to believe is a cover-up, of sorts.

38.  Time Index 34:15, we are now given quotes from OSHA’s court case against SeaWorld, and we are given three quotes that are taken entirely out of context. All we are given is a quote about “Tilikum lunging” and a quote about “Tilikum pulling”, and the SeaWorld representative’s response. The quotes are extremely vague, and could easily be interpreted in many different ways. It is unlikely that, in a court of law where everything is dissected and evaluated that questions as vague as these would be asked without clear context-context the movie’s audience is never given.

39.  Time Index 34:56, we hear a former-trainer talking about how ashamed she feels about some of the “party lines” she said to audiences during shows, such as “Shamu isn’t doing that because he has to, but because he really want to.” How she feels about the quotes is irrelevant, because the simple truth is that, in fact, you can’t make a 12,000 pound killer whale do anything it doesn’t want to. Bottom line.

40.  Time Index 35:34, the same former-trainer is talking about the fact the she “wishes she could believe that the relationships we have with the whales was built on something stronger than the fact I’m giving them fish.” But SeaWorld uses far more than just fish as reinforcement, and the whales know this. Each trainer has a real relationship with the whales, and they all know each whale’s likes and dislikes-something that doesn’t come from an artificial relationship.

41.  Time Index 36:52, Kalina, the first killer whale born in captivity, was moved when she was five years old, this is true. But the reasons she was moved were not the same as the ones implied in the movie, and by five years old, she was independent, and no longer was dependent on her mother, like the movie also implies. The clips that are shown depict Kalina as a newborn calf, but by the time she was five, she was nearly full grown.

42.  Time Index 37:11, we are told the heart-wrenching story of how after Kalina was moved to SeaWorld Ohio, her mother, Katina spent days crying out for her calf. It is told in the most emotionally manipulating way, that you almost forget that there is no record of Katina displaying said behavior. We also see a series of clips within a few seconds of each other that are, surprise, misidentification of Katina. One clip is of a whale at Loro Parque, and the other is of Taima, a whale that was at SeaWorld Orlando sleeping (while she is pregnant, no less).

43.  Time Index 40:44, here is a quote that just makes no sense: “I really don’t know anything about killer whales. I know a lot about being an animal trainer, or a killer whale trainer, but I don’t know anything about these animals.” By definition, in order to be an animal trainer, you have to understand the animal you are working with, and how they are going to respond. You cannot “know a lot about being an animal trainer” without knowing a lot about the animal you are working with.

44.  Time Index 41:04, here comes the blatant lie about life span again: orca life span is 25-35 years with 40 as the upper limit. There has been tons of independent research done on the issue, and all science points 25-40 years, not 70-100 years. Sorry to burst your bubble.

45.  Time Index 41:34, and now comes one of the most ridiculous claims from the movie: the dorsal fin collapse theory. Basically what Blackfish would have you believe is that dorsal collapse is a sign of depression in orcas, which is why most captive orcas have collapsed dorsal fins. Yet, as surprising as it is, dorsal fins are not the equivalent of a dog’s tail: you cannot tell their mood based on its position and/or angle. The primary purpose of dorsal fins is to help the whale maintain its center of gravity when diving deep into the ocean. Since whales in captivity don’t dive hundreds of feet at a time, basic physics take over, the fin collapses.

46.  Time Index 43:01, the movie would have you believe that rake marks are a sign of vicious aggression between whales. In reality, an animal raking another with its teeth is no different from a puppy teething, which is meant as a form of play. Sometimes play can escalate into violence or injury, as seen with humans. Yes, there have been a very few, isolated incidents of whales attacking each other in captivity, but they are so few and far between that you could hardly classify intent to harm as the purpose for raking.

47.  Time Index 47:18, we are now shown a graphic video of a whale landing on top of a trainer during a show at SeaWorld San Diego. It is unclear exactly why the whale landed on top of a trainer, and the movie even tells you that it is not a clear sign of aggression. This was really only shown to reinforce the emotional manipulation the view undergoes while watching this movie, that would have most people buying inti 100% of what Blackfish tells you. 

48.  Time Index 47:43, we are shown another graphic video, this time the trainer is truly to blame for the incident. She was interacting with the whales without a spotter, and was taking her foot and placing it on Orkid’s rostrum, and then taking it off, like a game. Orkid grabbed her foot and pulled her in. The only reason Orkid let her go is because one trainer ran over, and opened the gate to the pool Kasatka was in, and she was immediately let go, due to the fact that Orkid knew that Kasatka was the dominant female of the pod. Again, the only reason this was shown is to reinforce the movie’s grip on the viewer.

49.  Time Index 49:23, we are now shown a clip of a killer whale attacking a person that was taken at SeaWorld San Diego on April 20^th, 1971. This clip is about 45 years old, and was part of a publicity stunt under the original owners of SeaWorld. Something like this could never happen today.  

50.  Time Index 50:41, we see an image of John Hargrove, one of the main voices of Blackfish, with his face covered in blood. It appears as though he just escaped a near-death encounter with a psychotic killer whale, when in reality, he had slipped and fallen and hit his head on the deck. But with the context in which it is presented, the viewer would not know any better.

51.  Time Index 51:43, we are shown the graphic video of an incident with head trainer at SeaWorld San Diego, Ken Peters and Kasatka. The video only proves the skill and training that SeaWorld trainers have, and they know how to handle extreme situations. After Peters finally coaxes Kasatka into letting him go, he swam across a net that had been strung across the pool. The movie claims that Kasatka came right after him again, but you can clearly see the Peters made it to the slideout, without being bothered by Kasatka.

52.  Time Index 52:33, the OSHA person, while referencing the incident involving Ken Peters and Kasatka, he admits that “it’s a deep pool,” something that Blackfish and PETA continually complain about, since they think the pools aren’t big enough.  

53.  Time Index 56:00, the former-trainer speaking was no longer employed at SeaWorld during the events he described, and has no first-hand knowledge of what he is talking about. This type of mistake is an extraordinarily common occurrence in this movie, and takes away from what little credibility Blackfish actually has. Also, the events that he describes as a “perfect storyline” are factually based. The man that was killed, Daniel Dukes, stayed in the park after house, stripped off his clothes, and jumped in the pool with Tilikum. Like the movie describes, his body was draped across Tilly’s back when he was found hours later, but an autopsy revealed no bodily damage caused by Tilikum. He died of hypothermia and drowning. And he was mentally ill-we have medical records to prove it, and had also just been released from jail two days before his death. Tilikum is wrongfully blamed for Dukes’ death, as well as for the death of Keltie Byrne.

54.  Time Index 56:17, the movie incorrectly describes multiple things in the span of just seconds-an impressive accomplishment for a movie as bad as this. First of all, in 1999, there was not a “night-watch trainer” specifically assigned to Tilikum’s pool. There was one trainer responsible for the entire Shamu Stadium area. The movie also incorrectly states that Daniel Dukes was never detected by any of the security cameras around Shamu Stadium. There are no cameras pointing at the back of Shamu Stadium, and the only underwater cameras at Shamu Stadium are in Pool A, the main show pool. In addition, the images shown seconds later do not show the back of the stadium either. An obvious attempt at deception, which not many people would ever think to question.

55.  Time Index 52:07, there was not any “public relations spin” by SeaWorld after the death of Daniel Dukes. The official cause of death declared by the Orange County Medical Examiner was “drowning and the manner of death to be an accident.” There was also not a “more graphic version of the medical reports”, that the movie claims there to be.

56.  Time Index 57:27, again, in both cases that Blackfish accuses Tilikum of killing, he was not found responsible. Both rulings came from official court cases, after reviewing all the possible evidence.

57.  Time Index 58:19, there is absolutely no scientific evidence to support that there is any connection to genetics and aggression in any of the whales under SeaWorld’s care, especially among the whales related to Tilikum.

58.  Time Index 59:31, we are now shown a very emotional sequence describing the death of a trainer at Loro Parque. While the whales at Loro Parque were, and still are on loan from SeaWorld, SeaWorld has nothing to do with the Loro Parque management, or any of their decisions made at any point. SeaWorld supplies a trainer to Loro Parque, but ultimately does not have much authority.

59.   Time Index 1:05:37, we are given out of context quote from a hearing following the death of Dawn Brancheau in 2010. The statement made that Kelly Clark, the Director of Animal Training at SeaWorld, told a bold face lie about SeaWorld’s involvement with Loro Parque is incorrect and misleading. Clark was asked whether SeaWorld owned Loro Parque and if they were affiliated with Loro Parque, and she correctly answers “no.” Affiliation, in a legal context is defined as “A corporation that is related to another corporation by one owning shares of the other, by common ownership, or by other means of control.” SeaWorld is not legally affiliated with Loro Parque. Kelly Clark was never asked a question about SeaWorld’s linkage with Loro Parque. Affiliation and linkage are two toally different thing in the context of legal relationships. She also added " I actually don’t know that I’m the right person to answer this question. I can answer anything you want to know about Sea World of Orlando and how I supervise my supervisors, but . . .I did not have direct line reports at Loro Parque and have not.” SeaWorld also has never denied their business relationship with Loro Parque, as is suggested in the movie.

60.  Time Index 1:05:39, we see an old clip of Jeff Ventre, one of the main voices of the movie, talking on stage during a show, when a whale slides onto the stage, with its mouth open. The movie would have you believe that this was the whale’s attempt to attack the trainer, when in reality it is a trainer behavior, and is scripted for that specific part of the show. You can even hear another trainer blow their whistle, which communicates to the whale that they have performed the desired behavior correctly.

61.  Time Index 1:07:24, in regard to the events in the events surrounding the death of Dawn Brancheau, the narrator, Samantha Berg has no first hand knowledge whatsoever. In addition, she never worked with Tilikum, and only worked with killer whales for a very brief time.

62.  Time Index 1:07:01, Jeff Ventre has no firsthand knowledge of what he describes and would criticize what he was a missed “whistle brigde” (when the trainer blows their whistle, which signals the whale that they have correctly performed the desired behavior, and that they should return to their trainer to receive some form of reinforcement aka reward). Ventre had, at most, only three years of training experience ever, and last worked at SeaWorld in 1995, 15 years before what he would attempt to critique. Dawn Brancheau, by comparison, was the senior trainer at SeaWorld Orlando with 16 years of experience.

63.  Time Index 1:09:13, cast members repeatedly criticize Dawn for how she handled Tilikum during the training session, and all who would critique her never were assigned, nor knew how to handle working with Tilikum and have no right to blame Dawn. And the spotter who testified later said that Dawn had performed excellently: “I remember she said she was really proud of the interaction that we did; nothing really out of the ordinary”.

64.  Time Index 1:09:46, the movie claims that “Tilikum at some point grabbed a hold of her left forearm and started to drag her and eventually did a barrel roll and pulled her in.” The vast majority of eyewitness accounts all confirm that Dawn was pulled in by her ponytail, not her arm. One security guard, Mr. Herrera had initially told the Orange County detective that Tilikum grabbed “either her hair or her arm.” However, he also admitted that he could not see clearly from his vantage point and “I’m not sure if he grabbed her arm or her hair, I don’t know.

65.  Time Index 1:11:48, you see the Orange County Sheriff make the claim that a female trainer had “slipped and fallen into the tank”. This was the initial statement from the Orange County Sheriff, not SeaWorld. There was no “first report” from SeaWorld, as the movie claims.

66.  Time Index 1:11:55, there was no a “second report” by SeaWorld, as Blackfish would have you believe. Even the news clip that they show said specifically that “SeaWorld had confirmed that the killer whale pulled the woman into the water by her ponytail. She didn’t fall into the tank as the Sheriff’s Department initially reported.” In addition, the Coroner’s Report (the official, public, reports following the investigation) disproves the movie’s claims that SeaWorld “must’ve gone into their little huddle and said wait a minute, we’ve got to come up with a new plan.” SeaWorld didn’t come up with the “ponytail theory”. This is backed by specific, hard evidence.

67.  Time Index 1:14:32, the movie portrays one person who pushes for the agenda that “All whales in captivity have a bad life. They’re all emotionally destroyed. They’re all psychologically traumatized. So, they are ticking time bombs. It’s not just Tilikum.” The movie tries to make this look like the opinion of the scientific community, which is just not the case. The Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research published an article, stating the exact opposite. The Killer whales at SeaWorld have the best standard of living, and is one of the most awarded zoological parks on the planet.

68.  Time Index 1:16:43, the movie makes the clam “now Tilikum is spending a great deal of time by himself, and basically floating in a pool.” I can personally speak to the contrary of this, with first-hand knowledge and experience (something Blackfish wouldn’t know anything about) that Tilikum spends the majority of his time with his grandson, Trua. Tilikum spends plenty of time in training sessions, exercise sessions, play sessions, as well as shows (Also, surprise, surprise, killer whales so rest and sleep. Especially one as old as Tilikum). I have been mere inches away from this whale, and I can say, with complete confidence that Tilikum is anything but crazy, psychotic, lifeless, depressed or anything of the sort. I challenge everyone to go to SeaWorld, and show me any evidence to the contrary.  

After the Movie:

69.  It’s worth nothing just how many cases there are of misidentification of the whales during the movie. They just show you any whale, and assume you don’t know any better and just assume its Tilikum. At one point, you’re shown a clip of “Tilikum”, that is actually Trua, a whale that is half Tilly’s size and weighs 6,000 pounds less. Even the whale on the movie poster isn’t Tilikum, its Keiko, a whale that died due to mankind’s ignorance, alone, and sick.

70.  Even as a high school student, the amount of logical fallacies that appear in this movie is astounding. There are so many examples of appeal to emotion that by the end of the movie, you feel completely exhausted, and furious-regardless of which side you are on.

71.  It’s also worth noting the amount of emotional manipulation that the view undergoes while watching this movie. You leave after the movie feeling completely ripped apart, and on the verge of tears.

72.  Blackfish is the truest form of propaganda, which is defined as “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.” The amount of lies and misinformation alone ought to be enough to prove even the most brain washed person that this movie is pushing a very specific agenda.

73.  It’s important to note the primary funder of the movie: PETA, a radical organization that, among many things, wants to ban the captivity of all animals, especially killer whales. This is not a documentary. This is a movie.

74.  And last, but certainly not least, it is essential to know who the main voices of the movie are:

·         John Jett, who was demoted from Shamu Stadium to Sea lion and Otter Stadium for being a poor swimmer, and thus being disliked by the whales he worked with.

·         Dean Gomersall, who was fired by SeaWorld for kicking an otter, and never spent a day at Shamu Stadium.

·         Jeff Ventre, who was fired for break safety protocol and sticking his head inside the mouth if a whale known to be aggressive.

I rest my case.