Blackfish (the documentary on captured Killer Whales)

[becca]

It is an excellent doc. I remember when Keltie Byrne was killed in my hometown in Canada (Tillicum is a local tribal name) and how the press and authorities back then found Sealand covered up details about the treatment of the whales and the circumstances of their employee's death. People who paid attention here knew that this particular whale should not have been in with others let alone performing or in much contact with so-called trainers. It never should have been stolen so young from it's pod in Iceland for the sheer greed of people to have more money and for no other reason. Now there had been some serious study done by people (Dr. Spong) associated with Sealand at one time, but that had nothing to do with the show-biz attraction aspect, the entire continuing operation was not ever for genuine educational purposes. I saw a show at the Sealand Of The Pacific where the first trainer was later killed, when it was Haida and Chimo, and I had a great interest and learned practically nothing. They jumped through hoops, the splashed, and they were described as having humanistic personalities. On your way out you were encouraged to buy stuff based on their trademarked personalities at a gift shop.

The whole thing remains sad and pointless. Even though the capturing of these whales is long past in the waters I travel through, current wild orca whale pods are slowly declining because of environmental degradation... yet now they are looking to increase oil tanker traffic further here on the tail of new pipelines being given a green light. There will never be enough money for some people. People suffer as well as the other creatures because of this.