Gabriella Cowperthwaite Blackfish Essay

She was the first to have been killed because of Tilikum’s stress, frustration, and confinement. Sea Land of the Pacific in Victoria, Canada and SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida tries to explain Tilikum’s aggressive behavior as a result of his restricted life in the marine parks. this topic will soon becomes the documentaries biggest claim. supporting this, Blackfish sets up

Blackfish written by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. From the start attraction at Sealand of the Pacific in 1969, the aquarium grew attention for their orcas that would perform. Years later a two year old whale was captured and arrived in 81’. His name was Tilikum, coming in at two years old and 4,000 pounds. How do you go about taking orcas out of their setting, changing how they feel, and go about certain lies of how situations occurred?

A former trainer of Tilikum explains his thoughts on why the orca acts out violently, “…you understand that he's killing, not to be a savage. He's not killing because he's just crazy. He's not killing because he doesn't know what he's doing. He's killing because he's frustrated, and he's got aggravations, and he has no outlet for it.” The use of anaphoras is also seen when celebrity and talk show host, Whoopi Goldberg, speaks on the awful events, “These are wild animals and they are unpredictable because we don't speak whale.

Joshua T. Brooks Professor Patty Chaffin English 111 8 February 2023 Blackfish Blackfish is a documentary filmed in 2013 directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. This film was produced following the lawsuit against SeaWorld where people have died while training with killer whales. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ruled that it was dangerous for humans to be in the same water as Killer Wahles in captivity because the only deaths by whales have come from them being in captivity, there have been no reported deaths by whales that live in the wild. This shows that you do not know how animals will react when you get them into the wild. Gabriela Cowperthwaite shows all of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in the film.

Tilikum was not the only orca mentioned in the documentary but since he is well known (because of SeaWorld) caught they eye of many. Former Sealand trainers interviewed say that the park’s female killer whales would aggressively gang up on Tilikum especially when they were confined in a 20-foot-by- 30-foot pool overnight (Halverstadt). Aggressive behaviors has led to three deaths by Tilikum. Many say that this behavior comes from a aggressive side of Tilikum that is a side that doesn’t want to hurt anyone but has such a anger because he is being held captive. To be taken out of your water and away from your normal everyday living is very disturbing but what causes lots of emotions to go up is when we see that orcas are getting separated from other orcas they have lived with their entire lives or even birthed.

It is a common misconception of natural instinct and imaginative onlookers; these whales are not people they are wild marine life. It is no secret that killer whales have a bad reputation, however what earned the reputation was sheer unintentional killings. Orinus Orcas are wild marine life that should not be prosecuted like human beings, and the name “Killer Whales” is the result of false

The main purpose of Blackfish is to answer why a captured whale would become so aggressive and turn on its trainers. To answer this Cowperthwaite frames the documentary around Tilikum by interviewing experts in the field such as Lori Marino (Director of Science with Non-human Rights Program), and former SeaWorld trainers, such as John Hardgrove who recall capturing young orca 's, like Tilikum, away from their families and placing them into solitary confinement. One of the most emotionally gripping parts of the film is a heartbreaking

In 2013, the documentary called Blackfish was released, a story about a killer whale that over the years at SeaWorld killed several people. It highlighted some of the major problems with animals in captivity. SeaWorld, known for having several different animal attractions; Dolphin Cove, Dolphin Nursery, Orca Underwater Viewing, Shark Encounter, Wild Arctic (Habitat) and many more. The organization first started with the intention of learning more about animals in order to educate the public about different behaviors of each animal. Trainers at Seaworld are offered the opportunity to get hands-on training with animals and are eventually are allowed to entertain the public with the skills they have acquired.

Since she couldn’t obtain that said interview, she couldn 't offer a strong counter argument, or offer many other solutions than the solutions she offered. Since she couldn’t create a strong counter argument she couldn’t offer many other options and it makes you think she doesn’t realize the other options available for the situation but really she’s trying to build her argument off of what she found out. The second downfall to her argument was her credibility. Cowperthwaite stated “I set out to understand this incident not as an activist, but as a mother (who had just taken her kids to SeaWorld) and as a documentary filmmaker (who can’t let sleeping dogs lie).” Cowperthwaite is by no means a whale expert

Blackfish The documentary Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite released in July 2013, explores the mistreatment of killer whales and the relationship between the killer whales and trainers as well as the significant problems of the sea-park industry, with a focus upon SeaWorld. Cowperthwaite positions the audience to feel sympathy towards the killer whales by making deliberate choices in sound, visual, language, and structure through the representation of trainers as unprofessional, and whales as mistreated, also experts as reliable information source. Firstly, Cowperthwaite uses effective language techniques to position the audience to view the trainers as undertrained and unprofessional.

“I think that in 50 years, we’ll look back and go ‘My God, what a barbaric time. ’”-Blackfish. It is terrible that people today see nothing wrong with training these animals to entertain others. This quote from the movie is actually really accurate. Right now some people will think it’s fine because it’s been this way for a long time, but these animals are going crazy.

Over the years, the number of deaths caused by the killer whales at Sea World increased significantly. Despite this, Sea World still decided to run their theme park and continue as though it was not a problem. Because they most likely fear of losing millions in the process, they acted in their self-interest, rather than taking the deaths and injuries in consideration. Furthermore, there is a part in the documentary that brings to light the misconceptions and lies as told by Sea World workers. Sea World workers tell tourists that collapsed dorsal fins are quite normal.

That makes this sources extremely dependable for my final paper due to all the good information it gives. This movie does a good job on the timeline of events. It starts in the beginning from where and how whales were captured to be put into sea-parks, and even follows the whales on their journeys. For example, the film mainly focuses on a giant whale named Tilikum and where he started, his events, where he moved, to and where he was last when the film was made. It also starts with the first sea-parks and how they grew into bigger ones.

In 2013, Gabriela Cowperthwaite directed the documentary Blackfish. This documentary is about Tilikum, an orca from SeaWorld that has taken the lives of many trainers. The documentary makes the claim that orcas should be freed from captivity. While in captivity they are causing harm to both themselves, humans, and the other orcas. Blackfish is a great example of an argument that can be rhetorically analyzed because it has pathos, ethos, and logos.

(Blackfish). Killer whales in the wild are aggressive towards each other just as they are to humans, in 1989 an accident involving two whales: Kandu and Corky resulted in Kandu bleeding to death. (Kirby 2) this would have never happened if the whales had the enough space they needed to separate from each other. Contrastingly, killer whales in the wild are more peaceful toward each other and humans. There is only one accident of an orca biting someone in the wild.