Blackfish

Blackfish

I knew going into this that it would be bad... And it was... I felt sick from the get go... Aside from learning more about beautiful Orca Whales, I learnt mostly about how awful humans are... Watching the way the whales are captured, and kept, in tiny pools was akin to putting a human in a cage, like prison, these whales are prisoners... Their babies are taken away, and the despair the mother expresses when this happens is parallel to human grief... 

The lies these parks tell are awful, about the age whales live to be, about their floppy dorsal fins, saying that the whales live in their family groups, when in the wild babies stay with their mums/families their whole lives! As a mum and someone who loves animals it just broke my heart...  It's unbelievable that the staff aren't given access to the amount of and type of accidents for trainers working with the whales, further perpetuating the lies... Surely it would cross your mind that these are HUGE, wild animals that have no way to let off steam for many, many years... It seems obvious to me that they may lash out from time to time...

I remember being pregnant with Marley (08), there was a baby whale orphaned in the Sydney harbour area... Poor little love was suckling yachts, trying desperately to find it's mama... I cried for days over that, broke my heart, and eventually they put the baby whale to sleep... After watching this, I am glad they put it to sleep and didn't try to capture and train it... It's all just awful... I have had flashbacks over the 20 hours since I watched it, I still don't feel composed about it... Too heartbreaking...