A Living Document

Three years after its public release, Blackfish continues adding chapters to its remarkable story, making it one of the most successful and important documentaries in history.

When I blogged about the film in July 2013, Blackfish was pretty much unknown, and it remained that way for months. Showings on CNN brought it widespread attention though, and since then, the film's impact has grown exponentially and unceasingly. The latest chapter in its run is that it can claim some responsibility for ending SeaWorld's orca breeding program.

That's right, two weeks ago, SeaWorld, whose stock has plummeted since the release of Blackfish, announced that it would stop breeding orcas. This means that the orcas currently at SeaWorld will be the last ones there.

After an unheralded beginning, Blackfish has done and continues to do amazing things. It took on a massive industry that almost no one questioned at the time; it brought into the animal-rights movement people who had never considered environmental activism; and it changed public and corporate policy. Animals continue to be used for entertainment, so the film's story is not yet over, and it will be exciting to see what future impacts it has.

Blackfish may not have made a big splash right out the gate, but its rippling influence remains alive and vital.

The Last Strike

When we put a wild animal on display, we take more from nature than a single creature.

Life in the wild may be wild, but it's also life, and captivity steals it away. As we have seen with films like The Cove and Blackfish, removing an animal from its natural habitat causes immediate damages and thrusts it into an environment that cannot sustain it in the long run. While those films focus on whales and dolphins, a recent report from National Public Radio teaches us that the effects of captivity touch even animals we might not have thought susceptible.

The story tells of an giant isopod removed from the wild in the waters off Baja California and sent to live in the Toba Aquarium in Japan. After more than a year in this human-constructed environment, the isopod began refusing food in 2009. Its refusal to eat, which NPR characterizes as a hunger strike, continued until two weeks ago. On February 14, 2014, aquarium personnel found the isopod dead in its tank.

Only recently have we awakened to the full cost of keeping wild animals within human enclosures, and the story of this isopod forces us to think about the issue on a much larger scale. Places like zoos can serve an important function for species on the brink of extinction, but we have to ask what else we might be extinguishing when we bring species into captivity. The cost may be worth preventing species from disappearing forever, but for most other reasons, the loss of freedom for animals simply doesn't add up.

If you love something wild, keep it free.

Black Mark

Our relationship with whales might change more rapidly than any other connection we have with our environment.

First, whales were food and fuel; then, they became symbols of environmental destruction; next, they were captive teachers and entertainers; and the relationship appears to be changing again.

Although captive whales that entertain audiences in places like SeaWorld undoubtedly inspired many individuals to learn about cetaceans (the family that includes whales and dolphins), the morality of this captor-captive relationship is being questioned. A new documentary called Blackfish looks at the impact we have on whales, specifically orcas, when we capture them for entertainment purposes. Watch the trailer below:



We now know that whales and dolphins have intelligence and levels of feeling similar to our own. Indeed, they keep teaching us things, and the latest lesson is that we need to reexamine our relationships with them (and other animals) once again. Our current approach is black with death and shame.