Killer Whales In The Film 'Blackfish' By Seaworld

To many who’ve seen it, “Blackfish” is a damning indictment of SeaWorld and its decision to hold killer whales captive. But SeaWorld and some of their formal Orca trainers say that the documentary has a misleading representation of the marine park and its practice.

Killer whales can become hyper-aggressive when confined in captivity.

To make this case, the documentary focuses on Tilikum, a 32-year- old male orca. Tilikum was captured in the northern Atlantic Ocean in 1983 and taken to Sealand of the Pacific, a now-shuttered park near

Victoria, British Columbia. Former Sealand trainers interviewed in “Blackfish” say the park’s female

Orcas would aggressively gang up on Tilikum, particularly when they were confined in a 20-foot- by- 30- foot pool

That means about 34 percent of SeaWorld’s current killer whales share his genes. The park says none of these orcas has aggressive tendencies. There have been more than 70 killer whale-trainer accidents in the past few decades.

“Blackfish” spends significant time laying out Tilikum’s history but also provides examples of other dangerous – and even deadly – encounters between trainers and killer whales.

One former trainer specifically claimed there have been more than 70 incidents at SeaWorld and elsewhere. One of the more prominent ones mentioned in “Blackfish” is the December 2009 death of Alexis

Martinez, a killer whale trainer at a marine park in Spain. Martinez was killed while training with an orca reportedly on loan from SeaWorld. The movie also mentions two examples from San Diego, including a trainer who was held under water in 2006 and another who was seriously injured after a whale landed on him when it was doing a trick.

A legal brief filed by Occupational Health and Safety Administration attorneys last fall said SeaWorld records “aggressive or other unwanted whale behaviors” and documented at least 100 incidents from 1989

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