Blackfish Director Reflects on Movie’s Impact on SeaWorld 10 Years Later

Do you remember when the orca-focused documentary Blackfish blew us out of the water? Ten years later, Blackfish filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite looks back on her documentary and the impact it still has today.

Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s documentary Blackfish focused on Tilikum, an orca held captive at SeaWorld for most of his life. The aggression from this 22-foot, 12,000-pound orca due to his 33-year-long captivity led to the deaths of three people. When asked by Yahoo about Blackfish’s impact ten years later, Cowperthwaite believed many good things came after with room for change.

“The travel industry, so much of it has stopped doing swim-with-dolphin shows. I think the biggest one is sort of what I said about just really viewing these animals as sentient, as intelligent and as something that we are on this planet to protect — and protecting them oftentimes means keeping away from them,” she says. “Hopefully we’ve made captivity in some way, shape or form a bad thing. The PR risk is way too great. So much can go wrong, and it’s not hip, it’s not cool anymore.”

It’s amazing when you think about the power one documentary could have. After this controversial documentary showed the atrocities of large animals in captivity, it made people rethink the film’s themes. Three years after Blackfish’s release, SeaWorld decided to end its orca breeding program and phase out its theatrical orca shows. There’s also the California Orca Protection Act, banning the breeding and captivity of orcas, and a Canadian act that stops the captivity of marine animals. Even Pixar’s Finding Dory was affected by Blackfish by changing its traditional happy depictions of marine parks.

What is Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s “end goal” after making Blackfish?

The American-Brazilian filmmaker hopes that SeaWorld will use their money one day towards retiring animals to sea sanctuaries. Because not all marine animals can be released back into the wild, these sanctuaries can help care for these animals. Compared to original ticket prices being towards watching them do tricks like circus animals, park visitors would see these animals behaving in their most natural way.

Cowperthwaite mentioned there’s currently the Whale Sanctuary Project in Nova Scotia for whales ready to retire. She hopes SeaWorld will be next in adopting this practice. Filmmakers can watch this documentary feeling inspired to make a change where it’s most needed. You can currently watch Blackfish on your Hulu and Amazon Prime services.

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