" Blackfish " lifts the veil on the lives of orcas in captivity
When Dawn Brancheau died , February 24, 2010 , after being attacked by orca star of SeaWorld , animal water park reference to the United States , the tragedy ignited news channels continuously. Nearly four years later , the output of Blackfish , a documentary that investigates the death of careful , in turn triggers a torrent of reactions , both in the media and the public side .
Seaworld is an institution. The Group owns eleven parks in the United States , two major San Diego ( California ) and Orlando ( Florida ) . They are the equivalent of our Disneyland Paris : this is where all parents take their children at least once . The company, publicly traded since April , records more than 10 million admissions per year, € 60 per ticket on average.
As in many water parks, Seaworld , the highlight of the show is the "show" of orcas, " killer whales " in English ( "killer whale" ) . For half an hour , large and small marvel to see the largest marine predator perform pirouettes like a pet. Trainers slip their head in the open mouths of whales for their embrace the language , surf on their backs and dive with them in the sea water pools
Tilikum , AN ICON IN THE UNITED STATES
Tilikum , the largest orca in captivity , presents itself to visitors impressed the Orlando park in Florida.
America is in shock at the tragedy of 2010 that made headlines in the national press : how this attack does not take place at SeaWorld , where the animals are happy and safe trainers , according common thought ? The victim, Dawn Brancheau , was the most experienced of careful Orlando park and the orca involved in his death, Tilikum , the most famous of cetaceans : it comes on the scene a few minutes before the end of the show to flood the stands during the famous " big splash ."
Gabriela Cowperthwaite , director of Blackfish is not an activist . It is primarily as a mother who took her children several times to Seaworld she feels affected by the tragedy, like most Americans. "I do not understand how careful as experienced had been killed by an orca, in a place like Seaworld. I started to investigate and what I found shocked me ," she says .
When it begins to "pull the son " of his investigation , she discovered that the origins of the attack of 24 February are deeply rooted in the history of Tilikum in particular and orcas in captivity in general. " I quickly realized that to treat the story the best way I had to start from the beginning ," she says .
START WITH THE BEGINNING
The history of Blackfish , the name given to the orcas by American Indians fished alongside killer whales, in the 1970s and early battered in the territorial waters of Washington. Before that date, orcas had been captured, but this is the first time that wild animals were for pools concrete parks.
In the documentary Gabriela Cowperthwaite , a fisherman present during these first book captures the chilling details of what he himself describes as "hunting ." The "kidnapping" of small ( only caught because less expensive to transport ) to éventrage individuals found dead in fishing nets which are then filled with stones or anchors and we ran for s ' rid .
Tilikum was caught in this way in 1983 , Iceland. After his capture , he spent the first years of his life in a park in Canada , says Blackfish , archive footage and testimony in support . Night, it is enclosed in a " box floating iron " six meters long and nine meters deep, with two other females. During this period , he is regularly attacked and injured by his blood until two congeners . At this time, the killer could possibly develop a form of psychosis, a noted expert interviewed in the film. It is in this park that Tilikum will make his first victim. He will kill a total of three times during his years of captivity.
DIFFERENT VERSIONS
Seaworld has always refused to recognize that manipulate orcas in captivity was a danger . The tragedy of February 2010 is attributable to the negligence of Dawn Brancheau and is in no way linked to an act of aggression on the part of the animal five and a half tons , the park provides .
Despite made by management Seaworld ( which explains at the outset that the trainer slipped into the water, before retracting telling she got carried away in the basin by the ponytail ) , the contradictory controversy eventually fade and disappear from television screens. One consequence of the accident in February 2010 , the giant water parks must now put a physical barrier between killer whales and trainers during shows for security reasons . Seaworld challenging the ban and for now, Tilikum continues to "exercise ."
" After several days of debate , everyone was convinced that Dawn had died following a game that had gone wrong with Tilikum . The audience thought that the story came down to it ," recalls Gabriela Cowperthwaite , which delivers a different version in its documentary.
The survey reveals that Blackfish Tilikum pulled careful by the arm while it was in an area of the basin where it had foot. The orca was then driven to the bottom of the water. When the lifeless body of the young woman of 40 years was finally recovered , it appeared she had suffered numerous fractures and bruises. Tilikum was literally " mutilated " responds a former colleague Dawn Brancheau .
IN CAPTIVITY , THE ORCS DIE YOUNG
The main argument waterparks to justify the captivity of animals is to ensure they have a better life in their ponds because they have very good medical care. In a statement written in response to Blackfish and published by CNN, Seaworld describes the documentary as " untrue " and " misleading " , recalling that the park " is one of the most respected zoological institutions in the world " and " allocates million annually for conservation and scientific research. "
However, in captivity, killer whale communities are separated and mixed individuals. In the wild , orcas live in "families" of twenty or fifty individuals and travel tens of kilometers per day . Each family has its own codes , its own language. In the basins , orcas are prey to abuse and can not swim anywhere. Experts interviewed in the documentary are unanimous: the captive animals manufactures frustrated , bored and die young. The " Most Respected in the World" zoological institution is not comparable to freedom .
As the qu'avance investigation, the documentary seems to hesitate between two arguments to raise awareness : on the one hand , the cruelty of man , responsible for conscious agony of highly intelligent animals , the other high risks arising from the captivity of orcas . Since 1988, more than a hundred attacks, including four fatal , have been attributed to orcas in captivity, according to figures from Seaworld. Tilikum is involved in three of them .
No attack of a man with a killer release has yet been identified.
" It's bad for the killer and it's bad for the trainers , too, both of them as victims of the same system ," says the director. If nothing good results from these practices, why continue to raise orcas in captivity? Car industry Orca heavy.
Tim Zimmermann Blackfish co-wrote and is the author of "The Killer in the pool ," an article published by Outside magazine , which served as the basis for the documentary. According to him, Shamu ( the generic name given to all the orcs of the park) , is responsible for over 70 % of the profit from Seaworld . " If you do not know the exact figure, it is quite fair to say that Shamu is the heart craft Seaworld ," said Tim Zimmermann. This explains why the group is fighting to not give up, according Blackfish .
Beyond the killer , the film wants to question the the animal entertainment industry as a whole. " It is not that killer whales . If we are able to use animals as smart for the entertainment , which is regulated by profit industry , it tells us a lot about how we consider animals and what we are capable of self-interest , "said Tim Zimmermann.
Many articles have been published in American newspapers and Europe about the attack in 2010. Many people have investigated , but no production ever , not even "The killer in the pool ," he had encountered the echo currently Blackfish .
The film crew welcomes new movements emerge to try to bend the industry orca in captivity, some activists are aimed directly at Seaworld economic partners and ask them the question . The film also allowed older to gain exposure initiatives. Lolita, an orca who has spent more than forty years of his life at the Miami Seaquarium , Florida, has become the flagship of the case, while the campaign for his release intensifies.
Blackfish selected by many festivals, including Sundance , was released in theaters this summer in the United States . The documentary has since been distributed in Europe (Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands and Spain). It will be released in France next summer in 2014 on Arte .
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