Title: The Impact of Blackfish Documentary in Relation to Social

and Environmental Injustices

Candidate No.:

Date:

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Introduction

Blackfish documentary (2013) is about Tilikum, a whale in captivity that killed many
sea trainers alongside the famous sea expert Dawn Brancheau in 2010. Tilikum whales were
kept captive in the sea of Orlando, Florida, to entertain people, and that involved a custodian
contribution of the whales in the SeaWorld by trained professionals. Socially charging issues
emerged concerning the rights of the sea animals that eventually led to continued
controversy. The aftermath was involved through several interviews to highlight the insights
behind the death of the Dawn trainer among many other sea experts. According to the
response from the conducted interview, Dawn's death was due to the bruises, injuries and
drowning by the sea due to the grasping of the captive Orca (Waller & Iluzada, 2020). The
blackfish documentary led to a controversial investigation about the treatment of the
SeaWorld whales that contributed to the death of sea experts. In addition, the whales in
captivity were treated brutally for the entertainment of the people, according to the report
provided by Gabriella Cowperthwaite, the American director of a film-maker. Therefore, an
audience in this Blackfish documentary is keenly engaged to get a comprehensive inference
about the impacts of the Orca during the Tilikum years that was set in captivity to entertain
people and thus leading to fatality (Boissat et al., 2021). Moreover, interview footage was
established to understand the prevailing pressure involved in the SeaWorld industry alongside
barbaric captivity treatment of the whales that involved a great investment of multi-billions of
dollars of money. In that connection, protests and social media communication to
demonstrate the rights of animals as any other creature led to the escalating pressure to
demonstrate People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that had caused
controversy from the SeaWorld (Stokes & Atkins-Sayre, 2018). Consequently, the
documentary film led to the decline of the visitor’s number of the San Diego; where the
Tilikum entertainment was conducted, and that led to the decline of the profits and the
sinking of share price by 33 % in August of 2014 realized due to the entertainment services
(Boissat et al., 2021). Therefore, this essay paper explores the impact of the Blackfish
documentary film on social or environmental injustice and in connection to the enigma code,
binary opposites, hypodermic needle theory, and deception perspectives.

Enigma Code

Enigma code theory suggests that information disseminated in the film can be
withheld to have the audience intrigued. In this connection, the Blackfish documentary film
poses great interest to the audience in exploring how the death of the Dawn happened. Audio
recording of 2x911 calls that showed location and date of the establishment of the
documentary (Boissat et al., 2021). Barthes' code of enigma suggests that since the captivity
of the sea animals does not elaborate on their experience, this creates a sense of uncertainty in
the audience about how the whales might have felt strange in the sea such that it led to the
killing of trainers. Therefore, live audio recording helped create attention and interest of the
audience in the location and date of the fatal incident. The text graphics suggested the
connection between the ocean and killer whales since the audience is not sure about the
experience and feeling of the sea whales. In elaboration, the enigma code kept the audience
interested and curious to understand the scenario in a particular situation and, more so in this
case, the death of a marine expert in Tilikum because of certain information on how she was
attacked has not been fully disclosed. Gabriella Cowperthwaite, film director, engaged in
some interviews at SeaWorld to elaborate on the depth of the sea trainers and experts.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) did an investigation that aided in
giving highlights about the fatality of the Dawn Brancheau, with the filmmaking director
Gabriella Cowperthwaite giving a clear connection between the death of the sea trainers and
experts due to the brutal treatment of the Tilikum sea whales (Parsons & Rose, 2018). The
Occupational Safety and Health Administration revolutionized to inhibit trainers from
entering pools that would lead to immense mortality. Nonetheless, a shocking aspect that
qualifies the essence of the enigma code is that the attack of the Dawn is just narrated but not
shown in the film. In this light, there is a controversial story concerning an evidence-based
incident about the attack on the Brancheau rather than a documentary based on interviews
conducted. Therefore, the audience is left in suspense about the real scenario of the death of
the sea trainers and experts. 
Binary of Opposites

Levi Strauss suggested that binary opposites have narratives in the media with
opposing characters, especially in film and books (Pierce, 2015). In connection to the
Blackfish documentary, Orcas creatures are intelligent and friendly, but due to the notion of
captivity, they turn against the people who are training them in the sea. In addition, an
audience is convinced that whales are trained to please people, but on the contrary, they
develop the habit of attacking the experts taking care of them. The Tilikum would be less
aggressive if he remained in the wild rather than been in captivity. Therefore, whilst keeping
the Tilikum sea caused death of Dawn Brancheau due to the aggressive nature of
aggressiveness involved. In this light, binary opposition theory is evident in the way that
nature could take influence when the Tilikum is left in the natural or wild environment.
Nevertheless, the human influence due to mistreating and manipulating him caused sea whale
to the aggressiveness that turned against the trainers and thereafter death. To expound on this
notion, nature and human influence are opposing in the scenario of the captivity of the
Tilikum whale. According to SeaWorld, Dawn Brancheau’s ponytail triggered the attack by
the whale, but the Blackfish documentary suggested that the change of the environment from
the wild to the sea contributed to the hostility with consequential fatality (Pierce, 2015).
Furthermore, binary opposition was evident when the captive orcas were subjected to the film
such that they produced a vibrant tone and positive sound, unlike in the wild environment.
Jeffrey Ventre, a SeaWorld trainer, was once overwhelmed with emotions when he saw that
Tilikum in the natural environment lived favorably, unlike the in the sea captivity that made it
swim swiftly and uncomfortably by the aid of dorsal fins while the vibrant tone and
indication that captive orcas face hardship unlike in the wild environment. In relation to the
Blackfish documentary, an audience could identify the sense involved in the binary of
opposites.

Hypodermic Needle Theory

According to Permana et al. (2022), hypodermic needle theory states that a film delibe
rately delivers information where it is received and accepted by the receiver wholly. In this li
ght, the SeaWorld director, Gabriella Cowperthwaite, decided to conduct interviews with the
ex- SeaWorld trainers by ordering them that they should comply with the notion that having c
aptive orcas is wrong. A strategy was used to convince the receivers' minds about the informa
tion that keeping the Tilikum whale in the sea is an unethical idea rather than being in their na
tural environment. She approached phenomenal interviewees experts who gave useful and fu
ndamental by the use of audio such that they gave the insights and highlighted the dangers ass
ociated with orcas in confinement (Burford & Schutten, 2017). Gabriella Cowperthwaite's fo
otage was honourable by recording an interview that created empathy upon Dawn's death. Th
erefore, people received the message and accepted it without controversy. The interviewer en
gaged the interviewees so close that she emphasized the essence of the subject, which led to g
reat conviction about the negative sense of manipulating the orca into captivity. Therefore, th
e audience's attention is drawn close when the matter is subjected to evidence and support ab
out the challenges and consequences associated with keeping the orca. Moreover, the respons
e from the interview was perceived as valid by the audience, where the experts provided evid
ence-based information to Cowperthwaite, which made the narration more of cinema rather t
han being influenced by the film. An interview engaged in criticizing the incidents that showe
d the difference in moods and activity while keeping the orca in captivity and in the wild envi
ronment in connection to the demise of the Dawn, which was termed as a heroic gesture to th
e audience. The audience was positively convinced that the orcas were more aggressive when
subjected to captivity than in the natural environment, thus drawing an inference that the hum
an entertainment in the SeaWorld organization has been engaging in illegal and unethical acti
vity.

Deception

According to Sarkadi et al. (2021), deception plays a fundamental role in information

dissemination. The deception was evident from SeaWorld that suggesting that the hostility an
d aggressiveness of the Tilikum were due to the ponytail of the Dawn Brancheau that cause le
d to her death. Contrastingly, the Blackfish documentary film suggested that environmental m
odification of Tilikum contributed to such ill fate of the sea trainer. Moreover, SeaWorld state
d that orcas live longer in captivity, with females living fifty while males thirty years, unlike i
n the wild environment. In relation to the Blackfish documentary, that notion was ruled out a
nd suggested that the wild could live longer than the captive orcas (Bollard, 2020). In additio
n, there is a notion of deception whereby footage showed an employee who was actively invo
lved in providing information based on an interview conducted by the Cowperthwaite. On the
contrary, the employee was termed as an ex-trainer of SeaWorld. In addition to deception, a S
eaWorld trainer is termed to have been injured, but in the real sense, he had just slipped (Wall
er & Iluzada, 2020).

Conclusion

To sum up, the Blackfish documentary film shows the impacts of the social and
environmental injustices on the Tilikum whale that was subject to entertaining people. The
death of the SeaWorld trainers was because there was manipulation and harm inflicted on the
orca. Video footage showed that the behaviour of the wild whale was different and friendly,
unlike the orca in captivity, which was aggressive and thus harmed the trainers. The social
life of the trainers was rendered at risk, while the environmental adjustment of the whale led
to the fatality of the experts and trainers. Enigma code creates attention where the death of
the Dawn takes place in the process of filming the documentary. Whilst, a dark activity in the
entire documentary is engaged since there is no clear evidence of what exactly happens
behind the scenes of the orca whale. Binary opposites showed the contrasting issues evident
in the documentary-like training of the orca whales and later on turning against them to kill
the experts. Subjecting the orca to the captive sealed them to produce a vibrant tone
accompanied by aggressiveness, unlike in the wild environment. The hypodermic needle
theory was evident in the documentary, where the audience believed the source of
information by the director Gabriella Cowperthwaite during the interview using strategic
approaches to convince the audience that the idea of keeping the Tilikum whale in captivity is
unethical and brutal. Deception attribute was evident through the engagement of the
interviewees as ex-trainer, but in the real sense, he was a worker of the SeaWorld
organization. Keeping the Tilikum in captivity as an orca led to the development of the
aggressiveness such that it killed some of the SeaWorld trainers like Brancheau. Therefore,
there is an aspect of criticizing SeaWorld organization under training and treating Tilikum
brutally. The issues of human entertainment should be viewed from an elevated perspective
to be an illegal and brutal venture based on the interviews and footage facts presented from
the Cowperthwaite. An audience is enlightened through the insights from the footage about
the harmful training of the orca in the sea. Therefore, the entertainment of SeaWorld has to be
terminated, and the release of the orcas initiated to cease the mistreatment of whales. In
honour of the Dawn Brancheau, the SeaWorld activity has to be shut down completely while
showing the appreciation of the captive orcas. Therefore, the Blackfish documentary film can
be used to change the social and environmental injustices based on the information provided.
A social policy would also be developed to show the concern about the importance of sea
creatures in human interaction.
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