Blackfish

[Guest]

Originally Posted by scottishmum

There is a lot of time spent on seaworld, interviewing former seaworld trainers too.
Lots of footage from seaworld in general.

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Thanks. I'm just wondering how I will feel about seaworld after watching it. Just have to try and keep an open mind I suppose and remember there are two sides to every argument.

[onlyholly]

I didn't visit Seaworld last August due to similar stories and this documentary has confirmed, for my own peace of mind, that I definitely won't be returning. I always knew it wasn't right to confine a mammal of the wild to such a small enclosure (or any animal) and that's for starters ...

Catriona

[Hannikins]

I'm in to minds on whether to watch this as I really love going to seaworld, it's going to be a difficult one :/

[disneymadhouse]

DH and I watched it last night. I found a couple of parts of it absolutely heartbreaking. I have been to SW many times, and it has now really made me and DH think. We are so pleased to have been able to see these beautiful creatures up close, and to give DD the chance to see them as well. In all likelihood we would never have seen them otherwise. But, is it right that we saw them in captivity or is it better to have never seen them at all if the only place was to see them is in the wild? ( sort of better to have lost and lost etc etc, I hope you follow my thinking)
DD is desperate to swim with dolphins, which she will be old enough to do so on our next trip. I'm not even sure if DC sits right with me now either, but I would have to come up with a very good excuse to tell DD as to why we couldn't. (obviously we couldn't show her the film)

Lots of thinking to do

[Deggs]

I've just watched this online, it was screened last night on BBC4. Did anyone else see this? Just wondered what your thoughts were and whether it would make a difference to you visiting SeaWorld?

I had not planned to visit any of the sea world parks, and this documentary has just confirmed why.

Deggs

[Guest]

Hi
Yes i watched this last night and don't think we'll be visiting Seaworld on our next visit.
We have just got back, only a week ago if I'd watched this before we went this year i don't think we would of visited this time

[ch1ps]

Watched it, don't think we would visit SW again.

[Deggs]

Just seen the thread lower down that descended into arguing, but thanks for your positive and sensible responses.

Deggs x

[disneyfan87]

I watched it last night too with an open mind. I was pretty shocked to realise that many of the whales are taken from captivity, I had thought they were all rescued or bred. I thought one of the biggest issues was the poor communication between seaworld management and the trainers as this seemed to cause a lot of issues.
Nowadays I think seaworld is run very differently to what the film shows. They have a huge focus on rescue and rehabilitation as well as raising a lot of money and awareness for the animals and conservation. This doesn't excuse what they have done in the past, some things are clearly wrong and not in he best interest of the animals or the trainers but zoos and other animal reserves are an important part of our works, both for education and saving some animals from extinction.

[dpmcalister]

It's on iPlayer until 11 December for those that may have missed it: bbc/iplayer/episode...that_Kille d/

Personally, it hasn't changed my mind. I'll still visit SeaWorld (and other places were animals are kept in captivity).