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255 reviews for:
Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, Seaworld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish
Howard Chua-Eoan, John Hargrove
4.22 AVERAGE
255 reviews for:
Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, Seaworld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish
Howard Chua-Eoan, John Hargrove
4.22 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
A must read, especially if you saw Blackfish and want to know more about why marine mammals in captivity is cruel.
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
I listened to this audiobook while at work and it was honestly so hard not to start crying. Really good and really sad.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
As a child, John Hargrove had one dream and that was to become an orca trainer at SeaWorld. He pestered the park’s current trainers with questions, both in person and through letters, asking what he needed to do, what path he should follow, to become a trainer there. After following the path outlined for him, he endured a grueling swim test that involved diving to the bottom of a 40 ft pool in 50 degree temperatures and bringing a weight to the surface. Harder than it sounds! This led to his being selected as an apprentice trainer in the San Antonio, Texas park at the age of 20. Unfortunately, this did not lead to a happily-ever-after career.
What follows are stories about Hargrove’s time with the whales, both good and bad, as well as an expansion on the documentary “Blackfish,” detailing orca attacks on their trainers and how SeaWorld blames the trainers themselves for these incidents. If you haven’t already seen Blackfish, please do yourself a favor and watch it. I’m planning to view it a second time now that I know the trainers and the whales on a more detailed level. It focuses on the capture and life in captivity of the male orca Tilikum, leading up to his killing of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010.
What I love most about the book, is that it is a firsthand account from someone who experienced most of these incidents in person or at the very least heard each account from a fellow trainer. After working at SeaWorld for so many years, Hargrove understands the company better than most people ever could. He often found himself being reprimanded for his arguments against company management on behalf of the whales. He says over and over again that even though he was forced to make the heart-wrenching decision to leave SeaWorld for both emotional and physical reasons, he always has and always will love the whales.
As illustrated by Hargrove, SeaWorld’s treatment of both the whales and its trainers is despicable to say the least. The whales were continually forced to wade in an 8-foot holding pool throughout the day during shows while they waited for their turn to perform for the masses. Whales are made to be constantly swimming, so to place them in such a small area not only made them uncomfortable, but it exposed them to the sun’s harsh rays. Some biologists think this may be why male dorsal fins flop over in captivity: sunburn. The whales would often rake their teeth on the pool walls so hard that paint came off and they did significant permanent damage to their teeth. They would also rake each other, leaving deep gashes, something that rarely happens in the wild. The harsh chlorine would burn their eyes. These are just a few of the minor grievances, but the biggest problem was the small size of their pools compared to the vastness of the ocean. Whales swim hundreds of miles each day in the wild and they rarely stop moving. Is it any surprise that they would occasionally decide to opportunistically take out their stress and frustration on their trainers? When an aggressive incident between a whale and trainer occurred, SeaWorld would almost always blame the trainer for the mishap. For instance, Tilikum was too dangerous to swim with in the water, but he managed to grab Dawn Brancheau’s arm with his mouth and drag her into the pool to attack and ultimately kill her. Instead of telling the truth about this incident, SeaWorld maintains that the whale saw her ponytail and grabbed it in a playful manner. Eye witness accounts and video, not to mention the state of Dawn’s body by the time he was done with her, say otherwise. And this is just one of many incidents in which SeaWorld blamed the trainer for aggressive killer whale behavior. After an investigation, OSHA hit the company with a minuscule fine and more importantly forced them to keep trainers from doing water work with the orcas due to all the safety violations.
Since I have no problem letting myself get emotional within the confines of my car (I listened to the audiobook version), I will admit to tearing up multiple times throughout the course of the book. It hurt to think of the female killer whale Kasatka being separated from her calf Takara. Hargrove describes how Kasatka emitted long range vocalizations when she could no longer sense the presence of her calf. A trainer in the Orlando park even recorded some of Takara’s vocalizations and played them for Kasatka in San Diego after which she became extremely upset. This is heartbreaking. SeaWorld continued the cycle of pain by turning Takara into a breeding machine at an unnaturally young age (killer whales normally don’t start becoming pregnant until they are around 14 years old and SeaWorld continually began breeding their orcas at the age of only 8). Of course, they then took her calves from her as well. In the wild, calves remain in a pod with their mothers for life. Their society is matriarchal and hierarchies are determined by the females. Separation of this kind in captivity is unnatural and cruel.
Thanks to Blackfish and advocates like John Hargrove, change IS happening, at least in California. On October 11, 2015 the State of California officially barred “captive breeding, artificial insemination, and the sale, trade or transfer of any animal in captivity,” although this only applies to their San Diego park. And only a few days ago, SeaWorld announced they would end their killer whale shows in San Diego due to continuing protests and falling stock prices. This is fantastic news, but there is still a long way to go before keeping orcas in captivity is made illegal in this country. And due to many of SeaWorld’s current whales being born in captivity, they will never be able to be reintroduced into the wild, which means we could have 50 years or more before the last captive whale is gone.
One of the most powerful sections in the book comes toward the end. One of Hargrove’s mentors and a fellow trainer who requested to remain anonymous made the argument that God gave us dominion over the animals, so what SeaWorld is doing isn’t wrong. John’s answer is much in line with my own. Essentially he said that if God gave us dominion over the animals doesn’t that mean we should be required to show them even more compassion and empathy than if he hadn’t? Corporate greed should not dictate our treatment of killer whales, dolphins, or any animal. Their welfare, not a bottom line, should be our number one priority.
Thanks to the Goodreads.com Choice Awards for putting this book on my radar.
https://yeshallbejudged.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/book-review-beneath-the-surface-killer-whales-seaworld-and-the-truth-beyond-blackfish/
What follows are stories about Hargrove’s time with the whales, both good and bad, as well as an expansion on the documentary “Blackfish,” detailing orca attacks on their trainers and how SeaWorld blames the trainers themselves for these incidents. If you haven’t already seen Blackfish, please do yourself a favor and watch it. I’m planning to view it a second time now that I know the trainers and the whales on a more detailed level. It focuses on the capture and life in captivity of the male orca Tilikum, leading up to his killing of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010.
What I love most about the book, is that it is a firsthand account from someone who experienced most of these incidents in person or at the very least heard each account from a fellow trainer. After working at SeaWorld for so many years, Hargrove understands the company better than most people ever could. He often found himself being reprimanded for his arguments against company management on behalf of the whales. He says over and over again that even though he was forced to make the heart-wrenching decision to leave SeaWorld for both emotional and physical reasons, he always has and always will love the whales.
As illustrated by Hargrove, SeaWorld’s treatment of both the whales and its trainers is despicable to say the least. The whales were continually forced to wade in an 8-foot holding pool throughout the day during shows while they waited for their turn to perform for the masses. Whales are made to be constantly swimming, so to place them in such a small area not only made them uncomfortable, but it exposed them to the sun’s harsh rays. Some biologists think this may be why male dorsal fins flop over in captivity: sunburn. The whales would often rake their teeth on the pool walls so hard that paint came off and they did significant permanent damage to their teeth. They would also rake each other, leaving deep gashes, something that rarely happens in the wild. The harsh chlorine would burn their eyes. These are just a few of the minor grievances, but the biggest problem was the small size of their pools compared to the vastness of the ocean. Whales swim hundreds of miles each day in the wild and they rarely stop moving. Is it any surprise that they would occasionally decide to opportunistically take out their stress and frustration on their trainers? When an aggressive incident between a whale and trainer occurred, SeaWorld would almost always blame the trainer for the mishap. For instance, Tilikum was too dangerous to swim with in the water, but he managed to grab Dawn Brancheau’s arm with his mouth and drag her into the pool to attack and ultimately kill her. Instead of telling the truth about this incident, SeaWorld maintains that the whale saw her ponytail and grabbed it in a playful manner. Eye witness accounts and video, not to mention the state of Dawn’s body by the time he was done with her, say otherwise. And this is just one of many incidents in which SeaWorld blamed the trainer for aggressive killer whale behavior. After an investigation, OSHA hit the company with a minuscule fine and more importantly forced them to keep trainers from doing water work with the orcas due to all the safety violations.
Since I have no problem letting myself get emotional within the confines of my car (I listened to the audiobook version), I will admit to tearing up multiple times throughout the course of the book. It hurt to think of the female killer whale Kasatka being separated from her calf Takara. Hargrove describes how Kasatka emitted long range vocalizations when she could no longer sense the presence of her calf. A trainer in the Orlando park even recorded some of Takara’s vocalizations and played them for Kasatka in San Diego after which she became extremely upset. This is heartbreaking. SeaWorld continued the cycle of pain by turning Takara into a breeding machine at an unnaturally young age (killer whales normally don’t start becoming pregnant until they are around 14 years old and SeaWorld continually began breeding their orcas at the age of only 8). Of course, they then took her calves from her as well. In the wild, calves remain in a pod with their mothers for life. Their society is matriarchal and hierarchies are determined by the females. Separation of this kind in captivity is unnatural and cruel.
Thanks to Blackfish and advocates like John Hargrove, change IS happening, at least in California. On October 11, 2015 the State of California officially barred “captive breeding, artificial insemination, and the sale, trade or transfer of any animal in captivity,” although this only applies to their San Diego park. And only a few days ago, SeaWorld announced they would end their killer whale shows in San Diego due to continuing protests and falling stock prices. This is fantastic news, but there is still a long way to go before keeping orcas in captivity is made illegal in this country. And due to many of SeaWorld’s current whales being born in captivity, they will never be able to be reintroduced into the wild, which means we could have 50 years or more before the last captive whale is gone.
One of the most powerful sections in the book comes toward the end. One of Hargrove’s mentors and a fellow trainer who requested to remain anonymous made the argument that God gave us dominion over the animals, so what SeaWorld is doing isn’t wrong. John’s answer is much in line with my own. Essentially he said that if God gave us dominion over the animals doesn’t that mean we should be required to show them even more compassion and empathy than if he hadn’t? Corporate greed should not dictate our treatment of killer whales, dolphins, or any animal. Their welfare, not a bottom line, should be our number one priority.
Thanks to the Goodreads.com Choice Awards for putting this book on my radar.
https://yeshallbejudged.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/book-review-beneath-the-surface-killer-whales-seaworld-and-the-truth-beyond-blackfish/
emotional
informative
This book is pretty much exactly what I expected after reading the description. I was underwhelmed, partly because the autobiographical nature meant I wasn't reading the work of a career author, and partly because a recent viewing of the documentary Blackfish left me with an appetite for more scandal. It was still an enjoyable read, though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death
Moderate: Death
Minor: Homophobia, Gaslighting
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I don't feel comfortable giving this non-fiction book a start rating. The author is a former Seaworld orca trainer, who is dicussing his personal experiences and feelings about his career and life. I became interested in this novel after watching the documentary Blackfish, that the author was in, which discuess Seaworld and orcas in captivity as well. This book provides a single perspective on this issue and a more detailed experience because it only the author experience, unlike in the Blackfish documentry which has multiple people discussing there experiences. The author was transparent and honest about his life and what happened, including the good, bad, and ugly. It can be a difficult read, because of the content, but a nessesary discussion that needs to be had about orcas in captivity. I recomend pairing this non-fiction book to be read after watching the documentary Blackfish to get more depth and insight this book offers.
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced