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jaclynday 's review for:
Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish
by Howard Chua-Eoan, John Hargrove
What a tangled web of shit SeaWorld has gotten itself into. Hargrove isn’t off the hook either: shortly after the release of this book, SeaWorld provided startup funding to a website designed to attack Hargrove (a former SeaWorld trainer) and also released a video of Hargrove saying some massively racist and fucked up things. I read about the video after finishing the book and it makes it hard now to review or discuss without that context in mind. If we look at the book purely as an indictment on SeaWorld and as an addendum to Blackfish, it’s wildly successful on those fronts. It covers many of the events in Blackfish, yes, but Hargrove is able to expand on the comments he made in the documentary and provide more inside color and commentary about the best known incidents that happened at the park. Where the book really shines, though, is in Hargrove’s breakdown of training, care, and the behavioral issues that occurred frequently. (Hargrove and other trainers called these orca-trainer issues “aggressions,” and Hargrove was on the receiving end on more than one occasion.) It’s clear Hargrove is torn about how to talk about this issue. He loved his job. He loved the whales. He was stimulated and excited by his work with SeaWorld–until he wasn’t, obviously. It’s obvious he was trying to de-glamorize the job while also…glamorizing it a little bit. Perhaps there’s no way to talk about SeaWorld orca trainers without glamorizing their jobs, simply because they’re so mysterious, weird, alluring. Swimming with whales! Isn’t that neat? The trainers think so and even Hargrove, a former trainer with a big bone to pick with SeaWorld, is clearly proud of his accomplishments. He tempers this by acknowledging the things he saw and didn’t like and the things he saw and tried to stop. As Hargrove’s eyes open to the corporate greed, safety issues, and risked health and well-being of the whales owned by SeaWorld, the book becomes more surgical, touching on things Blackfish didn’t and expanding the dark of side of SeaWorld in more detail. But, as I pointed out earlier, there’s a lot to this book and to Hargrove happening behind the scenes. Last night I was watching TV and two SeaWorld ads appeared within a 20 minute span of time. I was in Orlando for work last week and the airport was plastered–absolutely covered–in SeaWorld ads. I think this book is worth reading, especially if you’re passionate or curious about the subject. But, of course, there’s still this and it sums it up pretty well.