Skip to content

When A Teen Goes Green

About an eco-positive lifestyle

Menu
  • Home
    • What is an eco-positive lifestyle?
    • New? Start here!
  • How to guides
  • Reducing negative impact
    • Veganism
    • Minimalism
    • Zero Waste
    • Sustainable Traveling
    • Sustainable and Fair Fashion
    • Intersectional Feminism
    • Circular Economy
    • The 9 Planetary Boundaries
  • Increasing positive impact
  • Inspiration
    • Recipes
    • Hotspots
    • Organizations and apps
    • Books, documentaries, films, series and podcasts
    • Books, Films and Series List
  • Personal
    • My Ideal World
    • About me and this blog
Menu

Documentary: Blackfish

Posted on December 18, 2017January 24, 2023

It’s time for another documentary. A documentary of which I thought: ‘I have to share this, people have to know about this!’. And then I forgot because I have so much I want to write about. But a while back something happened which brought me tears and then I gave this post priority. And so it’s finally here: a must watch post about Blackfish.

No Idea

Sometimes I watch documentaries without watching a trailer of seeing what it’s about. This was such a documentary. I knew it wasn’t about sustainability (most documentaries I’ve seen so far concern sustainability), but it was often recommended to me. I had to see it. Since I wasn’t prepared the shock was even more severe.

Blackfish

I hear you think: ‘Romee, now tell me what’s this about!’. Blackfish is a documentary about SeaWorld. Or maybe about the main character within SeaWorld: Tilikum. Tilikum is an orca. The main line of the documentary is about Tilikum and around that is the story of SeaWorld (you see how it started as SeaLand and you should really search for videos of it, it is the tiniest thing ever). I cried multiple times during this documentary, it is pure terror.

Tilikum

Tilikum was haunted down in the ocean nearby Iceland, captured and then brought to Sealand in 1983. That footage is in the documentary and it is something I will never forget. An orca family disrupted and torn apart while the baby (Tilikum) is stolen. And that baby orca then has to spend its entire life in a tank just for the entertainment of people. It is truly horrendous. This obviously drives Tilikum (like any other animal in captivity) insane and he was involved in three deaths of people working at SeaWorld. One trainer died after something happened during a show, an intruder who sneaked in at night was killed and another trainer was killed just after a show.

I’m not surprised at all and it shows how insane it is to keep an orca in a tank. Of course it’ll get frustrated and kills. One dangerous moment is also shared in the documentary, footage of a trainer who is held under water by an orca for a very long time. After all three deaths Tilikum stayed and performing in the shows.

Documentary about veganism: Blackfish

Ex-Trainers

A lot of information in the documentary is told by SeaWorld’s ex-trainers. These are people who think they’re doing a good thing and helping the animals. But after a while they find out the horrendous truth. And besides the aggressive behavior from the orcas towards people, they also show aggressive behavior towards other orcas (I mean, if I was in a bath tub with other people all my life …) and self-harm. Orcas also live a shorter life in captivity (like most animals in captivity). These orcas are kept in tiny tanks (compared to the ocean where they should be) just for our entertainment. There is nothing educational about it. And I don’t find it fun either, I tear up when I see it.

‘If you were in a bathtub for 25 years, don’t you think you’d get a little irritated, maybe a little psychotic?’

Jane Velez-Mitchell

Death of Tilikum

The thing that I wrote about in the first few sentences of this post which got me in tears is that Tilikum has died. It is such an incredible sad story. This orca had to spend almost his entire life in a tank. I had hoped for his freedom one day because activists are fighting for the freedom of animals. But maybe this is freedom too in a way. Anything is better than that sickening tank. May he rest in peace.

Progress

In 2016 SeaWorld decided to stop breeding orcas. Before they did it as much as they could to make money. Tilikum for example is the father of 21 orcas. Of those only 10 were still alive when Tilikum died. Anyhow, the breeding has stopped for orcas. That’s a good thing! But for the orcas who are now still in SeaWorld it means nothing, they will suffer until they die. And also, SeaWorld only stopped breeding orcas. They still breed dolphins and other animals. If you want to know more about that I’d suggest you also watch ‘The Cove‘.

Since the documentary Blackfish (which can be seen on Netflix) has been released the visitor numbers in SeaWorld have declined. I am happy with that, but the only solution is for it to close down. Zoos, dolphinaria’s, circuses, they should all close down. One thing is for sure: I will never set food in a SeaWorld or any other dolphinaria. If you see me there, I am protesting against it from the outside.

Read more about Blackfish here.

Yours sincerely,
Romee

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search for anything

Want to get an update every time I post something?

Enter your email address to subscribe to my blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 268 other subscribers.

ABOUT ME

 

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

Here’s what I posted most recently

  • Femicide
  • Vegan food diary for a week – March 2023
  • Are charities the solution to our problems?
  • Documentary: Disclosure
  • Vegan restaurants in London

Translate this site

Follow me on Instagram

Eén van mijn favoriete vegan snacks, bij de Lidl tijdens de Griekse week 🇬🇷. Op dit moment is plantaardig eten nog niet de norm in Nederland, helaas. Daarom hebben veel mensen dan ook geen idee wat veganisten eten. Om die reden heb ik de afgelopen week weer eens een eetdagboek bijgehouden, want wat eet ik nou als veganist gedurende de week? Je leest het nu in mijn vegan food diary via de link in mijn bio 🥭. #plantaardig #veganfood #dagboek Verpakkingsvrij wasmiddel kopen, dat hoeft niet moeilijk te zijn! In deze reel laat ik je zien hoe ik dat doe 🧺. Volg mijn account voor meer duurzame tips. Elke maand doneer ik ongeveer 7% van mijn inkomen aan goede doelen, omdat ik dat zie als enorm belangrijk en het juiste ding om te doen 💸. Maar daarmee komt de vraag op: geloof ik dat goede doelen het antwoord zijn op alle grote problemen van onze tijd? Oftewel: is geld doneren de oplossing? Over die vraag én het antwoord schreef ik een uitgebreid artikel die vandaag online staat, de link vind je in mijn bio. #goeddoel #doneren #blog Vegan pizza tonno, hmmmm. Dacht je dat vegans geen tonijnpizza kunnen eten? Think again! 🐟 Een hele tijd geleden schreef ik een artikel over e-mail activisme: een vorm van activisme die je thuis op de bank kan doen. Vandaag deel ik graag een geslaagd voorbeeld daarvan met jullie ✨. Vandaag staat er een documentaire-tip op mijn blog. Disclosure, een documentaire over de representatie van transgender personen in de media 📽. Echt een must-see, want wat wij hebben als cis-gender personen nog een hoop te leren. Lees meer over de documentaire via de link in mijn bio. #disclosure #documentaire #transgender Vandaag deel 2 van de vegan hotspots in Londen 🧆. Wat heb ik lekker gegeten daar, niet te doen! Bubala was mijn absolute favoriet, dus als je iets moet kiezen, kies Bubala. Vorige week verscheen er een artikel over treinreizen naar Londen op mijn blog. Aanvullend daarop verscheen er vandaag een artikel over een ander aspect van duurzaam reizen: het eten. Lees nu het artikel met mijn favoriete veganistische restaurants in Londen nu via de link in mijn bio 🌮. #veganfood #veganlondon #veganrestaurants

Read my latest posts

  • Femicide
  • Vegan food diary for a week – March 2023
  • Are charities the solution to our problems?
  • Documentary: Disclosure
  • Vegan restaurants in London

Subscribe by e-mail

©2023 When A Teen Goes Green | WordPress Theme by Superbthemes.com