Running head: BLACKFISH AND THE COVE 1

Blackfish and The Cove

Student’s Name

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Blackfish and The Cove

Understanding that biological worlds are made up of living thought would mean

accepting that our treatment of living creatures is beyond grotesque. Animals and plants form an

important of our environment, and how we consider their share of their ecosystem does not

reflect that. Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, highlights the family-friendly

amusement park SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. The amusement park houses orca whales in

captivity as a tourist attraction. On the other hand, the Cove is a film by Louie Psihiyos that

depicts thousands of captured dolphins in the Cove. The film highlights the intelligence of the

dolphin and the dangers of consuming dolphin meat. Both Blackfish and The Cove depict what

intelligent life is, the survival instincts that animals and plants implement to protect themselves,

and how humans have managed to distance themselves from realities that their surroundings are

full of intelligent life with rights.

What it is Like to be a Living Organism

All living organisms share one common factor, ignored in human understanding and

relationships with their surroundings. Animal and plant behavior is a testament to their

intelligence as they constantly watch their surroundings. Understanding animal and plant

behavior is crucial to the human realization of living organisms’ rights violations. At the

beginning of the Blackfish, a 911 call is made reporting an attack by a Seaworld whale called

Tilikum on one of its trainers (Psihoyos, 2009). The whale, which had a friendship relationship

with the trainer for a while, turned aggressive, killing him. Such actions can be understood by

comprehending the rational thinking mechanism of whales. Whales have a significant part of

their brain dedicated to social lifestyle and deep emotional connection with other whales

(Psihoyos, 2009). Consequently, living in captivity prompts anger and aggressive behavior from
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such animals. The intelligence of creatures is also conveyed in the CoveCove, which shows how

dolphins can adapt to different situations and instructions. A significant incident in CoveCove

highlights animal intelligence in the case of suicide committed by one of the creatures

(Cowperthwaite, 2013). According to The Living Thought by Eduardo Kohn, human-to-human

inter-subjectivity is the same as inter and trans-species communication and sympathy (Kohn,

2013). Animals and plants, therefore, have an understanding of both their surroundings and

fellow creatures. Such emotional connection is a testament to their intelligence and aggression.

Exploring the plant and animal habitats is critical to understanding how they relate to

each other and their perspectives on life. Myers (2020) states that people can understand the

attention trees pay by looking at their sensoria. A plant's sensorium depicts sensitive leaves with

numerous colors, arrangements based o sunlight needed, and aromatic responses to wounds

caused by herbivores (Myers, 2020). The friendly nature of dolphins shows that they are

intelligent creatures not afraid to socialize, unlike whales which build a human connection and

turn violent once they are not satisfied with human behavior. That is why their cry in the

CoveCove shows how they fight for their lives and express the pain of betrayal from humans

who play harmless when using them as a source of entertainment (Cowperthwaite, 2013).

Humans are, therefore, aware of the intelligence of animals. They are astonished by it, but the

subjective mindset of considering oneself against "others" prevents one from respecting other

creatures' rights. According to Sontag (2003), the shock wears off, and if that is not the case,

people are forced to turn away their gaze. Utterly ignoring the reality that presents itself as

animal and plant responses to stimuli attacks and discrimination from humans prevents people

from considering them as thinking organisms.

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Invoking The Miracle Of Survival

Both human and non-human life forms exhibit semiotic characteristics, which show that

they seek survival as they grow to learn about their environment and how it affects them. Human

behavior is guided by the need to exercise their right over other species. The response by the

other species can range from subtle and repulsive characteristics that are intrinsic or aggressive

towards predators. The officials at SeaWorld breed the killer whales to produce calves, then

separate them from the mothers to use them on their shows. Based on a study on the social

affiliation of Orcas, these sea creatures live in significant populations, and calves are not

separated from their mothers until adulthood (Nousek, Slater, Wang, & Miller, 2006). The

aggression from killer whales can therefore be considered as part of revenge as they seek to be

free from their bondage and protect their young ones. The same applies to the dangers posed by

dolphin meat. As highly social creatures, dolphins can tolerate extremely high levels of mercury,

which is dangerous for human consumption (Kershaw & Hall, 2019). Body tolerance to mercury

improves the survival of dolphins, a danger to humans. Human behavior strives to overcome the

survival instincts of animals and plants as they seek to exploit them. Overcoming such instincts

involves undermining their right to live, finding creative strategies to capture them, or depicting

other creatures as savages. The flying ants in the Amazon are captured for consumption by

placing lights far from their colonies so they do not want the ants to think it is a trap or danger.

After being attracted to the light, their wings are singed off (Kohn, 2013). Such an understanding

shows that humans take time to study the relationships between creatures and their survival

tactics before capturing them for personal benefit.

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Lost Remorse for Other Species

The physical, emotional, and ethical conflicts humans face regarding their relationship

with other species are managed so that the majority can continue to benefit from such creatures.

Naturally, when people do not know, they prefer to avoid the unknown. When botanists go to the

Amazon and encounter different unknown species of plants, they are immediately attracted to the

known rather than recognizing that there is immense diversity and potentially new unknown

science (Davis, 2014). People, therefore, relate with other species based on what is pleasing to

the “human perspective.” Those that realize the basic human understanding of living and non-

living organisms are inadequate either advocate for other species or find ways to hide such

knowledge from the public (Boissat, Thomas‐Walters & Veríssimo, 2021). Carol, a former

employee at SeaWorld, realized the mistreatment of animals in captivity when the glorious

feeling of training orcas started to fade away (Psihoyos, 2009). To continue benefiting from other

living and non-living creatures, humans try to escape the complications associated with dirty and

demeaning work like killing by distancing themselves from the killing houses (Pachirat, 2011).

The fisherman killing dolphins and selling the meat in Tajin went to great lengths to ensure the

public was unaware of their actions and would conceal it as tuna or whale. By hiding such

reality, people are not required to deal with the consequences of their actions or consumption.

The public is also kept away from the truth and the sympathy that the nature of dolphins might

provoke as fun-loving creatures.

Conclusion

Understanding how living and non-living organisms think, their survival, and human

response to such realities is critical in establishing how people’s actions harm their surroundings.

Recognizing that whales and dolphins are intelligent creatures creates the need to respect and
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protect them from exploitation and an understanding of their aggression. The realities of

creatures’ semiotic characteristics, similar to human properties, remain hidden from the society

which benefits from their exploitation. Displayed as happy entertainment creatures, the

intelligence of whales and dolphins is not given much thought. The more subjective and distant

the human perspective is from other ecosystem members, the easier it is for people to exploit

such creatures for personal gain. Blackfish and the Cove, therefore, play a crucial role in

highlighting how people mistreat sea creatures and how to raise awareness for these minority

members of the ecosystem.

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References

Boissat, L., Thomas‐Walters, L., & Veríssimo, D. (2021). Nature documentaries as catalysts for

change: Mapping out the ‘Blackfish Effect’. People and Nature, 3(6), 1179-1192.

Cowperthwaite, G., (2013). Blackfish. Manny O Productions, CNN Films.

Davis, W. (2014). One river: Explorations and discoveries in the Amazon rain forest. Random

House.

Kohn, E. (2013). How forests think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human. Univ of

California Press.

Myers, N. (2020). Are the Trees Watching Us? Spike Art Magazine, p. 65.

Nousek, A. E., Slater, P. J., Wang, C., & Miller, P. J. (2006). The influence of social affiliation

on individual vocal signatures of northern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca). Biology

Letters, 2(4), 481–484.

Pachirat, T. (2011). Every twelve seconds. In Every Twelve Seconds. Yale University Press.

Psihoyos, L. (2009). The CoveCove. Lionsgate.

Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the pain of others. Diogène, (1), 127-139.

Kershaw, J. L., & Hall, A. J. (2019). Mercury in cetaceans: exposure, bioaccumulation, and

toxicity. Science of The Total Environment, p. 694, 133683.