We will understand only what we are taught

no worries if u don't know any! just thought i'd ask. i love ur blog by the way and i hope u have a nice day/night!

If you’re looking for books explicitly about captive orcas that aren’t anti-captivity, there aren’t many. Killing Keiko by Mark Simmons is one, and I consider it a must-read.

I Still Believe and Soul of the Sea by Hazel McBride are some others. I don’t exactly recommend these, since there is some weirdly racist content, but they exist.

For visual media, most (but not all) nature documentaries exclusively about wild whales do not touch on captivity. Older ones (pre-2010) sometimes included segments filmed at marine parks. I remember SeaWorld being a staple of basically any documentary on orcas that I would watch on Animal Planet as a kid (unfortunately I don’t remember any names). But if it’s a genuine documentary on the behavior of wild killer whales, I don’t really care about the opinions of the filmmakers. Just that I can learn something from it!

For fiction… nothing I can really think of about killer whales. For dolphins, there’s the Dolphin Tale movies. The first one is a sweet although simplistic fairy tale, and I remember it very fondly. The second one is definitely a product of the immediate post-Blackfish era, and because of that ends up being pretty inaccurate about how aquariums and cetacean rehab actually work. For example, no, aquariums can’t just randomly decide to keep a releasable dolphin. That’s NOAA’s decision in the United States. There’s also no law against housing female dolphins only with other females.

Hmm that’s an interesting theory! I do often wonder why Commerson’s dolphins weren’t more popular in aquariums. I’ve never worked with them, but I’ve always heard they’re delights.

Today (20 July 2026), the first six belugas left the Marineland Canada property with a police escort. Four are headed for SeaWorld San Antonio, while the other two will journey to Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.

As this undertaking is so massive, it will occur in stages. Over the course of the next few weeks, the remaining 24 whales (and 4 Black Sea bottlenose dolphins) will depart Marineland for their new homes at AZA-accredited aquariums in the United States and Spain.

Read more here:

I remember so clearly sitting in the hallway with the owners, leaning against the cinder block wall, watching the kids pet the dog. I remember pulling the last units of the blood out of the fridge for him. I remember thinking he was going to live and getting his discharge paperwork ready only for him to go septic. I remember phone call after phone call trying to get financial support for them. I remember coming in on my day off and waiting hours for the rest of the family to arrive so we could euthanize. I remembering watching the dog drink water from a faucet and smiling because it was so cute. I remember being on the floor in the euthanasia room and the owner crying, thanking for me for all I did. I remember trying so hard to get the chance to save him and failing.