The "Blackfish Effect" Part 5: Call to Action

Another important feature of Blackfish that became fundamental to the Blackfish Effect was the compelling urge for change that the film pushed. Although it can be extraordinarily difficult for a 90 minute documentary to both accurately relate the details of a problem and present a clear solution and call to action, Blackfish did a masterful job of accomplishing both objectives. As Huffington Post’s Caty Chattoos writes, “the audience understood SeaWorld’s role, and the film’s story about orcas in captivity issued a clarion call.” Not only did the video sound the alarm about the numerous, insidious problems with SeaWorld, but it also managed to convince thousands and thousands of people to take positive action. Even though the documentary did not outline a detailed “plan of attack” to follow, the producers did an excellent job clearly communicating the issue in such a way as to encourage the audience members to stop what they were doing and jump into the fray. Takeaway? Blackfish’s effective call to specific, and relatively easy, action proved transformative; because of the public outcry and subsequent action, SeaWorld was forced to enact policies that treated Orcas with much better care.