by Hargrove, John (Animal trainer)
First published 2015
John Hargrove spent twenty years working with orcas at SeaWorld facilities across two continents, training twenty different whales and living his childhood dream. His memoir reveals how that dream transformed into doubt as he witnessed the psychological toll captivity took on highly intelligent creatures like Takara and her mother Kasatka. Hargrove argues that marine parks cannot meet the complex needs of orcas, contrasting their constrained lives in tanks with their natural behaviors in ocean environments. When two trainers died in separate incidents involving captive orcas, Hargrove concluded that SeaWorld's popular shows endangered both animals and humans. He left the company and joined the advocacy movement featured in the documentary Blackfish. The book presents his case for fundamentally changing how humans interact with marine mammals, drawing on his intimate knowledge of individual whales and their social structures.
Genres: animals, environment, non-fiction, biography-memoir, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: advocacy, personal-journey
Setting: SeaWorld
264 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press
Content warnings: animal-death