SeaWorld Counters Activists Over "Blackfish"

Willie Nelson

After months of dismissing "Blackfish" as activist propaganda, SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. Friday launched a more aggressive counterattack on the critical documentary.

The Orlando-based theme-park company has placed full-page ads in eight of the country's largest newspapers, making its case for the importance of displaying killer whales in captivity.

The "Open Letter from SeaWorld's Animal Advocates" — which appears in Friday's Orlando Sentinel, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today, among other papers — defends the way SeaWorld cares for the 29 whales in its corporate collection. Although it never identifies "Blackfish" by name, the ad is the first step in a campaign to rebut criticisms raised by the film and the animal-rights activists promoting it.

SeaWorld President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Atchison said in an interview Thursday that the company decided to respond after several well-known performers backed out of concerts that had been scheduled for early next year at SeaWorld Orlando, most of them citing the "Blackfish" controversy.

Eight of the 10 acts SeaWorld had been counting on to headline its annual "Bands, Brew & BBQ" concert series — including Barenaked Ladies, Willie Nelson and Trisha Yearwood — have canceled, an episode that has drawn international attention.

The film chronicles the capture and captivity of Tilikum, the 6-ton killer whale at SeaWorld Orlando who killed trainer Dawn Brancheau in February 2010. Although "Blackfish" grossed only about $2.1 million during limited theatrical release this summer, it has repeatedly aired on CNN and this week debuted on Netflix's popular streaming-video service.

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