EXCLUSIVE SEAWORLD WHISTLEBLOWER
DEVOcEAN
JOHN HARGROVE AN IN DEPTH INTERVIEW WITH LINDA ATKINSON, MA, MBA PHOTOS BY LYON HERRON John Hargrove, New York Times Best Selling author of Beneath the Surface and former senior killer whale trainer at SeaWorld speaks to 90265 Malibu Magazine in our Exclusive Whistleblower Interview. After resigning from SeaWorld in 2012, Hargrove, now an expert witness and whistleblower, speaks out against the industry and against whale captivity. We sat down with Hargrove in Malibu, during a visit with the Kotler family who were instrumental in creating awareness about the movie Blackfish (and introducing Hargrove to our community), to go even deeper into his experiences beneath the surface at SeaWorld.
CAUTION - GRAPHIC CONTENT SEAWORLD WHISTLEBLOWING AND THE FUTURE OF THE WHALES STILL IN CAPTIVITY LA: For those who have not seen Blackfish (the documentary on Tilikum and the multi-billion dollar sea park industry) can you give us a brief background on you, your experience as a Senior SeaWorld killer whale trainer and how you began whistleblowing… JH: I started out with my whistleblowing efforts to change the laws; to stop the orca breeding; to end orca captivity and to make sure this is the last generation of orcas in captivity. Also, I want to make sure that the remaining orcas in captivity have a better quality of life. Seven days after I resigned from SeaWorld I was interviewed for Blackfish (the documentary) and immediately after that I began writing my book, Beneath the Surface – Killer Whales, SeaWorld and the Truth Beyond Blackfish. After the completion of my book, I was one of the sponsors and one of the expert witnesses involved in the legislation process which started as AB2140 and turned into AB2305 which we won: AB2305 states that it is “unlawful to hold in captivity an orca, whether wild-caught or captive-bred for any purpose, including for display, performance, or entertainment purposes; to breed or impregnate an orca held in captivity; to export, collect, or import the semen, other gametes, or embryos of an orca held in captivity for the purpose of artificial insemination; or to export, transport, move, or sell an orca located in the state to another state or country, except as provided”. We also had victories with the California Coastal Commission last October 2015 (in a near unanimous vote) and I have been an expert witness in multiple cases for the government against SeaWorld and other Marine parks. Yes, it’s a victory and we have made sure that no future orcas will suffer and the simple answer is seaside sanctuaries.
CHLORINE, ALUMINUM SULFATE AND OZONE IN THE TANKS; DOPED UP ORCAS
Photo by Melissa Hargrove
LA: You mentioned something shocking to me and I am sure it will be to other people as well – the whale tanks have large amounts of chlorine and other chemicals in them? JH: A lot of people are not aware that we (the trainers) were consciously taught how to manipulate the public. Some examples of that are three-fourths of my career we were told to outright lie to the public and say there was no chlorine in the water even though we knew there was chlorine in the water. Chlorine, aluminum sulfate and ozone are used to treat the water at Shamu Stadium. We would get physically injured because of the chlorine in the water with eye burns that would require off-site medical attention and eye patches. Doctors told us that if we removed our patches before our eyes healed we would risk permanent blindness and we were still lying to the public and saying we don’t use chlorine in the water. During the last fourth of my career we would say “we only use a very minute amount of chlorine in the water and we treat the water