Whale Watchman John Hargrove Dives “Beneath the Surface”

John Hargrove

A Young Boy’s Dream Comes to Fruition

Little John Hargrove visited SeaWorld Orlando at six years of age. It was the 70s. Like children of all ages still do today, he sat at the edge of his seat among a wildly cheering crowd. His eyes locked on a majestic whale named Shamu, the name now used as a stage name for all adult Orcas in performances at SeaWorld parks. Shamu breached from a pristine pool, golden sunlight glistening off the whale’s seemingly smiling face. The whale trustingly performed every one of his trainer’s whims. From that day forward, Hargrove longed for the intimacy he saw between whale and trainer.

Hargrove wrote letters to SeaWorld as a child and, as a young man, he spent his summers lingering by the pools after shows to speak with the trainers. His persistence paid off. A position opened at SeaWorld San Antonio while he attended the University of Houston in 1993. The staff remembered his ceaseless curiosity and made the recommendation. It was up to Hargrove to seal the deal.

John HargroveLike the first whale he ever saw, Hargrove rose high above, his ambition, charisma, and physique outshining 27 candidates vying for the same position. As Hargrove tells the Orlando Sentinal:

I love animals, obviously. I love the water and I love the physicality of it, but just the thought of building a relationship with an animal like that. It was always more rewarding than dangerous — not because I’m a big risk-taker but because the more dangerous the animal, the more rewarding the relationship is. And you know the consequences, so your relationship better be in the right spot.

By the age of 40, Hargrove had spent a total of 14 years (with a 5 year intermission) building relationships with and training 20 different killer whales at SeaWorld San Antonio, SeaWorld San Diego, and Marineland in Antibes, France. Of those 20 whales, Hargrove swam with, rode, lept from, and dove off 17 of those trusty friends.

When the Dream Tanks

SeaWorld trained Hargrove, and continues to train others, by imparting a vast array of knowledge and skillsets upon them. Trainers learn to reward certain whale behaviors both in and out of the water. They watch for body language to ensure the whales’ comfort and their own safety. They learn about veterinary and breeding practices used for study and education. But the more Hargrove learned about some of SeaWorld’s practices and how they affect his beloved companions, the more the shine of blind faith faded. Hargrove became outspoken. To the Austin Chronicle, he describes himself as:

a thorn in management’s side. I would speak up and say, ‘You cannot treat this whale like a baby machine, you cannot take this calf from her mother, you can’t put this whale in a med pool, which is only eight feet deep, for show reasons. … All that ever happened to me was that I’d get in trouble. The running joke was, ‘Oh, John’s in another closed-door meeting.’”

Speaking to the crowd at New York State Animal Advocacy Day in April of 2014, Hargrove said of his own philosophical metamorphosis:

It’s an evolution that you have to go through. You start, as trainers, because you love those whales, you want a life with those whales, and then, as you progress higher through the ranks, you start to see things from the corporate end of it – the corporate greed and exploitation that you don’t agree with. And, even as a high ranking trainer, you cannot stop those things from happening. … I thought I had the power to stop it. I could not.”

Hargrove worked his way to General Manager in order to impart change but, even from this position, he objected to but could not improve the following issues:

Housing whales in 8 foot deep medical pools for long hours for non-medical reasons. These areas are not long or deep enough for the whales to be fully submerged from the scorching sun or to easily turn around.

Long hours of show preparation causing fatigue in trainers and and off-behavior in whales

Boredom or aggression causing the whales to ram bars or chewing the edges and paint pools to the point of damaging their own bodies and teeth

Regurgitation, another known boredom symptom of captive whales, one learned by one whale from another

As Tim Zimmerman, associate producer of Blackfish, writes at The Dodo:

To Hargrove, obsessive-compulsive behaviors dramatically illustrate how difficult it is to adapt killer whales to captivity, no matter what drugs or training strategies are used. ‘The whales are stimulated some of the time. They do have fun in sessions and are entertained,” he concludes. “But what we could give them was not enough, and we couldn’t stop them from doing the stereotypical boredom patterns that resulted in health issues.’

The Unnatural Cycle of Births and Deaths

John HargroveIn 2000 Hargrove was among a team of trainers that performed the first successful artificial insemination of a killer whale, and he went on to train others. The process and consequences soon became a thing of dread.

In the wild, when a whale delivers a calf, she will stay in close proximity to her mother. All their lives the 3 will remain a matrilineal unit. In captivity, Kasatka has suffered many losses. Her calf Kohana was moved to Spain at the age of 3 and was impregnated twice by the age of 8. Due to her early separation, Kohana rejected both of her own calves, one of whom died as a result. She simply had no frame of reference for being a mother, never having leaned from her own as she would have in the wild. This scenario was repeated again and again during Hargrove’s career.

At New York State Animal Advocacy Day, Hargrove said of another of Kasatka’s offspring:

They had forcibly artificially inseminated Kalia at just 8 years old. To give you an idea, in the wild, the earliest you would see was about 14, 14-15 years old, and they’re, you know, forcing this procedure on animals. They’ve actually done it as early as 5 years old. Which, Kalia being 8 is disgusting. They’re getting ready to move her, take her from her mother Kasatka, so Kasatka will lose another calf and, what’s astounding about all this is that SeaWorld will still say, to this day, that they do not separate mothers from their calves. And, even when I testified before the California State Assembly, my testimony and some of the Assembly members, they asked SeaWorld, well what do you have to say about – is this true – about separating mothers from their calves? And Doctor Dold, the corporate vet for SeaWorld, he squirmed in his chair and he evaded the question, he went to all the SeaWorld talking points and, at the end, he lied. He said, ‘No, we don’t do that. Only in very rare instances when the calf is in danger.’ And it’s absolutely not true. We’ve had 23 calves in the history of SeaWorld and only 3 of those calves were taken because the mother was being violent, being aggressive, toward the calf.

As Hargrove told Cinesnob:

The reason we moved Takara was because we needed a dominate female at the San Antonio park, which is part of their natural hierarchy. Basically, when SeaWorld says they move these whales because it in their best long-term interest, that is absolutely, blatantly false. They move these whales because it fits the needs of a park.

The unnatural forcing of pregnancies and separations has taken it’s toll. As he told seaworldpledge.org, six years after the separation of Kasatka and Takara, Hargrove wished to record Takara’s vocalizations to play for her mother, but he was warned that earlier recordings incited Takara’s upset vocalizations, rapid swimming and respirations. She had clearly not forgotten her daughter despit all the time and distance between them.

The Career Takes Its Toll

While Hargrove’s heart broke for separated mothers and daughters, his body had been broken from the rigors of multiple daily shows. He suffered from back and neck injuries, cartilage destruction to both knees, broken fingers, toes, and ribs when his foot slipped off of Takara’s rostrum. Takara’s accident is his own fault, Hargrove says. But he had also been taken by a whale to the bottom of the pool, had been ‘displaced’ (SeaWorld’s euphemism for rammed), and has had his face split open in a behavior gone awry.

Still, Hargrove didn’t quit. He stayed to fight for better treatment of the whales. He stayed because it was his livelihood. He stayed regardless of his overwhelming disgust and personal pain. More specifically, Hargrove stayed for one particular reason. As reported by the Orlando Sentinal:

For Hargrove, it finally came down to one animal: Takara. Hargrove had worked with her in California, and he was there when, at 13, she was separated from her mother, Kasatka. He said, “It was such a traumatic experience for Kasatka that we had to put her on medication.” Takara gave birth to two calves and was separated from both as she was shipped across the country to Florida and then San Antonio, where she finally reunited with Hargrove. He said, “I’m so careful not to throw around anthropomorphic terms, but I can tell you without a doubt that her spirit was broken.” Even though he hated his job – and hated San Antonio even more – “I stuck around because I felt like I gave her California back, and she gave me California back,” he explained. “I just felt like I could not abandon her.”

Then Hargrove suffered another heartbreak, the loss of friend Dawn Brancheau in 2010. Brancheau was a highly ranked trainer killed by Tilikumin, a whale who had been involved in two earlier deaths. Dawn’s death occurred just 60 days after the world learned that Loro Parque trainer Alexis Martinez was killed on Christmas Eve of 2009. The industry had taken two deeply personal hits and Hargrove watched as SeaWorld turned on their own gifted trainer. They blamed Brancheau’s ponytail, her carelessness, but never a dangerous whale with a history of deaths growing more bored, frustrated and angry over time.

Of what Tilicum did to Dawn, Hargrove says:

He tore of her left arm, scalped her and severed her spinal cord. Of everything we know about killer whale behavior, we know that that was an aggressive event. SeaWorld, to the public, will still say – to this day – that Tilicum did not attack Dawn.

Suddenly, it wasn’t just Brancheau in question. All trainers lost the backing of their employer. As Hargrove tells the Orlando Sentinal:

The final nail in the coffin was when I went to the [OSHA] hearings [in fall 2011] and they testified that they had no knowledge we had a dangerous job. … It just killed it for me. To do that job, it requires so much of you physically and emotionally.

This newly declared lack of danger became an excuse for lower trainer pay, as much as a $5.00 per hour less. Some trainers lost their homes due to missed mortgage payments. 18 months later, SeaWorld reinstated prior wages. Interestingly, they called this restoration a raise.

A Difficult Turning Point

John HargroveWhile on medical leave for a knee injury, Hargrove had been asked to interview for Blackfish, the now popular documentary about the mistreatment of SeaWorld’s killer whales. He declined for fear of his employer’s retaliation. But Hargrove had a change of heart. He made the decision not to return to SeaWorld and thusly rethought his interview decision.

Hargrove’s choice to cut ties with SeaWorld dealt him a significant emotional blow, one which he equates to experiencing the death of a close loved one. Knowing he would never visit as a spectator, refusing to further fund what he came to view as exploitation, he would never have the chance to say a proper goodbye or see his beautiful whales again.

Hargrove resigned from SeaWorld on Aug. 17 of 2012, and was interviewed for the film Blackfish 7 days later. In this way, Hargrove knew that he could best help the whales by sharing their truth.

Blackfish Bares the Beast, and It’s Not a Whale

Blackfish, released in July of 2013, sparked international public outrage. The film focuses on Tilikum, the performing killer whale with a history of killing, but the whale is not the antagonist. He and the other captive whales are more accurately portrayed as the captive victims of pressures brought to bear by the multi-billion dollar sea-park industry.

Speaking at NYS Animal Advocacy Day, Hargrove said of the film :

I think what we’re fighting with SeaWorld is that it is a company that is not transparent. At the very least, I think that’s a very political way of putting it. Blackfish … is putting [the plight of captive whales] in the mainstream of people’s consciousness.

When asked how to let go of something like whale training that has defined who you are for so many years, Hargrove told Cinesnob:

I don’t think I’ve let go of it even now. Especially doing this film, it’s still my identity. Some people say they’re work doesn’t define them, but that wasn’t true for me. It’s always been my passion and my dream ever since I was a little kid. It was brutal leaving the whales behind. Even talking about Takara and Kasatka is still hard for me. All the other parts of SeaWorld, I’m totally fine with leaving behind – all the political bullshit, the labor, the low pay. But I have to accept that I’m never going to see those whales again.

What Now?

For the whales, Hargrove believes the breeding program should end and the presently captive whales be allowed to live their lives in bigger and better pools with more enrichment. He tells the Orlando Sentinal, “We spent $10 million on the new set for “One Ocean” and the whales didn’t benefit at all from that.”

As for his own future, Hargrove remains a staunch and vocal advocate for his unforgotten whale friends. He has advocated on behalf of all killer whales by urging both California and NY state legislators to pass bills banning the captivity of killer whales for entertainment. (An Aquarium was being considered in Albany, NY.) And while Blackfish raised a great deal of awareness, Hargrove has much more to tell, including accounts of near death incidents involving trainers that SeaWorld has swept under the rug. Signing a book deal with Macmillan Publishing, Hargrove’s upcoming memoir, “Beneath the Surface,” will bring these stories and more to light in the Spring of 2015.

At SeaWorld, the waters are looking rough. In the wake of the Blackfish release, Martina McBride, 38 Special, REO Speedwagon, Cheap Trick, Heart, Barenaked Ladies, Trisha Yearwood, and Willie Nelson canceled scheduled concerts. Attendance dropped, according to NPR, and the company’s stock price plummeted by a third. Even the corporation’s planning of larger Orca habitats aren’t satisfying the masses or folks like Tim Zimmerman who tells NPR:

Nothing about enlarging the pools will deal with the stress and health issues associated with captivity. So, to me, enlarging the pools shows that they understand there’s a problem with the environment,’ he says. But really what they’re doing is tweaking their captivity model, as opposed to really taking a close look at how they could reinvent it or even transition away from it,’ he adds.

And in recent weeks, headlines continue to question SeaWorld, which you can read for yourself. The pressure is on and accounts like Hargroves make all the difference.