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Friday, January 17, 2014

Random Five Friday Fences - An Appalachian Trail Break

(click on photo to enlarge)

In front of Kroger, Daleville

I wish this photo had turned out better. I had to zoom way in, through the windshield. But like the subject matter anyway so I'm sharing ;) The Appalachian Trail cuts through here. During the spring/summer/fall, you can find hikers just like him picking up something to eat and drink at Kroger, or just taking a much deserved break. The picnic table that he is sitting on is where you can find many Kroger employees on their breaks, on a hot day. I like his trusty companions. I wonder who he's calling? "Mom, dad, send more money"!

Friday Fences

Randoms:

1) The kids are out of school yesterday, today and Monday. Thursday and today are teacher workdays but Monday is MLK day. Yesterday I watched The Butler

Wow, what a great movie this was! Loved it!

2) While the boys and I were sick this week, we watched Blackfish on Netflix. You know, growing up in San Diego, Sea World was a big part of that. We went often. Then as an adult and having kids of my own, we'd buy season passes. I'd take Ashlyn and Christian at least once a week. I always thought Sea World cared for the animals in their captivity. While being in a tank isn't the best circumstances for the animals, I still believed Sea World was doing it for the bigger picture of them all. Learning about them and teaching us. Well, that's not the case and really I should have known better. Sea World is just another big money making conglomerate that just cares about the bottom line than the animals they have stolen from their natural habitats. I will never spend another penney at Sea World and if you have a big family vacation planned that involves a trip to Sea World, I hope you will watch Blackfish before your visit. Oh, and keep a big box of Kleenex next to you while watching. Serious.

3) An interesting story about The Blackfish Effect is HERE

4) Killer whales live in tight-knit families, similar to other highly intelligent and long-lived animals, such as elephants, wolves and humans. Off the Northeastern Pacific coast, we have two resident populations of orca, the Northern and the Southern Residents. Although the two populations do not associate with each other, the structure of their families is very much the same.
Resident orca live in large family groups called pods, with multiple pods making up a population or community. The pods consist of multiple related matrilines, with each matriline often containing 3 or more generations. Each pod is led by the head female or matriach, as orca are a female dominated species (just like humans, right guys?!) The matriarch tends to be the oldest female in the extended family. Her experience and knowledge guides the pod, and the matriach teaches younger whales about everything from parenting skills, feeding tactics, and navigation through the vast territories that they cover.

The true beauty of this species is demonstrated in the relationship between a mother and her calf. Once a calf is born into a resident pod, they remain in that pod for the rest of their lives, often side-by-side with their mom and siblings. Orca are the only known species in the world where both female and male offspring stay with their mothers and immediate family forever.

**SeaWorld does not care. They will take the baby from the mother and move it to another park and mix families up. They think by just adding another whale in with them that they'll forget about the family member taken away.

5) About ten years ago a researcher was out in his small boat observing one of the pods that belong to the Northern Residents off northern Vancouver Island. He soon noticed that a female had just given birth but the calf was stillborn. It is not uncommon for female orca to carry the body of their deceased offspring on their rostrum (what we would call their face), seemingly unable to accept the calf is gone. The researcher went out on his boat everyday and followed the pod. The mother continued to carry around her calf day after day, unable to eat or sleep. Orca need 200 to 300 pounds of food a day, so you can imagine how difficult it was for the mother to continue to carry her calf like this. Unable to hang on to the baby with hands, the mother and close family would dive down to retrieve the body of the calf every time it slipped from the motherʼs face.
On the eighth day of carrying her dead calf around, the pod came to a rocky shoreline at low tide. The pod formed a U-shape around the female and her calf. She slowly raised the calfʼs little body on top of a rock ledge. The pod then all hovered in the water very still as if all saying their final good-byes, cooperatively mourning the loss of a family member they never got to know. To this day, it has been reported that this pod returns to the exact spot where the babyʼs body was laid and they remain there for a length of time, everyone subdued. This is a true example of a motherʼs love and a familyʼs uncompromising support through difficult experiences.
Although this story is sad, it gives us an insight into the nature of these animals. It teaches us that humans are not the only species capable of deep emotions, and reminds us that we need to respect and protect the animals who we share this world with. We still have so much more to learn! Read more HERE

Obviously Blackfish had a great impact on me. While it was difficult to watch, we did. While parts of the documentary flashed to the laughing crowds at the Shamu shows, I was embarrassed that I was one of those people laughing and clapping at this barbaric treatment of these beautiful creatures. Hopefully our children's generation will know better. Off my soapbox now ;)

****update****
A friend commented on this whole Blackfish debate with a couple of links from the other side of the coin. You can read those stories HERE and HERE

Check out more Randoms at Nancy's Rural Journal! And have a great weekend!!

30 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this information, Tanya. I've never been to Sea World, but from what I've been learning, I don't want to go. We do need to start respecting our animals and their habitats. We're all interconnected on this earth.

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  2. Love the photo you've captured. Surely he's calling Mom. :)
    I have not seen blackfish yet. I've heard from friends on both sides of the fence about it though. I was told (but have not researched deeply) that for the last 25 years or so that all the whales were born IN the parks. Is that not true? I feel bad if I've contributed to anything bad…I LOVE sea world!!! My girls were going to take me there for a Christmas gift in the next few months….now I'm worried.
    Oye.

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    1. i know what you mean. i seriously LOVED sea world and while we were planning on leaving san diego, that was high on my list of reasons not to leave. i just loved the place so much!...here's an interesting list on the whales in captivity and which were born in captivity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_captive_orcas ...don't feel bad, we all contributed because we just didn't know!

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  3. the Blackfish story ... ripped my insides out ... i love seeing wild animals but i don't want them mistreated. that is horrible. i wish i knew the answers. i know i went to Sea World as a kid & even recently because of a deal we found. i did notice they no longer get in the water with the killer whales like that use to. what i fear is what will they do with killer whales that are depended on us humans - where will they go? i hate that stories (truths) go untold & then they come out as they scandals ... i hate secrets. if you do something wrong - such as this ... i could be corrected immediately without hesitation. makes me want to cry even now.

    happy weekend. ( :

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  4. There was an amazing essay I'd read last year about the entire orca debacle, and Blackfish came out not long after. What a sad, sad issue. I believe in places that do true conservation efforts and do their best by animals in captivity. I don't think Sea World is among such places, sadly, and now I find it hard to want to visit (even though I think certain zoos and humane conservation efforts have a real place in educating and imprinting the importance of animals and environment on children, sigh...)

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  5. Nice shot of the hiker taking a break... I did watch Blackfish last week and was appalled to hear the truth behind the whales at Sea World...I will not go back ...we go to the one in Orlando..we used to live just 5 miles from there and take our out of town visitors there all the time. I too cried for the whales!

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  6. I haven't watched this on Netflix, but I know that Sea World isn't the best place for these animals.

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  7. The first thing that stood out to me is the fact that the hiker is sitting ON the table, not the bench. Ew. I hope the Kroger employees who eat there put down a napkin first! Ok, I am a little germaphobic :)
    Sad to hear about the whales. They are such beautiful creatures.

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  8. i like the photo, too. i've not watched that movie.

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  9. Wonderful candid shot, his dogs look like they have spotted something interesting down the road! Enjoy your weekend!

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  10. Hi Tanya,

    My best friend from Roanoke College was the head killer whale trainer at Sea World in San Diego for many years. He now works for a private company in San Diego training Seals and Dolphins. Anyway, he sent me the following links regarding the Blackfish film. I encourage you to check out these links, and get a perspective from the trainers who worked at Sea World. Please share these links with your followers, if you feel so inclined. Thanks, hope all is well in VA it's super warm and extremely dry in Santa Barbara-pray for rain. http://micechat.com/53915-blackfish-exposed/ and
    http://micechat.com/54370-blackfish-backlash/

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    1. thank you for the links! i will check them out! i always thought it would be so much fun to work as a trainer at sw. it's a nice day here, sunny and going to be about 50 but a chance of rain/snow tonight...no accumulation again...i will tell it to head your way! :) nice to hear from you!!

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  11. What an eye opening post! I had not hear about this movie, thank you.

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  12. It's a good slice of life shot, Tanya.

    Everything I've heard of Sea World leads to the inevitable conclusion that it's a despicable place. We've got a similar place here called Marineland which has been under investigation by journalists in particular for a year or more. It's cruel, taking these animals from their native environment and rendering them into doing tricks. They're sentient animals, and as you point out, capable of great feeling. They should be left alone in the wild.

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    1. we used to have a marineland in ca, the la area, i had forgotten about it. i had never been since we had sea world, found this on it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marineland_of_the_Pacific

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  13. No doubt the position seems to be a long and deep conversation!, Nice photo!

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  14. Thanks for all the information on the Orcas, Tanya. I have never been to Sea World and will never go there and I haven't seen Blackfish yet.

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  15. I know that AT spot! Paul and I backpacked 80 miles of it, which included that stretch, prior to having kids. I remember I went into a gas station right by there and got the biggest soda they had :-)

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    1. i know what gas station you are talking about too! must have been the best coke you ever had!

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    2. I hadn't heard of Blackfish either. Thank you Tanya for writing this post. I have learned so much by you sharing it. I like the photo of the man and his dogs.

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  16. Tanya,
    Glad to hear you and the kids are back on your feet. I have not seen either movie you mentioned, but may have to look into it.

    I find the huge online camera manual intimidating too. That is why I have not read it. I did go through and print off the sections I thought I would need and it is still a lot.

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  17. I've heard a lot about Blackfish lately. One of my friends watched it and said I have to see it (but have Kleenex ready). I'm already wary of organizations that profit from exploiting animals, but I'm sure this movie would really drive it home for me.

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  18. I'm old enough to realize that money is the root. Sorry that this is the case with Sea World.

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  19. Thanks for the interesting information about the orcas. I've not see Blackfish, but I'm not sure if I could stand to watch it. I can't bear the thought of a animal suffering, yet I know they do. I've heard horror stories about how some of the circus elephants are treated. Makes me sick. I often wonder how people can be so inhumane.

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  20. I've always been uncomfortable with zoos and places like Seaworld. Thank you for sharing the information about Blackfish. It's difficult to face the horrors in life but we all need to...

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  21. I remember going to a Seaworld on a family vacation in the 70's. I will definitely watch Blackfish before planning any trips of our own. The story about the mother carrying the stillborn brought tears.... such love.

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  22. I have not heard good things about the Butler, what did you think? Very mysterious looking shot.

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    1. i really, really, REALLY loved the butler! watch it! i insist!! :)

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  23. Despite the restrictions you were working under, that's a great candid shot you got of the hiker. :-)

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Hi! I'm so happy you've stopped by and always enjoy your comments :)