SeaWorld Shares Sink: Is This the 'Blackfish' Effect?

SeaWorld announced a downbeat earnings report on Wednesday that led to a fast drop in the company’s stock. In the press release was an acknowledgement that one of the culprits may be "recent media attention" surrounding proposed California legislation that would ban keeping orca whales in captivity. Part of that media attention however, also comes from last year’s disturbing documentary about captive orcas, Blackfish.

Blackfish uncovers the grim lives of orcas kept in captivity at amusement parks like SeaWorld’s, including one that eventually killed a trainer in the Orlando park in 2010. The movie premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and aired on CNN in October where nearly 21 million people watched it. SeaWorld disputed the film’s claims, calling them “inaccurate and misleading” in a 2013 statement to CNN and argued the movie was having little effect on the company. CEO and president Jim Atchison said in March 2013, “The movie in some ways has actually made perhaps more interest in marine mammal parks and actually even about us.”

But the latest earnings report may force the company to face a Blackfish backlash, according to the movie’s director Gabriela Cowperthwaite. "This could spur meaningful, massive change on their part,’" Cowperthwaite told TheWrap. ““I don’t care why they change. I just want them to change. Because obviously the rest of us have.”

Photo credit: AP Photo/Magnolia Pictures