Beneath the Surface, John Hargrove
Beneath the Surface, John Hargrove
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Beneath the Surface
Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish

Author: John Hargrove, Howard Chua-Eoan

Narrator: John Hargrove

Unabridged: 8 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/24/2015

Categories: Nonfiction, Nature, Animals


Synopsis

Over the course of two decades, John Hargrove worked with 20 different whales on two continents and at two of SeaWorld’s U.S. facilities. For Hargrove, becoming an orca trainer fulfilled a childhood dream. However, as his experience with the whales deepened, Hargrove came to doubt that their needs could ever be met in captivity. When two fellow trainers were killed by orcas in marine parks, Hargrove decided that SeaWorld’s wildly popular programs were both detrimental to the whales and ultimately unsafe for trainers.
 
After leaving SeaWorld, Hargrove became one of the stars of the controversial documentary Blackfish. The outcry over the treatment of SeaWorld’s orca has now expanded beyond the outlines sketched by the award-winning documentary, with Hargrove contributing his expertise  to an advocacy movement that is convincing both federal and state governments to act.
 
In Beneath the Surface, Hargrove paints a compelling portrait of these highly intelligent and social creatures, including his favorite whales Takara and her mother Kasatka, two of the most dominant orcas in SeaWorld. And he includes vibrant descriptions of the lives of orcas in the wild, contrasting their freedom in the ocean with their lives in SeaWorld.
 
Hargrove’s journey is one that humanity has just begun to take—toward the realization that the relationship between the human and animal worlds must be radically rethought.

About The Author

JOHN HARGROVE has 14 years’ experience as a killer whale trainer. His experience spans both SeaWorld of California and SeaWorld of Texas where he was promoted to the highest ranking Senior Trainer. John also has an international reputation, having been a Supervisor with MarineLand in the south of France. He resigned his position with SeaWorld in August 2012 and currently resides in New York City.  HOWARD CHUA-EOAN was News Director of TIME magazine from 2000 to 2013; he is now a Deputy Managing Editor at Bloomberg Businessweek.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Persephone's Pomegranate on June 11, 2023

I will treasure them forever. It is a sentiment that I share with almost every person who has ever reached the highest ranks of SeaWorld’s orca trainers. We swam with them. We kept them healthy. We saw them give birth. We watched them suffer. We suffered with them. We looked them in the eye and ca......more

Goodreads review by Julia's Book Haven on September 21, 2017

I've thought a lot about my response to this book, mostly it was sadness and hatred. This is a topic that I feel very strongly about. I'm not a big fan of zoo's or aquariums, but I hate Sea World. If for some reason you think its okay that we are keeping these beautiful, extremely intelligent animal......more

Goodreads review by Dan on January 16, 2015

When you read a book by a "Whistleblower" you aren't sure if you are going to get an informational read or maybe just some angry diatribe by the individual about how the "Corporate World" treated them poorly. So, when I asked for this book to review I was a bit worried about what I would find. I did......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on February 16, 2016

The first thing I want to say is that I went to Sea World when I was younger. I saw the trainers in the water with the orcas and I thought it was one of the most magical things I had ever seen in my life. To see these big beautiful whales working together with humans was incredible and both the trai......more

Goodreads review by Carol on December 27, 2014

John Hargrove was only six years old when he first saw his first Sea World Show. From that time on, that was the place he wanted to go. Not only did he want to be an Orca but he want to be an expert trainer. Every time he went to the show, he stayed after and asked trainers so many questions. Being......more