This New York Times bestseller is a first-hand account of the lives of captive killer whales by a former senior SeaWorld orca trainer and the star of the hugely popular documentary Blackfish.
John Hargrove has 14 years' experience as a killer whale trainer.
His experience spans both SeaWorld of California and 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 resides in New York.
Howard Chua-Eoan was News Director of TIME magazine from 2000 to
2013 and is currently an editor at Bloomberg Businessweek.
"You might have watched the documentary Blackfish. This is more
powerful...." --Psychology Today "A heart-tugging look at the lives
of orca whales in captivity." --People "I highly recommend Beneath
the Surface to readers of all ages, including those youngsters
about whom Hargrove writes, who want to be just like him when he
trained orcas to perform stupid and unnatural tricks. Hargrove is a
very courageous man, and his book is open and honest and we should
all thank him for taking the time to write it." --Marc Bekoff, The
Huffington Post "A story of both dread and wonderment... books such
as this have the ability to shine a light into the inner workings
of corporate greed and redirect efforts from selling tickets to
preserving, nurturing and enhancing the orcas' lives." --The
Huffington Post "Elaborates on...[Blackfish's] claims but also
testifies to the thrill of standing athwart four tons of muscle
rushing through the water at 30 miles an hour. And, equally, the
nearly mystical experience of bonding with an intelligence eerily
similar to our own, yet ultimately unfathomable-and
uncontrollable." --Smithsonian Magazine "As Hargrove's love for and
knowledge of [orcas] increased, he gradually concluded that the
work he was part of at SeaWorld was harming them... Hargrove covers
both the joy of his own experiences with orcas as well as the case
for why such interactions in captivity should end." --Scientific
American "How would you cope if you felt that your life work
contributed to a cause in which you no longer
believed?...Blends natural history and corporate indictment into an
emotional story about a man changing sides in the argument over
human domination of the animal world." --Booklist "It is with this
same unique amalgam of "dread and wonderment" that Hargrove
characterizes both his longtime, high-ranking professional
relationship with orca whales and his astonishment at how broken
the performance animal arena has become--particularly at
SeaWorld... A shocking, aggressively written marine park exposé."
--Kirkus Reviews "Beneath the Surface instantly grabs the reader's
attention with a vivid description of an aggressive incident
between a captive orca and former SeaWorld trainer John Hargrove.
Clearly there is still much to reveal about the grim reality behind
the 'glamorous' orca show. This firsthand account may be the final
push that ends the inhumane practice of keeping the world's largest
marine predator and one of the most intelligent and social mammals
on the planet in concrete tanks." --Naomi A. Rose, Ph.D., Animal
Welfare Institute "This deeply personal look at the lives of whales
in captivity will open your eyes and tug your heart. John
Hargrove's work as a senior trainer at SeaWorld made him understand
how we need to rethink our relationships with the animal world."
--Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and Einstein: His Life and
Universe "In Beneath the Surface, John Hargrove flawlessly unravels
the trainer's dilemma of loving an animal with all your heart while
working at a place that doesn't. It is as much a razor sharp
indictment as it is a story of a broken heart." --Gabriela
Cowperthwaite, director, Blackfish "A deeply honest personal
account of a man's awakening from orca trainer to orca advocate as
he learned the painful truth about what lies beneath the surface of
SeaWorld" --Lori Marino, Ph.D., Researcher and Founder, The Kimmela
Center for Animal Advocacy "The thin veneer of SeaWorld's fantasy
that the orca are happy in their tanks is peeled back in this
mesmerizing and compelling book about Hargrove's work as a trainer
and his journey to become one of the few speaking out against the
cruelty being conducted even to this day." --Ingrid N. Visser,
researcher and founder of the Orca Research Trust "Hargrove takes
us inside his life as a former SeaWorld devotee, his 14 years as an
orca trainer, and especially his deep respect and affection for the
orcas he has worked with. No short phrases can adequately summarize
the personalities and idiosyncrasies of the 20 orcas he performed
with and cared for, but this book gives us great insight into their
piercing intelligence and keen awareness. Perhaps most
interestingly, Hargrove reveals the complex emotional lives of the
orcas he came to know, and how they brought out his own feelings
toward them." --Howard Garrett, Director, The Orca Network "Details
the disturbing practices SeaWorld has become known for...Hargrove
is careful to emphasize that his bond with the captive whales he
spent years interacting with was real and powerful, even 'some of
the deepest and most magnificent relationships I've had in my
life.'" --The Dodo "[Hargrove has] delved deeper into the ethical
issues surrounding orca captivity, convincingly making the case
that these intelligent, sentient animals can only be free in the
wild." --Nature World News "Eye opening... a story of personal
discovery, ambition, broken dreams, and hope for a better future
for animals that are complex beyond our understanding, YET like
humans in many ways" --Helen Bailey, A Wild Life
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