This research question is interesting to me because I have always wanted to be a marine biologist so when I was little and heard about SeaWorld I loved the idea. I thought they were doing amazing things to preserve wildlife and wanted to even work for them. Then I started to think about the whales and how amazing they were. After reading books you would find out that the whales can swim hundreds of miles in even a day and when you compare that to the size of their tank you wonder how could one swim hundreds of miles in a tank. These whales deserve to be freed from captivity. I value nature and what is best to preserve these animals and believe SeaWorld or anyone for that fact should be able to keep whales captive in places like these with the exception of preserving natural parts of the ocean where these creatures are found. I went to SeaWorld and saw the killer whale show and started doing research on things like this thus making me qualified to have some background on this topic.

The central claim of this topic is that SeaWorld is providing very little evidence that their holding of whales in captivity is producing a lot of research on this species. The author of this article is and advocate against SeaWorld corporation. The intended audience is the public and anyone to be informed on this controversial topic. Over the past ten years they have only produced 24 papers about these whales in specific. Meanwhile a normal study on whales in the wild provide many more papers about this species. The only species endangered still are the species that SeaWorld took from the coast of Canada in the late 1900s. The values at stake are that SeaWorld is using these whales for scientific research when they provide less research than biologists observing wild orcas. SeaWorld claims that their main reason is to help understand these whales and do research on them for the support of the whales in the wild. The people of SeaWorld could see this threatening to their business as they have tried to stand up for themselves before. There is bias because even though the author states that SeaWorld claimed they were doing research on these whales they also bring up that the people they pay and the budget they denote to orca research is not significant enough to have cause for captivity.

Blackfish is a documentary created by activists who intend to shut down SeaWorld. The intended audience is the normal population of all ages as it is simple enough for anyone to understand. They take evidence that they find in order to try to educate the public about something they do not completely know about. The documentary includes interviews with former trainers and even live footage of events that happened in SeaWorld history. The central claim is the interviewer asking questions about how "Blackfish" left out important details about SeaWorld and they are obviously biased. Therefore, the interviewer asks questions that allow SeaWorld to tell their side of the story and how "Blackfish" does not fully portray what SeaWorld does to these whales. The interests at risk are the creators of "Blackfish" because they want SeaWorld to be shut down essentially or at least end their breeding program and stop having whales in captivity. The breeding program at SeaWorld is a controversial topic among many animal activists and many people want it shut down. They take semen from a male whale and impregnate a female whale. Meanwhile, this article is giving SeaWorld a chance to defend themselves and make people think differently about them. This article is credible because it comes from a news source. The source also does not take side in the argument they just ask questions that people speculated about the corporation.  

The claim of this topic is to inform readers on whales and dolphins in captivity. The author of this article is trying to explain in a no bias way that these whales are affected by catching them in the wild and other topics. They speak of the impact of the whales and how the pods of whales never seemed to forget the whales taken from them. The major interest is to express the care and interest for the whales. These important facts such as whales pods never forgetting them over long periods of times including playing the sounds of the captured whale and getting a response from the original pod and should be known by everyone. This is traumatizing for the whales and this does not happen in nature thus altering their lives. This can change the studies they do on whales because they are not really in their natural habitat. Researchers have found that whales are extremely social animals and need to be around their family members. An interest for a stakeholder is in SeaWorld finding it unjust to have these orcas and the author to protect the whales. This author is very credible because it is stating facts about whales in nature from a person in an organization. There is little to no bias in this article as it is an attempt to state facts about the whales alone. 

The research question is arguable because one person could say that these whales are being treated horribly while the other side of the argument could say this is vital to saving these orcas from going extinct and learning many things about them through close interaction and research. Some sources claim that the other source left out important information about SeaWorld where others say the sources leave out information. Some aspects can make me think about my opinion ore but it has not changed my opinion. The research question could be slightly more broad and question whether captivity is a good resource for any animal in SeaWorld.

