Just watched the full Blackfish video... and having experienced Orcas only in the wild and learning of what Seaworld has done to them for as long as I've been on this planet... really makes you sick.
Seems obvious to me that in this case, having the money which the whales have provided to Seaworld only enables Seaworld to prolong the whales own captivity. Kinda makes you question zoos and every other place where animals are kept for nothing more than the amusement of humans.
Anyways... I went on a whale watching trip in 2011 from Seattle up into Candian water and came away with some great pictures. Whales most certainly are intelligent animals that enjoy and embrace community and teamwork in the wild. I was able to glean that myself in the couple of hours that I was lucky enough to watch them in the wild. The pods we watched were amazing. It was crazy though, because you could tell they weren't only being watched... they were absolutely watching us as well and seemingly enjoying it - because they weren't in a rush to swim away or leave.
Here's some of the pics I took. The smallest we saw was probably around 15-18' and we were told that one was about 2 years old (the tour was aware what pod we were watching, had named all the individual whales and knew quite about each of them) and the largest was probably over 40' in length and had a massive 6'+ dorsal fin. Amazing to see the size of the whales in person... even at a distance. In all, there were 12-15 whales.
This is the largest one
Only got to capture one jumping and only got the camera up in time to see it landing
This was not a jump, but rather them "peeking" at us. They would literally hover like that for a bit and look around then just slip back into the water.
Hope the pictures are appreciated.