John Hargrove

John Hargrove, age 41, had a 14-year animal training career where he trained orcas in three different killer whale parks in two different countries. He trained and swam with orcas at SeaWorld of California and SeaWorld of Texas, where he was promoted to the highest-ranking Senior Trainer at Shamu Stadium called a Senior 1. Hargrove was also a Supervisor of the killer whale training program at Marineland, in the south of France. This skill set and reputation earned John the privilege of working with and swimming with the corporation’s most dangerous killer whales. In France, he conditioned and performed “waterwork” (in-water interactions) with naive killer whales that had never swam with trainers before. He later returned to SeaWorld in March 2008 and resigned his position in August 2012.

Following his resignation, Hargrove was featured in the Sundance selected documentary, "Blackfish," which was acquired by Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films, which has been seen by more than 150 million people worldwide. "Blackfish" set records the night it aired on CNN, becoming the most-watched of any cable program that night and became the most-watched program in the history of CNN within the 18-49 age demographic. “Blackfish” was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Satellite Award for best feature film documentary.

Following the success of "Blackfish," Hargrove was asked to co-sponsor the 'Orca Welfare and Safety Act' proposed by Democrat Assemblyman Richard Bloom and testified for this bill before the California State Assembly on April 8, 2014. Later, on May 28, 2014, Hargrove traveled to the New York State Capitol in Albany to speak and support New York State Senator, Republican Greg Ball's 'Blackfish Bill' which, like the legislation in California, seeks to stop the practice of enslaving orcas for entertainment and ban breeding and forced artificial insemination.

Hargrove has since become involved in Europe with the Born Free Foundation and World Cetacean Alliance where he was invited to give presentations and interviews at Whalefest in Brighton in the UK, where more than 15,000 people attended the two-day event, the largest such event in the world. In July 2015 Hargrove returned to the south of France for a book signing event in Cannes and interviews with journalists. Speaking alongside Ric O' Barry and Pierre Robert de Latour, he supported the approximately 700 people gathered to demand the end of captivity at Marineland in Antibes where he was a former orca supervisor.

Hargrove, who currently lives in New York, released his book, "Beneath the Surface" in March 2015 and became a New York Times Bestseller in both e-book and hardcover non-fiction. The book also made the New York Times Bestseller monthly lists for Animals, Travel, and Science for both April and May. The book provides an insight into his career as a killer whale trainer and the battle that is now playing out to end the highly lucrative business of forcing killer whales into captivity.

Hargrove now speaks at various universities and was the government’s expert witness for OSHA for the Miami Seaquarium case.