On February 24, 2010 Dawn Brancheau, SeaWorld's most experienced trainer, was tragically killed by a killer whale after performing a show at Sea World. The whale involved is known as Tilikum and is the oldest and largest killer whale in captivity. This is not the first time Tilikum has taken a human life.
During 1991 Tilikum was being held at Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia. Here he, along with two female orcas, drowned Keltie Byrne, a trainer who lost her balance and fell into the pool.
The second death occured during 1999 when 27-year-old man broke into SeaWorld after hours to swim with whales. He was found in the morning at the bottom of Tilikum's tank where he reportedly drowned.
The deaths in 1991 and 1999 have the similarities of Tilikum drowning his victims while they were in his tank. SeaWorld reported shortly after the most recent incident involving Tilikum that "Trainers do interact with Tilikum from the sides of the pool, but do not enter the water with him." However, a video recorded during and after Tilikum's last show with trainer Dawn Brancheau clearly show her intereacting with him in the water.
The video mentioned was shot during a VIP show by a family from New Hampshire seconds before the whale trainer was killed. The video can be found here.
In a statement by the Orange County Sheriff's office saying that Brancheau was interacting with the whale, in knee-deep water "when the animal grabbed her by the hair and pulled her underwater." Rescuers were not immediately able to reach Brancheau due to the "whale's aggressive nature," the sheriff's office said. She was later recovered by SeaWorld staff members after Tilikum was coaxed into a smaller pool and lifted out of the water by a large platform on the bottom of the smaller tank according to authorities authorities said.
SeaWorld has said they will keep the whale in captivity even after this event. The main reason is Tilikum's importance to his species. His primary purpose is to act as a stud, fathering many baby orcas every year. The 22-foot-long, 12,000 pound whale was not accustomed to people being in his tank. SeaWord has gone on to say that they will be reevaluating there procedures when dealling with killer whales.
Sounds like a good idea.
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