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enemy waters
Veteran orca trainer Dawn Brancheau was conducting a bonding relationship session with Tilikum when he suddenly attacked. Below: Brancheaus body (circled) lies covered by a tarpaulin after the fatal incident.
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She was an experienced trainer; he was her star charge. No-one expected tragedy to occur, but maybe they should have. In the wake of a new film, David Kirby looks at whales in captivity and an accident waiting to happen

or Dawn Brancheau, February 24, 2010, should have been just another day at the office. That morning she fed her dogs, said goodbye to husband Scott and began her 30-minute drive to SeaWorld Orlando in Florida, in the US, past some of the worlds most famous amusement parks. Brancheau, 40, was something of a hometown star. A senior trainer of SeaWorlds performing orcas or killer whales her picture, in which she looks attractive and athletic, sporting a long blonde ponytail, greeted millions of visitors each year at airport billboards. Once at work, Brancheau learnt shed be handling the midday Dine with Shamu event, where guests pay to lunch by a pool as trainers put a lone whale through low-key behaviours industry parlance for tricks. (Shamu was the name of an early killer whale at SeaWorld and is now the stage name
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Above: moments after this footage was filmed in 2010, Brancheau was killed by Tilikum. Far left: her devastated husband, Scott (top, at right) and mother Marion LoVerde attend a hearing into her death.

Left: SeaWorld president and CEO Jim Atchison fronts the media after Brancheaus death which was an inevitable event, according to ex-trainers including Carol Ray (above) and Jeffrey Ventre (right), and Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite (far right).

given to the star of various orca shows at the park.) That day, Brancheau would be working with Tilikum, SeaWorlds 5.4 tonne breeding bull. The backstage show went like hundreds before. As guests began filing out, Brancheau moved to a ledge covered in about 25cm of water. There, she crouched next to Tilikum for a relationship session, a brief tete-atete between whale and trainer meant

turned, gained speed and rammed her again. Alarms wailed and staff came running. At some point, a chilling call to emergency services went out: A whale has eaten one of the trainers, a staffer intoned. But nothing could save Brancheau. It took more than 30 minutes for trainers, using a weighted net, to corral the orca into the medical pool where he was lifted from the water. Only then was Brancheaus lifeless body pried from Tilikums jaws. Much of her left arm had been bitten off. A part of her scalp was floating in the water.

[Brancheau] popped up to the

I will never forget that look of terror
Suzanne Connell, a Seaworld spectator who witnessed the trainers death to deepen the bond between them. Spectator Todd Connell, visiting with his wife, Suzanne, and 10-year-old son, Bobby, was videoing the scene. But what began as a tender moment quickly turned into a horror movie. Suddenly, Tilikum grabbed Brancheau. One witness, a fellow trainer, said Brancheaus ponytail floated into the whales mouth and he pulled her in. But others, including a SeaWorld security guard and former police officer, said Tilikum grabbed Brancheau by her arm. It would become an important detail in terms of culpability, but what happened next seemed inevitable. Tilikum dragged Brancheau to the bottom of the pool. The Connells stood frozen as the grizzly scene unfolded. [Brancheau] popped up at the surface, screaming for help. She stared right into our eyes, recalls Suzanne. I will never forget that look of terror. But Tilikum was just getting started. After dragging Brancheau around, he released her, then rammed into her head-on, twice. He charged to the far end of the pool,
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surface, screaming. She stared right into our eyes.

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It was tragic, it was horrific, but was it a freak accident? She was an excellent trainer, one of the best Ive seen in my life, Thad Lacinak, a former vicepresident of SeaWorld Orlando, told the media in the following days. But allowing her ponytail to drift into the water like that in front of the animal turned out to be a fatal mistake. Brancheau, he continued, would have agreed with that assessment. Lying next to Tilikum in shallow water was another mistake, he asserted. Either the rules for handling Tilikum had changed [since he left in 2008], or Brancheau had
A year earlier, Tilikum performs at SeaWorld Orlando. Trainers there claim they were unaware hed directly caused a Canadian trainers death in 1991.

violated them, he said. Both claims were later debunked. What Brancheau did that day was entirely within the bounds of SeaWorld protocol. Whether Brancheau had herself to blame or not, she wasnt the first trainer to be killed or mauled by a captive orca. And if critics of SeaWorlds whalesin-captivity program are right, she wont be the last. They point to a series of incidents since orcas were introduced into US SeaWorld parks in 1965. In 1987, a trainer at SeaWorld San Diego was dragged to the bottom of a pool, brought up and spat out, only to have another orca slam into him and others drag him down. He survived with a ruptured kidney and lacerated liver. That same year, while a trainer was riding a female orca, a whale breached and landed on him, breaking his back, leg and pelvis. Other incidents followed, some involving whales attempting to throw trainers from the pool or drag them to the bottom by their feet, right up to Brancheaus death in 2010, the last reported incident of orca aggression at SeaWorld. Whether trainers were adequately informed about the risks of working with orcas or not remains a matter of contention between SeaWorld, former trainers, critics and the US Department Of Labor. But what is clear is that Tilikum, captured off Iceland in 1983 when he was about two years old, had deadly

form and SeaWorld knew it. In 1991, at a now-defunct facility called SeaLand Of The Pacific in Canada, trainer Keltie Byrne stumbled and dipped her foot in the water. Tilikum grabbed it and pulled her in as she screamed. He tried to keep her body from the two other whales in the tank, who wanted in on the action. It took two hours to retrieve Byrnes body. Eight years later, at SeaWorld Orlando, morning staff saw Tilikum swimming around with a naked mans dead body draped over his back. The victim was a 27-year-old transient named Daniel Dukes who hid himself at closing time and snuck into Tilikums pool. The official cause of death was drowning, though the autopsy showed pre-mortem cuts and bruises, meaning Tilikum roughed him up while still alive. Samantha Berg was a trainer at Shamu Stadium when Tilikum arrived from Canada in 1992. Trainers were instructed not to enter his pool, but not told why. I was shocked to learn Tilikum was the whale specifically responsible for Keltie Byrnes death, says Berg. I couldnt believe Tilikum was allowed to interact in close proximity with trainers for another 20 years, given his history. As soon as Berg learnt the true story, she says, I realised that what happened to Dawn could have happened to any of the trainers. Her death was the inevitable result of decisions made over the years to continue to allow trainers to interact with a dangerous animal. Whale captivity is an issue close to this writers own heart. Shocked by accusations from former employees that SeaWorld had tried to cover up details of Brancheaus death and impeded the following federal investigation, I began working on a book, Death At SeaWorld (St Martins Press, $31.50). Now, a new documentary film, Blackfish, essentially accuses the US amusement park chain (it has no connection to Sea World on Australias Gold Coast, which has no killer whales) of keeping orcas in sub-par conditions and putting trainers

at undue risk, solely for human entertainment and corporate profit. In July, having rejected all interview requests from the documentarys filmmakers, SeaWorld dispatched an unusual letter to film critics it believed were about to review Blackfish. In it, vice-president of communications, Fred Jacobs, slammed the film as shamefully dishonest, deliberately misleading, and scientifically inaccurate. The filmmakers fired back with a point-by-point rebuttal, effectively debunking the claims.

y all accounts, Dawn Brancheau was a loving, down-to-earth woman who cherished her husband, her job at SeaWorld and the wondrous creatures in its collection. Family and friends recall her love of animals and passion for charity. Before she died, she was planning a relief trip to Haiti and was growing her hair for a group that makes wigs for kids with cancer. A native of Indiana, Brancheau (then Dawn LoVerde) moved to Orlando to work at SeaWorld in 1994, and became one of the most senior trainers on staff. She met Scott Brancheau, a performer

whales were stressed, neurotic and dehydrated, and chastised SeaWorld for publicly announcing its intention to resume its killer whale shows as soon as possible. Dawn was universally loved, and demonstrated skill with animals of all kinds, adds Ventre. According to Brancheaus tributes, She died doing what she loved most. For many, those words are unnerving. Its a clich that, no matter the circumstances, always gets under my skin, winces Carol Ray, one of the ex-trainers critical of SeaWorld. It really sounds to me like, Oh well. Its her fault she liked doing dangerous things. In Dawns case, its particularly irritating because it indirectly dismisses SeaWorlds culpability. Dr Naomi Rose, a leading orca scientist and anti-captivity advocate at the Animal Welfare Institute, offers a more damning assessment: I hate it when I hear this. Does that somehow make it OK? Did she love putting her life in danger? I dont think so. What you love shouldnt kill you. For Dawn, the risk was not clear. She never expected Tilikum to kill her. She should have, and thats SeaWorlds fault.

I couldnt believe [the

with trainers, given his history
Samantha Berg, Ex-Seaworld trainer in the waterski show, and they married and lived in a modest lakeside home in St Cloud, a small community south-east of Orlando. Dawn loved pop music, golf and volunteering at church. Dawn was a talented trainer, remarkable athlete, and a friend, says Jeffrey Ventre, a former trainer at Shamu Stadium. After Brancheaus death, Ventre and several other ex-trainers from Orlando criticised their former employer. They said the The US is home to more than half the 45 orcas in captivity. It could be argued that the best thing about the life of a captive killer whale is that its relatively short. SeaWorld whales rarely make it beyond their 20s, and many die much younger. (In the wild males live, on average, 30 years, with a 6070 year maximum, while females live 50 years on average, a maximum of 8090.) At least two captive females have died after gruesome stillbirths; two males died
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orca] Tilikum was allowed to interact

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Animal-rights supporters hope that Brancheaus legacy will be more natural living conditions for orcas in captivity.

from mosquito-borne illnesses; another male perished when a gate crushed his skull; and a female was killed after a clash with her tankmate. She spouted blood from her blowhole as her calf and horrified patrons looked on. Many orcas die from infections likely caused by immunosuppression related to stress. SeaWorld may seem happy and shiny, with whales leaping spectacularly from blue waters, but backstage, a darker picture emerges. Once you learn the truth, notes Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, you cant help but realise youve been subjected to a completely fraudulent experience. Many whales break teeth on gates. All adult males dorsal fins flop over, most likely due to hours spent idling at the surface in the hot sun. tanks Experts say just one to five per cent of wild adult male orcas have been spotted with collapsed fins, a figure SeaWorld claims is too low, but it fails to offer sound evidence. Perhaps even more heartbreaking is the separation of mothers and calves. Wild orca families stay together for life. Not so at SeaWorld. One of my worst moments was watching Kalina, the first Baby Shamu, being removed from her mother to be moved to another park, recalls Ray. The mother emitted wails for two weeks. Ray also witnessed a huge male, Kanduke, being raked by the teeth of other orcas and attacked by females, who dominate orca society. Kanduke became unhinged. Watching him ... intentionally injuring himself by bashing his head and face into concrete is another dreadful memory, says Ray. Dr Ingrid Visser, who heads the New Zealand-based Orca Research Trust, recently went to inspect SeaWorld Orlando. I was horrified, she says. The tiny and totally featureless tanks the orcas are kept in are despicable. Any
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the tiny, featureless

orlando] are despicable

awareness in general, and the cause of killer whales in particular. Although Brancheau herself supported the idea of captivity, her death ushered in a new era of intense scrutiny of the captive-orca industry, at least in the US. It sparked an Obama administration investigation, a congressional hearing, a serious safety violation and an order to keep trainers away from the orcas a prohibition SeaWorld is still contesting. So what does the future hold for orcas in captivity? Most advocates want to see them retired to sea pens. SeaWorld would still own the animals, and could charge people to view them in a more natural and educational environment than a showbiz setting. Ray hopes that people around the world will show greater compassion for these animals, and a better understanding as to why they dont belong anywhere but in the wild. She states: I hope a new generation will grow up understanding that its morally the orcas are kept in [at seaworld unacceptable to confine such social, intelligent, self-aware and emotional beings for our entertainment. I hope people Orca researcher Dr Ingrid Visser see the tragedy in Tilikums perhaps mistaking the wet-suited man life, as well as in Dawns death. for a seal. I regularly swim with orcas As for Tilikum, these days he spends in the wild, including those who hunt much of his miserable life alone in one marine mammals, comments Dr Visser. of Shamu Stadiums small concrete Yet, Ive never been threatened. pools backstage. He cannot position Dr Rose agrees that captivity himself vertically without hitting the assaults the orca psyche: For this very bottom. Observers say he looks sick, intelligent, cognitively sophisticated lonely and deflated. But he is still animal, the loss of family and community, sometimes brought out at the end of and of purpose, of making choices, the Shamu show to splash people in the having a job of survival to do, creates front rows with a whopping surge of his a highly neurotic, and sometimes mighty flukes (tail). Its a miracle hes psychotic, individual. Some handle it still alive, and hes still deadly dangerous. better, some worse, but they all suffer. Its highly In its letter to film critics, SeaWorld likely that captivity denied it broke up whale families, did drove Tilikum to not adequately inform trainers about attack people, says Tilikum, or had tried to spin the story Dr Visser. And hes of Brancheaus death. It also rejected a ticking time bomb the notion that Tilikum had been driven to do it again.  crazy in captivity, declaring, SeaWorld Blackfish is is proud of its legacy of supporting in cinemas marine science and environmental November 21.
app to watch the trailer for the compelling new documentary Blackfish.

animal would go neurotic in such conditions. When you do that to a largebrained, self-aware animal it is surprising we dont have more attacks. Orcas in captivity are a poor caricature of wild orcas, comments Dr Visser. Despite what SeaWorld tells you, that the behaviours you see are natural, this isnt the case. In the wild you never see an orca doing a 360-degree spin out of water, or tossing people around in rocket rides. A number of behaviours that trainers teach are not only unnatural, but may actually provoke aggression; [for example] head shakes, in what we perceive as a yes or no, would normally be used to signify displeasure or a warning signal. While captive orcas have killed four people since 1991, the only injury ever recorded in the wild happened in 1972, when an orca bit the leg of a surfer in California and immediately released it,

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