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Trainer Killed at SeaWorld - Orlando
- Thread starter ucfgrad93
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The articles are a bit wooly, did the trainer drown because the whale had her in it's jaws and held her underwater?
Edit: Some news reports say the whale jumped up and grabbed her and pulled her into the water, others say she fell in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1xZwxkcoDU&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcReDJelSBA
Edit: Some news reports say the whale jumped up and grabbed her and pulled her into the water, others say she fell in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1xZwxkcoDU&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcReDJelSBA
When I saw the opening of the killer whale slasher flick Orca (the one where the opening scene is where the killer whale eats a great white like a potato chip), I inquired with the harbor master in my area, and also a marine biologist for Stanford Hopkins.
While a killer whale is not smart enough to blow up an entire village, as in the film, they have no issues about thrashing a great white shark. I never thought it was a great idea to have tiny humans in the tank with a killer whale.
These things are not only very long, they are massive and the most effective killing machines in the ocean. Unlike cold blooded sharks, the warm blooded killer whale needs to eat an exceedingly large amount of many types of prey. Us humans are smaller than what are on the plate of some killer whales.
agreed
Agreed. Its terribly sad, and condolences to all involved, but c,mon!
My sister is studying Marine Biology and plans on working against this type of "animal performance", as well as working to make sure that when these shows are put on, that the highest level of concern for the animals are met.
Agreed. Its terribly sad, and condolences to all involved, but c,mon!
My sister is studying Marine Biology and plans on working against this type of "animal performance", as well as working to make sure that when these shows are put on, that the highest level of concern for the animals are met.
They will probably kill the whale, can't be put back in the wild and can't be kept at Sea World. That is the real tragedy. Sorry, I have no sympathy for people who interact with a wild animal and expect it to behave in a tame manner. I get sick of stories where people are swimming in the ocean, get attacked by a shark and the shark gets hunted down and killed.
We as humans have very little regard to things that we deem "below" us. We as humans need to understand that we are not the top of the food chain outside of living next to a super walmart and that we should have respect for nature. But we as humans are an arrogant bunch of pricks who think we can put a 10 ton animal in a pool and go swimming with it expecting nothing will happen. <End of rant>
We as humans have very little regard to things that we deem "below" us. We as humans need to understand that we are not the top of the food chain outside of living next to a super walmart and that we should have respect for nature. But we as humans are an arrogant bunch of pricks who think we can put a 10 ton animal in a pool and go swimming with it expecting nothing will happen. <End of rant>
Your sister seems to be conflicted.
Trainers were not allowed to be in the water with Tilikum, the orca in question, due to his history.
Missed my point, thanks for playing.... But yet, they allowed the trainer to be around this whale and still put the whale in the show...
Marine biologists are the Monterey Bay Aquarium had a great white for some time and then released it in Mexico in a closed off, netted bay, so it could adjust, and then planned to let it go off into the open ocean. Sadly, the great white shark, about five years old, died while in the transition period.
It was an usually cruel and stupid experiment, especially with the horrible track record humans have with great white sharks in captivity.
Stanford Hopkins, Cal State University Monterey Bay, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute were not in agreement that taking a great white from its natural habitat was a good idea. Some great whites have lived only two weeks or less in captivity.
Some have suggested that these magnificent animals need to have the will to hunt in order to have the will to survive. But if you feed it like a circus animal, and then you have an unhealthy fish.
A more recent accidental catch of another younger great white resulted, like most instances in the world, of not accepting food from humans when put into a large tank. The aquarium released the shark.
No, didn't miss the point of your rant at all. Just clearing up a specific factoid about this particular episode for you and those above who think this particular orca's potential/history was not respected by the Seaworld training staff.
Again, how was this orca respected if it had a history but they allowed it to perform anyway in front of a crowd with a trainer nearby?
This orca was never going to get anywhere near a crowd to cause the general public any harm. Tilikum came to Seaworld in 1992, and the trainer began there in 1994. She was one of a few of the trainers allowed poolside (out of water) with this orca. This orca was treated with caution.
However, when dealing with animals (wild in captivity or in the wild, or domesticated), there is ALWAYS an element of the random. Whether the family dog that mauls a child, a stingray spearing Steve Irwin, a horse thrrowing its rider - human-animal interactions are sometimes fatal. I'm not sure a "lay person" has the ability to armchair quarterback this situation.
However, when dealing with animals (wild in captivity or in the wild, or domesticated), there is ALWAYS an element of the random. Whether the family dog that mauls a child, a stingray spearing Steve Irwin, a horse thrrowing its rider - human-animal interactions are sometimes fatal. I'm not sure a "lay person" has the ability to armchair quarterback this situation.
The difference between this attack and a random dog mauling is that orcas are smart, cunning, killing machines. Dogs are stupid, mostly docile, love buddies.
Orcas aren't meant to be in tanks, nor are they meant to do shows to make a park money. Dogs, for the most part, are engineered to live with humans.
Orcas are not domesticated and should not be treated as such
We went to Seaworld San Antonio a few years, and the Shamu show was just amazing.
It’s a double-edged sword. I’m sure Seaworld and other parks like it have really raised awareness about the threats to Orcas, dolphins and other sea life. Before we had Seaworld, these creatures were being hunted on a regular basis to the point where they were becoming endangered.
But then again there’s so many downsides to captivity like this.
It’s just sad all around. There’s no way they can release the Orcas kept in captivity into the wild. So, I don’t know what the answer is.
It’s a double-edged sword. I’m sure Seaworld and other parks like it have really raised awareness about the threats to Orcas, dolphins and other sea life. Before we had Seaworld, these creatures were being hunted on a regular basis to the point where they were becoming endangered.
But then again there’s so many downsides to captivity like this.
It’s just sad all around. There’s no way they can release the Orcas kept in captivity into the wild. So, I don’t know what the answer is.
Well I guess this "lay person" doesn't get your point if you have any to make. We are talking about a whale with a history of violence that was still allowed to perform with trainers around. You say that "the orca was never going to get anywhere near a crowd to cause the general public any harm" I guess we should tell that to the parents when their kids have nightmares about what they saw. The difference (and this was in my original post) is that when the "random" happens it's not the human that gets blamed or put down, it's the animal. And they get killed for what, for being an animal and following natural instincts.
I'm sorry for the rants but it pisses me off when animals do not get treated with the respect they deserve. They SHOULD NOT be taken from the wild for our enjoyment (unless in extreme circumstances where they can put in a zoo, cared for properly, not try to get played with by a human and given as close to a natural habitat as possible). There is a reason these events happen, but as arrogant humans we do not like to see those reasons and think we are all so righteous to do with what we please to what we have deemed a lower species. I am not a part of PETA but they have some very good view points (and some very bad ones) Sorry for the rant, again...
EDIT.... The real sad part is that in most of the news stories including the one the OP linked it says in there that the witnesses that were interviewed said the whales seemed agitated. Some saw the earlier show and came back for the second one, and in the earlier show Tilikum was not responding to commands and was acting like a pissy child. So the audience saw these behaviors but the trainers did not and therefore did nothing to prevent this. What the news report on BBC is http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8535618.stm
I haven't been able to find out the age of this Orca when it was captured but if it was six or older it's quite possible with some transition work it may well be able to be returned to the wild.It would have no predators after all.
Looks like Seaworld will resume the Shamu shows tomorrow. Trainers will not get in the water with the Orcas (which sort of takes away the coolest part of the show).
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/26/florida.seaworld.death/index.html?hpt=T1
Mixed feelings all around.
Part of me thinks people wouldnt give a damn about sea life if it wasnt for Seaworld and other marine zoos, and another part of me thinks animals should be free.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/26/florida.seaworld.death/index.html?hpt=T1
Mixed feelings all around.
Part of me thinks people wouldnt give a damn about sea life if it wasnt for Seaworld and other marine zoos, and another part of me thinks animals should be free.
Seriously?
You can't trust it to be tame so the only reasonable conclusion you could think of is to kill it?
I weep for society. I like how you are caring enough to call the 2nd death this whale was involved in a Darwin Award incident - you should send that to the persons family.
Seriously. Some people are dense enough to believe that animals are only here for our enjoyment. So what if it's not tame? Are lions at zoos tame? No. Should we put them all down?
If anything this whale should be retaught to hunt and released, or at worst SeaWorld should do what they said they'd do and only use it for breeding, not shows.
It's not tame and it's been in captivity for most of its life. The reports I've read of captive whales being released into the wild haven't had positive results, but hey I'm not a scholar on the subject. Maybe it does work out for the best more often than not, but it hasn't seemed that way to me from the accounts I've read.
Send it to a facility instead then and hope no other accidents take place. A lot of animals would be put down after incidents like this, which is tragic since the blame is on us for trying to tame them in the first place, but if the animal can't be released and is a danger to humans then putting it down is what I would expect to happen. I didn't say I supported the decision, I said it's what I thought would happen.
And did you read the circumstances of the 2nd death? A visitor snuck past security and got into the enclosures where they kept this whale. I referred to it as a Darwin Award incident 'cause the article seemed to cast doubts on the whale's involvement in it being (for lack of a better word) malicious. I was being flippant, but my only other comment is that someone who sneaks past security to go get a closer look at a killer whale is seriously lacking in common sense - that any less offensive? Tragic death yes, but it would never have happened had this visitor not been so out and out dumb. Sorry that I'm not caring enough for you.
Thanks for that. I'm one of the people who doesn't particularly enjoy Seaworld etc.
I find it sadistic that they are going to let this whale perform, saying (once again) that the trainers are not allowed in the water (which was the rule when this incident happened) and have another crowd of families more than likely watch another person die all to make a buck. I don't know if there is a place that this whale can go to to live out the rest of it's life without being put on display but there should be. I would love to see the whale be put back in to the wild but I don't think that is possible. But anything is better than this crap....