Tilikum’s Future: SeaWorld vs. the Ocean Debate

February 25, 2009

Yesterday, 40-year-old Dawn Brancheau was killed by Tilikum, one of the killer whales at Orlando, Florida’s SeaWorld. Dawn, a trainer at the park, was somehow pulled into the whale’s tank where she drowned, although how the exact events played out are still being investigated.

This however was not Tilikum’s first encounter with the death of a trainer. In 1991, a trainer was killed in British Columbia, where Tilikum was living at the time. The trainer had slipped and fell into the tank and the Orca’s began to play with her, tossing her back and forth- she too, drowned.

Tilikum also was involved in an incident that happened between the two trainers deaths in 1999. This fatal incident was ruled to not be Tilikum’s fault. A man stayed in the park after it closed, slipping passed security to enter the Orca tank area. He was said to have died from a combination of hypothermia and drowning.

Measuring in at 22’ 6” and tipping the scales at 12,300 pounds, this massive whale’s main job is to soak the audience with its tail when “Shamu” is chanted in the show “Believe” at SeaWorld.

Tilikum, meaning “friend” in Chinook Jargon, seems to not be too friendly at all. I understand that this Orca is very popular and worth a lot to SeaWorld, but at this point, keeping the killer whale on as entertainment or for any purpose at all seems kind of risky.

Having been involved with or been responsible for the deaths of three people up to this point, I believe this whale’s time in limelight is up. There is no reason for this whale to be around humans. Howard Garrett from the Orca Network says, “Lack of companionship may have triggered the attack.” He goes on to say, “Keeping a mammal like this isolated in a tank for long periods of time, causes stress.”
Pretty much, since this whale is not getting enough attention or play time, he is acting out and trying to play with the humans. Of course, the only way for them to play, is for the whales to drag the object under water. In this case, the person(s) drowned.

Yet, with all this information and with three people dead under Tilikum’s belt, CNN’s Randi Kaye reports “Orca Network believes that SeaWorld will keep Tilikum since he is the primary male breeding whale to all SeaWorld parks- he is worth millions.”

Apparently, the price tag of a whale is more important than the price tag of a human life to SeaWorld.