Posted on 02/24/2010 12:31:11 PM PST by b4its2late
A member of SeaWorld Orlando's family of killer whales and his trainer swim to the surface during the show 'Believe.' (SEAWORLD)
One person is dead at SeaWorld's Shamu Stadium, following an incident this afternoon, an Orange County Sheriff's Office official confirmed.
Orange County Fire Rescue responded to SeaWorld's Shamu Stadium this afternoon on report of a person who was not breathing.
Details about the incident are not yet available, but a Sheriff's Office official confirmed it is a death investigation.
A local TV station is reporting that a female trainer was killed after she was grabbed by one of the theme park's whales at the start of a public show.
Park guest Victoria Biniak told Local 6 that the trainer was a veteran of SeaWorld and had just finished explaining to the audience the show they were about to see.
At that point, Biniak said, the whale came up from the water, grabbed the trainer around the waste and "thrashed her all around" to the point the trainer's shoe fell off.
Guests were evacuated and were later told the park was shut down, Biniak told Local 6.
Rescue personnel were called to the theme park at 2 p.m. Calls to SeaWorld and Orange County Fire Rescue were not immediately returned.
The Sheriff's Office is en route.
“Brancheau was pronounced dead at the park after being recovered from the pool. Orange County Sheriff’s Office homicide investigators continue to investigate the death of the trainer who was reported to have 16 years of experience working with killer whales,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in an e-mailed release.
Branchaeu reportedly fell into a holding tank at the park sometime after 2 p.m.
Tillikum, a male or bull whale, has lived at the park since 1992, and is one of eight killer whales there.
“Currently deputies with the full cooperation of SeaWorld have secured the scene and homicide detectives have been requested to respond and conduct a death investigation follow-up, along with our forensics unit,” said Capt. Angelo Nieves of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in a statement.
******
A SeaWorld trainer died Wednesday when she slipped or fell into a pool and was fatally injured by an orca, a sheriff’s official said. Witnesses, however, said it appeared the orca had actually pulled the trainer into the pool.
A couple from Michigan said the incident happened as a noontime show was winding down, with some in the audience staying to watch the animals and trainers.
Eldon Skaggs said Brancheau was on a platform with the whale and was massaging it. He said the interaction appeared leisurely and informal.
Then, Skaggs said, the whale “pulled her under and started swimming around with her.“
Skaggs said an alarm sounded and staff rushed the audience out of the stadium as workers scrambled around with nets. The theme park was later closed.
Skaggs said he heard that during an earlier show the whale was not responding to directions. Others who attended the earlier show said the whale was behaving like an ornery child.
The couple left and didn’t find out until later that the trainer had died.
Two other witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that the orca grabbed the trainer by the upper arm and tossed her around in its mouth while swimming rapidly around the tank.
Brazilian tourist Joao Lucio DeCosta Sobrinho and his girlfriend were at an underwater viewing area when they suddenly saw the orca with someone in its mouth.
The couple said they watched the orca show at the park two days earlier and came back to take pictures. But on Wednesday the whales appeared agitated before the incident occurred.
“It was terrible. It’s very difficult to see the image,“ Sobrinho said.
A former contractor with SeaWorld told the Sentinel that the 30-year-old, 12,300-pound male orca, which is also called Tillikum, is typically kept isolated from other orcas and that trainers were not allowed to get in the water with him because of his violent history.
The Sentinel reported that the incident happened during a “Dining With Shamu” show where visitors eat while watching a performance, and that Tillikum is the orca most often used for that.
http://www2.nbc13.com/vtm/news/local/article/orca_kills_seaworld_trainer/133632/
Granted the first victim snuck into the park, but dead is dead.
He should have been retired then.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/debate/trainers.html
On February 20, 1991, University of Victoria marine biology student and part-time trainer Keltie Byrne, 20, slipped and fell into the orca pool at Sealand of the Pacific. She had just finished a show with the three orcas. Since Sealand trainers stay out of the water, she was not wearing a wetsuit. One whale took her in its mouth and began dragging her around the pool, mostly underwater. A champion swimmer who had competed at the international level, she was no match for three huge orcas determined to keep her in the pool. At one point she reached the side and tried to climb out but, as horrified visitors watched from the sidelines, the whales pulled her screaming back into the pool.
“I just heard her scream my name,” said trainer Karen McGee, 25, and then I saw she was in the pool with the whales. “I threw the life-ring out to her. She was trying to grab the ring, but the whale, basically, wouldn’t let her. To them it was a play session, and she was in the water.” McGee and other Sealand staff tried to distract the whales by throwing them fish, banging on the water with steel buckets and giving them hand and voice commands. Nothing worked. Byrne came up screaming one more time and then, as the whale swam round and round the pool with Byrne in its mouth, she finally drowned. It was several hours before her body could be recovered.
She had ten tooth marks on her body, the largest on her left thigh, but was otherwise untouched. The whales had stripped her clothes off. “It was just a tragic accident,” Sealand manager Alejandro Bolz told newspaper reporters. “I just cannot explain it.”
How much do you know about killer whales? I know people, relatives and friends, who have worked in aquatic shows as trainers and helpers.
First off, they didn't get the name 'killer whales' from killing humans. They got the name from coming close to shorelines to kill and eat their delicacy food - seals, slow baby ones mostly. Secondly, for all the years they've been used in aquatic shows they have shown real intelligence like dolphins, are easy to train and are friendly to man for the most part. This was a freak accident and I wouldn't be surprised if the mammal was provoked or dispirited somehow by somebody.
Woman killed at SeaWorld grew up near Chicago
Hours after receiving news of the accident that killed Brancheau, her older sister Diane Gross said her kid sister died doing what she most loved.
"We as a family feel that she had one of the most awesome jobs in the world and we loved watching her do it," Gross said in a telephone interview late Wednesday.
"Words can't describe the loss that we suffered today, but she lived a full life and she lived life to the fullest. How many people in this world can say 'I ride Shamu for a living?'" Gross said.
"She was awesome at what she did and you could see it," Gross said. "Dawn, when she smiled, she got the largest smile from ear to ear because she was so happy doing what she did. As much as she felt fortunate, we were just all happy for her that she was able to pursue her career and succeed and be, to me, the top of her field."
Despite living in Florida, Brancheau kept in constant contact with her family, inviting siblings, nieces, nephews and grandparents to see her at work. She and her husband Scott also returned to Indiana each Christmas.
Brancheau’s sister said Brancheau wouldn’t want anything done to the whale that killed her because she loved the animals like children.
Witnesses told The Orlando Sentinel that the whale grabbed the trainer by the upper arm, disappeared underwater and swam to the other side of the tank.
Brazilian tourist Joao Lucio DeCosta Sobrinho, 28, and girlfriend Talita Oliveira, 20, were at an underwater viewing area when they suddenly saw a whale with someone in its mouth.
The couple said they watched the whale show at the park two days earlier and came back to take pictures. But Wednesday, they said, afternoon the whales appeared agitated before the incident occurred.
“It was terrible,” Sobrinho said. “It’s very difficult to see the image.”
Brancheau was bleeding from the face or mouth, the couple said, and the whale turned her over and over as it swam.
Killer whales are very social animals that are also very intelligent,” Jerome Jackson, professor of ecological sciences at FGCU, wrote in an e-mail. “Like humans and dogs, they ‘play’ with objects and sometimes animals in their environment.
“This particular whale had been linked to two previous human deaths - both of which seemed to be a result of ‘play’ with other killer whales, sort of like ‘keep-away’ in humans,” Jackson wrote. “The humans were grabbed, shaken and held under water - too long for a human, but not for a killer whale.
“The humans were not treated as food. The recent incident also does not appear to be an effort to ‘eat’ the human, but may also have been play or simply aggression.”
http://www.news-press.com/article/20100225/NEWS01/2250397/1002/SeaWorld-show-ends-in-tragedy
Oh, how awful for them. Prayers up for them and for the trainer's loved ones.
Why?
Whales aren't dangerous, they're cuddly, just like polar bears!
I heard someone on FR use the term homophone challenged. Lol!
I bought a cookbook today, probably one for the most beautifully photographed I have ever bought. However, the recipes are a nightmare! One calls for “devaned” shrimp.
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