ORLANDO, Fla. — Trainers will continue working with a killer whale that grabbed a colleague and dragged her to her death underwater, but SeaWorld said Thursday it is reviewing its procedures after the attack.
Visitors lined up to get into the park a day after the whale named Tilikum killed veteran trainer Dawn Brancheau as horrified audience members watched. Tilikum had been involved in two previous deaths, including a Canadian trainer dragged under water by him and two others whales in 1991.
Killer-whale shows are suspended indefinitely in Orlando and at the park’s San Diego location.
“We have every intention of continuing to interact with this animal, though the procedures for working with him will change,” SeaWorld said on its blog.
Chuck Tompkins, who is in charge of training at all SeaWorld parks, said Thursday that Tilikum will not be isolated from the Orlando location’s seven other whales. Tilikum fathered some of them and will continue mating with others. “We want him to continue to be part of that social group,” he said.
Trainers will review safety procedures and change them as needed, but Tompkins said he doesn’t expect the killer-whale shows to be much different.
“We’re going to make any changes we have to, to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.
Brancheau, 40, was rubbing Tilikum from a poolside platform when her long braid swung in front of him. The 22-foot, 12,000-pound creature grabbed the braid in his mouth and dragged her underwater.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that trainers trying to help her could not get into the water because Tilikum was so aggressive. They had to coax him into a smaller pool and raise him out of the water on a platform before they could free her.
She probably died from multiple traumatic injuries and drowning, the medical examiner’s office said.
The 30-year-old Tilikum was one of three orcas blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 after the woman lost her balance and fell in the pool at Sealand of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia. A few months later, SeaWorld asked the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service for permission to bring Tilikum to Orlando temporarily, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Sealand, which eventually closed, was selling the whales because it was scrapping its killer-whale show.
SeaWorld Orlando got permission in October 1992 to permanently display Tilikum and the two other killer whales involved in the trainer’s death. Both of the other whales have since died.
Tilikum also was involved in a 1999 death. The body of a man who had sneaked by SeaWorld security was found draped over him. He either jumped, fell or was pulled into the frigid water and died of hypothermia.
Brancheau’s older sister, Diane Gross, said the trainer wouldn’t want anything done to the whale. “She loved the whales like her children,” said Gross, of Schererville, Ind. “They all had personalities, good days and bad days.”
