On vacation in Orlando Florida I had the opportunity to go to SeaWorld. Being an inland native, this vacation was the first time I've ever witnessed live creatures of the ocean. We settled down near the glass in the front row to watch the orca show. The exciting music began to play.
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| Sea World Trainer Dawn Brancheau Killed |
The trainers ran out with their hands in the air like rock stars. At that moment two killer whales leapt high from the surface of the water. They were larger than anything I could have imagined. I was terrified. They could have easily cleared the height of the glass partition to crush spectators beneath them. The response of the spectators echoed my trepidation. The announcer assured the spectators there was no danger and the whales were having as much fun as the trainers.
The show was a choreographed display of breathtaking leaps, flips and tail splashing of the audience. The trainers stood on the backs of the killer whales and were tossed into the air. As the music played the killer whales danced on queue. Near the end of the show the whales came up to the glass and wagged their tongues at the cheering spectators.
The killer whales continued to play as spectators were invited to the poolside to question the trainers. One spectator asked why the dorsal fins of the killer whales were collapsed. The trainer responded the dorsal fans of male killer whales sometimes do this. The spectator spoke up again contradicting the trainer. He stated the collapse of the cartilaginous dorsal fins in killer whales was quite unnatural. He continued to say this occurred as a result of being held captive in small pools where they cannot adequately dive beneath the surface or swim in open water. There was an awkward moment and the trainer began to avoid the spectator's questions.
When I again returned to school I shared my Seaworld experienced with my biology class. I happened to mention the awkward moment when the spectator chastised the trainer. My biology teacher took a moment to explain that killer whales are highly intelligent. This combined with their natural predatory instincts could potentially lead to a dangerous situation. He compared killer whales in captivity to lions in the circus. The potential for attack is the same. The only difference is that a lion does not possess the ability to think and reason on the level of a killer whale. A killer whale is intelligent enough to plot an attack and stalk its intended prey for weeks or months. He continued to say that we cannot claim we respect their intelligence while condoning the captivity of killer whales.
A few years later Seaworld was in the national news. The trainer had been killed by a killer whale. The details of the incident had been spun many ways by many commentaries. It would be several years before trainers who witnessed the incident would come forward to tell the truth. The female trainer had been standing beside the pool when the killer whale leapt from the water and snatched her in by her ponytail.
I tried to imagine my day SeaWorld. The trainers had assured us there was no danger posed by the killer whales. I try to think of any other similar situation. Had a shark ever jumped into a boat to take a person and escaped back into the water again? Had a lion ever opened the door of a vehicle and removed the driver? I thought of the words of my biology teacher. "A killer whale has the intelligence to plot an attack for weeks or months."
Years later while serving in the military, I had the opportunity to view killer whales in the wild. They did not have a natural curiosity of the people in the boat and did not approach us as the trainers had said. Their dorsal fins were not collapsed and they were larger than the whales I witnessed at SeaWorld. It's difficult to describe the demeanor of the killer whales in captivity to those in the wild. They even seemed to move differently. It was as if the killer whales at SeaWorld had been trained to mimic happiness.
The wild killer whales were stalking schools of fish and seabirds skimmed the surface of the water. At that moment a huge killer whale leapt from the water and took a bird from the air. This was repeated several times as we watched. The tour guide stated this is very common. Killer whales are intelligent enough to train their young how to use a rush of waves to wash a seal from a floating sheet of ice. I was reminded of the sea world trainer who lost her life.
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