I watched a news story on CNN tonight about a Sea World trainer who was killed today, Wednesday, afternoon during a show by one of their killer whales. Dawn Brancheau, 40 years old and identified by a Sea World spokesperson as one of their most experienced trainers, was in the whale holding area about 2 p.m. when “she apparently slipped or fell into the tank and was fatally injured by one of the whales.” This was the statement released by the sheriff’s spokesperson, Jim Soloman. However, a different story was told by an eyewitness who says that Brancheau did not fall, instead that the whale approached the glass side of the 35-foot-deep tank at Shamu Stadium, jumped up and grabbed the trainer by the waist, and shaking her violently. Brancheau’s cause of death was drowning. The killer whale, who goes by the name Tillikum, is 11,000 pounds and 22 feet long. Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time Tillikum has been involved with the injury of a Sea World trainer. In 1999, Tillikum was blamed for the death of a 27-year-old man whose body was found floating on his back in a tank at SeaWorld, the apparent victim of a whale’s “horseplay,” authorities said then.
This discrepancy in the two stories is what I found most intriguing in this media story. Also, I think that it is terrible that this happened in front of a live audience.
I heard about this story too, so crazy. The version I read was that it was at the beginning of a show and the whale grabbed her and tossed her around in its mouth. I couldn’t imagine being one of the audience members during that. Horrible
I heard about this story on the radio and had trouble believing it. I always imagined killer whales to be friendly(“Free Willy”). I think its one of those events you’d never want to see and its terrible that this had to happen.
I agree, someone needs to set the story straight for this tragedy. The articles that I read about it claimed that the whale grabbed her long ponytail and pulled her into the water.