WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. - Whale researcher Howard Garrett sadly reflects on the loss of trainer Dawn Brancheau at Seaworld Orlando.
"I guess she was trying to make it better and trying to work with him," said the President and Co-founder of Orca Network. "But he was over the edge."
Garrett believes tension and stress built up over years led Tillikum, a performing orca, to drag the trainer into the water and kill her yesterday.
"This is the kind of stress and pent-up aggression that can act out in captivity," he said.
But curators at Seaworld say their orcas are happy, well-adjusted animals that have performed thousands of hours without an incident like this. They say Tillikum's involvement in two other deaths dating back to the 1991 drowning of trainer in Victoria, B.C., occurred under much different circumstances. The second incident occurred after a man apparently slipped past security guards into Tillikum's pen for an after-hours swim with the orca.
They reject any suggestion the captive orca program should be ended.
"It's nonsense," said Seaworld Corporate Curator Chuck Tompkins. "Forty-six years ago, people were shooting killer whales and now Shamu is a household name. People understand and appreciate and want to conserve these animals."
Garrett points out that there has never been a documented attack on humans by an orca in the wild. He wants Tillikum to be gradually returned to the wild by putting him in a large sea pen in his native North Atlantic waters until he's healthy enough for total release. He says Seaworld should pay for and get credit for the release.
For now there is no talk of Tillikum going anywhere. Seaworld officials say they will re-evaluate their treatment techniques for the orca but plan to keep and care for him as long as it takes.
