I always thought those trainers were nuts to swim with those things
...
turns out this is this orca's third kill???
msnbc.com
updated 33 minutes ago
ORLANDO - A SeaWorld trainer was killed Wednesday when an orca pulled her into the water as she was talking to visitors.
Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman John Mulhall said paramedics were called to the Shamu Stadium at the theme park resort where they found a worker who could not be revived.
WKMG-TV reported that a witness, Victoria Biniak, said she saw the incident from a viewing area where the orca, or killer whale, is housed.
"The trainer was explaining different things about the whale ... and then the trainer that was down there walked away from the window ... and then Telly (the whale) took off really fast in the tank and he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing (her) around," Biniak said.
The theme park was closed shortly after the incident.
WKMG reported Biniak as saying that the killer whale — a 30-year-old, 12,300-pound male orca that also is called Tillikum — does not typically have a trainer in its tank because it is too large.
The same orca was cited in two earlier deaths, according the Humane Society of the United States, which has campaigned to keep marine mammals out of theme parks.
In 1991, the orca, "along with two female (killer) whales, drowned a young part-time trainer named Keltie Byrne at Sealand of the Pacific in Canada," the HSUS stated.
The orcas "weren't trying to kill Byrne, but Tillikum and his orca companions didn't know that humans can't hold their breath as long as whales," HSUS scientist Naomi Rose said.
Tillikum was later shipped to SeaWorld of Orlando, the HSUS noted, and in 1999, "a man who had apparently stayed in the park after closing hours jumped into Tillikum's tank ... He was found dead the next morning, naked and draped across the whale. The man's swim trunks were found in the water, and his body was scraped up, a sign that Tillikum had dragged him around the bottom and sides of the tank."
Killer whales, or orcas, are not actually whales but the largest member of the dolphin family. The name killer whale comes from them being observed as sometimes killing whales for food.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35566392?GT1=43001
...turns out this is this orca's third kill???
msnbc.com
updated 33 minutes ago
ORLANDO - A SeaWorld trainer was killed Wednesday when an orca pulled her into the water as she was talking to visitors.
Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman John Mulhall said paramedics were called to the Shamu Stadium at the theme park resort where they found a worker who could not be revived.
WKMG-TV reported that a witness, Victoria Biniak, said she saw the incident from a viewing area where the orca, or killer whale, is housed.
"The trainer was explaining different things about the whale ... and then the trainer that was down there walked away from the window ... and then Telly (the whale) took off really fast in the tank and he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing (her) around," Biniak said.
The theme park was closed shortly after the incident.
WKMG reported Biniak as saying that the killer whale — a 30-year-old, 12,300-pound male orca that also is called Tillikum — does not typically have a trainer in its tank because it is too large.
The same orca was cited in two earlier deaths, according the Humane Society of the United States, which has campaigned to keep marine mammals out of theme parks.
In 1991, the orca, "along with two female (killer) whales, drowned a young part-time trainer named Keltie Byrne at Sealand of the Pacific in Canada," the HSUS stated.
The orcas "weren't trying to kill Byrne, but Tillikum and his orca companions didn't know that humans can't hold their breath as long as whales," HSUS scientist Naomi Rose said.
Tillikum was later shipped to SeaWorld of Orlando, the HSUS noted, and in 1999, "a man who had apparently stayed in the park after closing hours jumped into Tillikum's tank ... He was found dead the next morning, naked and draped across the whale. The man's swim trunks were found in the water, and his body was scraped up, a sign that Tillikum had dragged him around the bottom and sides of the tank."
Killer whales, or orcas, are not actually whales but the largest member of the dolphin family. The name killer whale comes from them being observed as sometimes killing whales for food.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35566392?GT1=43001
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