Whale Attack Sparks Investigation
A two and a half ton orca that dragged a trainer underwater during a show at SeaWorld may have been put out by a spat with another whale, grumpy because of the weather or just irritable from a stomach ache, according to marine mammal experts.
"Some mornings they just wake up not as willing to do the show as others," said Ken Balcomb, director of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Washington. "If the trainer doesn't recognize it's not a good day, this will happen."
The whale, Kasatka, was back in the water Thursday for a lunchtime performance that went off without a hitch. But the show was limited to tricks that did not involve trainers getting in the water.
Meanwhile, experts from other SeaWorld parks and marine centers converged in San Diego to review Wednesday's incident and figure out what set the whale off.
The trainer, Ken Peters, 39, underwent surgery Thursday on a broken bone in his foot but was otherwise in good spirits, said Mike Scarpuzzi, vice president of zoological operations at SeaWorld San Diego and a former killer-whale trainer.
Kasatka, a 30-year-old orca that is about 17 feet long and weighs well over 5,000 pounds, twice held Peters underwater for less than a minute each time during the finale of a show at Shamu Stadium.
The act called for the orca to leap out of the water so Peters could dive off her nose. Instead, as several hundred spectators watched, Kasatka grabbed Peters' foot in her mouth and dragged him toward the bottom of the 36-foot-deep tank.
When they came up, Peters tried to calm the animal by stroking its back, but it grabbed him and plunged down again. The whale finally released him and Peters was able to surface and swim away. He emerged from the tank with one leg of his wet suit torn.
Kasatka and Peters were involved in a scrape in 1999, when the whale tried to bite the trainer during a show, Scarpuzzi said. Peters hopped out of the tank and was not injured. The whale also tried to bite a different trainer in 1993, Scarpuzzi said.
Peters has 16 years of experience as a trainer, including 12 years in Shamu Stadium.
Scarpuzzi pointed out that the animals perform as many as eight times a day, 365 days a year, "so this, even though it can be expected because they are killer whales, it is definitely abnormal."
Killer whales are predators that were originally called whale-killers because they occasionally eat other whales and dolphins.
"In the wild, they're not dangerous to humans and there's no incidences of them attacking humans unprovoked," Balcomb said. But in captivity, "they're dangerous because they're big, and sometimes they're not happy with their situation."
Park spokesman Dave Koontz said a different whale went under with a trainer's foot in its mouth two or three weeks ago but obeyed commands to release the trainer and return to the side of the tank. The trainer was not injured.
The most serious attack at SeaWorld came in 1987, when a whale leaped onto a trainer as he rode a second whale during a stunt before a full house. The trainer was hospitalized with a broken pelvis, ribs and upper leg.
Kasatka made headlines in 2001 when she became the first killer whale to successfully give birth in captivity after being artificially inseminated.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. "Some mornings they just wake up not as willing to do the show as others," said Ken Balcomb, director of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Washington. "If the trainer doesn't recognize it's not a good day, this will happen."
The whale, Kasatka, was back in the water Thursday for a lunchtime performance that went off without a hitch. But the show was limited to tricks that did not involve trainers getting in the water.
Meanwhile, experts from other SeaWorld parks and marine centers converged in San Diego to review Wednesday's incident and figure out what set the whale off.
The trainer, Ken Peters, 39, underwent surgery Thursday on a broken bone in his foot but was otherwise in good spirits, said Mike Scarpuzzi, vice president of zoological operations at SeaWorld San Diego and a former killer-whale trainer.
Kasatka, a 30-year-old orca that is about 17 feet long and weighs well over 5,000 pounds, twice held Peters underwater for less than a minute each time during the finale of a show at Shamu Stadium.
The act called for the orca to leap out of the water so Peters could dive off her nose. Instead, as several hundred spectators watched, Kasatka grabbed Peters' foot in her mouth and dragged him toward the bottom of the 36-foot-deep tank.
When they came up, Peters tried to calm the animal by stroking its back, but it grabbed him and plunged down again. The whale finally released him and Peters was able to surface and swim away. He emerged from the tank with one leg of his wet suit torn.
Kasatka and Peters were involved in a scrape in 1999, when the whale tried to bite the trainer during a show, Scarpuzzi said. Peters hopped out of the tank and was not injured. The whale also tried to bite a different trainer in 1993, Scarpuzzi said.
Peters has 16 years of experience as a trainer, including 12 years in Shamu Stadium.
Scarpuzzi pointed out that the animals perform as many as eight times a day, 365 days a year, "so this, even though it can be expected because they are killer whales, it is definitely abnormal."
Killer whales are predators that were originally called whale-killers because they occasionally eat other whales and dolphins.
"In the wild, they're not dangerous to humans and there's no incidences of them attacking humans unprovoked," Balcomb said. But in captivity, "they're dangerous because they're big, and sometimes they're not happy with their situation."
Park spokesman Dave Koontz said a different whale went under with a trainer's foot in its mouth two or three weeks ago but obeyed commands to release the trainer and return to the side of the tank. The trainer was not injured.
The most serious attack at SeaWorld came in 1987, when a whale leaped onto a trainer as he rode a second whale during a stunt before a full house. The trainer was hospitalized with a broken pelvis, ribs and upper leg.
Kasatka made headlines in 2001 when she became the first killer whale to successfully give birth in captivity after being artificially inseminated.
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Hopefully, the training aspect of the show, and 'any' contact with the animals, is ALWAYS monitored by others. Making sure there is no cruel or unusual treatment, that this whale and others, are not retaliating against. They are certainly intelligent enough to do so.
And while these 'shows' are, for now, paying for research of these animals, I am sure if the 'show' did not exist, funding would be there, from many other sources. Undoubtedly, from people who truly love animals, and don't believe in using them for monetary gain.
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SeaWorld and its commercial clones have value, but a limited one compared to the vast reach and much deeper educational value of well-produced video of whales in the wild, in their native habitat. Rather than capture whales, capture their images and provide the context and backgroundd only a full media treatment can provide.
The "golly gee!" circus environment of performing tricks for fish is something out of 250 years ago, when nature was best studied after death. It is a PT Barnum marketing environment which drives both animals and trainers into situations for which neither is designed. I grant seeing a whale up close may impart some (?) additional information, but it is not worthwhile to imprison a species of any kind in the Late Victorian Great White Hunter style-- as a trophy of some exotic life form.
As Roooth points out, sometimes it is debatable which is the more intelligent species-- the one on exhibit, or the one running the circus.
Good and bad days too !
Just like some humans would go crazy if placed in capitivity indefinitely, I think some of the whales don't have the tempermant to remain in a confined space and just lose it.
These are highly intelligent beings, creatures whose normal habitat is thousands of square miles of open ocean. They communicate with vocalizations that can be heard from one side of the ocean to the other.
Going from that to a tiny tank where they can't hear the songs of other whales must be traumatizing on levels we can't imagine. And they aren't being imprisoned by each other, they're being imprisoned by a whole different species. Imagine that. And then we want these mighty beasts to do tricks, uh, excuse me, "behaviors" in exchange for food.
The trainers know all this and they know that they risk their lives every time they go in a tank.
And its easy to say, "Free the Whales", but a lot of the reason we now have such empathy for them is because places like Sea World have educated the public to the point where we no longer regard whales and dolphins as not much more than oversized trout.