​​O.R.C.A

“All whales in captivity have a bad life. They’re all emotionally destroyed. They’re all psychologically traumatized. So they’re ticking time bombs.”

Tilikum

"30 years and three deaths."



Meet Tilikum highlighted in the red circle. Tilikum is the killer whale that has lived up to his name as a killer whale over his 30 years in the business. 

 

His first shot at show business was in Canda. During his stay Tilikum experianced food being withheld from him as a training technique, and he regularly endured painful attacks by two dominant female orcas, Haida and Nootka. He was forced to perform every hour on the hour, eight times a day, seven days a week. The constant stress and exhaustion gave him stomach ulcers.

 

Tilikum is the largest killer whale in captivity. Coming in at a whopping 12,500 punds and over 22 feet in legnth. Tilikum is the show breeding whale of SeaWorld. He now spends his days in the back of the park in this small bath tub, waiting to serve up some more breeding for the collection of SeaWorld. 

 

Over the course of 21 years at SeaWorld, where he is confined to a tank containing 0.0001 percent of the quantity of water that he would traverse in a single day in nature, Tilikum has been involved in multiple incidents of aggression. The stress of captivity drives Tilikum to exhibit abnormal repetitive behavior, including chewing on metal gates and the concrete sides of his tank—so much so that the most of his teeth are completely worn down.

 

 

Keltie Bryne

February 21, 1991


Keltie a US Olympic swimmer worked part-time at the park. She fell in the pool with the three orcas. Keltie was pulled to the bottom of the pool by Tilikum, tossed around by the three orcas and ultimatly drowned.

 

It took Sealand employees two hours to recover her body from the orcas. She was the first of three people to have been killed because of Tilikum's stress, frustration, and confinement.