SeaWorld trainer killed by whale in Orlando

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Jake

This was not natural or "wild" behaviour in any way, shape or form, but you are talking about natural instincts? Since when is it a natural instinct for an orca to beach itself and grab a human to play with or consume? There has never been a recorded human death attributed to an orca in the open ocean.

The orca has been in captivity for 30 years. It was about as wild as I am.

This isn't a situation where we can draw comparisons with human behaviour.

Humans and orcas tend to live in different ecosystems, hence why you don't hear of them attacking humans like they do seals (when they beach themselves). If humans organized themselvs on rocks in the northern Pacific ocean, I am sure you'd see a lot more attacks on humans. To them, humans and seals are just big chunks of protein.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

Is Shamu still around? Bartholomew?

I was shocked to read that Shamu is a stage name they give the performing whales. That kinda rocked my world.

[Vulcan]

When I was a kid living at our logging camp on Sonora Island, me and my sister used to run away in a panic from the beach when the black fish cruised close by. Yeah, orcas were called black fish in those days and I doubt they were any danger but we were warned to stay away and they were probably the most excitement we'd encounter for months.

Personally I'm against putting any animal in captivity unless absolutely necessary, and Orcas shouldn't be confined just for our amusement.

[bcb]

Thank goodness this didn't happen at they Calgary Zoo, or they'd face all sorts of criticism and have to have a public inquiry.

[FanIn80]

Three pages and still no youtube? From what I gather, this all happened in front of a ton of spectators. No one knows how to upload video anymore?

[The Ditch]

Eh, dogs have been domesticated for what, 15 000 years (wikipedia) and they can still be unpredictable/violent at times. You think you're going to take a wild animal out of the ocean and it will be gentle and predictable? This isn't shocking, kind of sad but what do you expect.

Reminds me of some article I read about the amount of people who die in the US each year from their pet Tigers, yes, pet Tigers.

[GreenLantern]

Originally Posted by fotze

You mean your mere presence was unable to stop this, even a month earlier, huh, thats weird.

Moderator photon: "I'm not the moderator of the Killer Whales mother!"

Agnes photon: "And you never will be, either!"

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Three pages and still no youtube? From what I gather, this all happened in front of a ton of spectators. No one knows how to upload video anymore?

You will probably never see something like that on youtube.
<removed>

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Three pages and still no youtube? From what I gather, this all happened in front of a ton of spectators. No one knows how to upload video anymore?

I'm sure the plethora of beheading videos should keep you satisfied until it gets uploaded.

[MJM]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Humans and orcas tend to live in different ecosystems, hence why you don't hear of them attacking humans like they do seals (when they beach themselves). If humans organized themselvs on rocks in the northern Pacific ocean, I am sure you'd see a lot more attacks on humans. To them, humans and seals are just big chunks of protein.

Sorry. that is completely untrue. Although there have been no attacks on humans results in death, there have been multiple instances where people have been snapped up by an Orca along the shorline. In all instances the Orca has let go immediately resulting in only minor injuries. I believe this happened in Alaska a recently as last year.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by MJM

Sorry. that is completely untrue. Although there have been no attacks on humans results in death, there have been multiple instances where people have been snapped up by an Orca along the shorline. In all instances the Orca has let go immediately resulting in only minor injuries. I believe this happened in Alaska a recently as last year.

I suppose you don't have a link for that? I would love to know if it is a significant sample size to make the statement that it is completely untrue. Humans probably also fight back more than seals, which could scare the whale... but I doubt there is any favouritism going on for why orcas don't attack humans all the time. It's probably just that most of the time, we are not easy prey.

I would be willing to bet that if you took 100 seals and 100 humans and put them on some random shoreline, and if you did it year after year, you would see similar number of attacks on humans and seals.... just a guess.

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by The Ditch

Eh, dogs have been domesticated for what, 15 000 years (wikipedia) and they can still be unpredictable/violent at times. You think you're going to take a wild animal out of the ocean and it will be gentle and predictable? This isn't shocking, kind of sad but what do you expect.

Reminds me of some article I read about the amount of people who die in the US each year from their pet Tigers, yes, pet Tigers.

What do tigers dream of, when they take a little tiger snooze?
Do they dream of mauling zebras, or Halle Berry in her Catwoman suit...

[Barnes]

Animals can't be bored?

I have a Rottweiler and a pile of shredded lino flooring to prove otherwise.

[Russic]

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Three pages and still no youtube? From what I gather, this all happened in front of a ton of spectators. No one knows how to upload video anymore?

There's a video leading up to the attack, but it doesn't show it. The story attached says she was pulled in by her hair, which was in a 'long ponytail.' I can only assume it's the blond girl. Sad.

http://www.wesh.com/video/22671481/index.html/

[MJM]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I suppose you don't have a link for that? I would love to know if it is a significant sample size to make the statement that it is completely untrue. Humans probably also fight back more than seals, which could scare the whale... but I doubt there is any favouritism going on for why orcas don't attack humans all the time. It's probably just that most of the time, we are not easy prey.

I would be willing to bet that if you took 100 seals and 100 humans and put them on some random shoreline, and if you did it year after year, you would see similar number of attacks on humans and seals.... just a guess.

Orcas are extremely intelligent creatures. They are an over-sized dolphin. A dolphin would have no problem attacking a human, or biting someone, but they don't. Would jumping in the ocean with a pod of Orca? be a good idea? Probably not, but these aren't sharks, they can clearly differentiate between their prey.

I don't have the time to go looking for articles (at work), but I know they are there. From my memory of what I read, there's only been about 12 attacks by orcas on humans in the wild. None being fatal. If your theory was correct, you could assume that there'd be atleast one fatal attack (Keep in mind seals can be as big or bigger than some humans)

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Jayems

There's a video leading up to the attack, but it doesn't show it. The story attached says she was pulled in by her hair, which was in a 'long ponytail.' I can only assume it's the blond girl. Sad.

http://www.wesh.com/video/22671481/index.html/

Yikes, that sucks.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

I'm sure the plethora of beheading videos should keep you satisfied until it gets uploaded.

Never seen one of those. Never will, either. Violence really isn't my thing.

I just wanted to know how something like this could have actually happened. I mean, was it like that chick who jumped in the water to swim around with the polar bears last year? Since she was a trainer, I assume it wasn't something like that... but it's not like these things happen every day. There had to have been something out of the ordinary that lead up to this.

Edit: Never mind. After watching the video linked above, it appears she actually was swimming around in the water with the thing. Seriously, people. It doesn't take a rocket surgery degree to realize that polar bears and killer whales are not appropriate swimming companions.

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Never seen one of those. Never will, either. Violence really isn't my thing.

I suppose... it sort of seemed like you were trying to find this on youtube to view the death yourself. You'll search out accidental deaths for viewing, but purposeful deaths don't do it for you? Sorry if I seem harsh, I just find it totally strange (gross) that people would go looking for the video. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

[TimSJ]

We were actually there yesterday and were at the Dining with Shamu where it happened. I was talking to the lady literally 10 minutes before this happened what a shame. My heart goes out to her family she was very friendly.

We had just left the area and headed to Shamu's happy Harbour for the kids to go on a couple of rides when all of a sudden they closed the park and ushered everyone out as the paramedics came in.

They said it was a gas leak initially we didn't know what happened until we go to the hotel later. Thank god we were out of the area before it happened. Not something my 2 and 4 year old kids needed to see.