PRELIMINARY REPORT RE: Killer Whale Incident at Sea World Orlando Prepared by Laurie J. Gage, DVM, Dipl. ACZM USDA APHIS Animal Care I accompanied Dr. Greg Gaj and IES Investigator? on a site visit/preliminary investigation to Sea World Orlando on February 26, 2010 in response to the death of a marine mammal trainer on Wednesday February 24, 2010. We interviewed the marine mammal curator, Bill Hughes, and the VP of Veterinary Services, Dr. Chris Dold. We asked about the sequence of events leading to the death of the trainer, how the emergency was handled, the recent behavior of the killer whale, and the medical history of the whale ?Tilly? over the past 7 months. We con?rmed that the incident was caused by an adult male killer whale called ?Tilly? who has been housed at the park in Orlando since 1992. We were told there was a regular killer whale show that started at about noon, that did not include Tilly. Tilly was housed in the back pool (pool and was used for the ?Lunch with the Whale? show that day. There are tables for patrons to eat lunch near the back pool and listen to a trainer give an in-depth talk about the whales. This pool is out of view from the rest of the public. The main show had just ended as had the lunch show. As the patrons left the lunch show, they exited to a viewing window below pool #7 to see an underwater demonstration with Tilly. The lunch show had three trainers that presented the whale. One trainer, Dawn, was in charge of working the whale, one back-up trainer (the ?spotter?), and one announcer who was also a trainer. Once the lunch patrons went to the lower window, the spotter trainer went below to join the guests and to target the whale to the underwater window for some photographs. The announcer then became the ?Spotter? up top, but was standing in the rocky area across from the lunch area. - . Figure 1 Shallow area of Pool #7 Announcer at location of the red arrow. The primary trainer, Dawn, was some distance from the announcer/Spotter and was playing with/ entertaining the whale. She was lying down in the water in the shallow haul-out area to the right of the scale (Figure 1 at The witnesses stated that her long hair was ?oating in the pool and the whale grabbed her hair. Dawn tried but was unable to pull her hair back from the whale?s grasp and was pulled into the pool. The whale pushed her and grabbed her (presumably by the waist) and took her underwater. The announcer/spotter deployed the emergency alarm syste (Figure .- I . Location scale Figure 2 Location of Emergency Alarm Box, trainer was laying in shallow area just to the right of this photo Figure 3 View of Announcer and emergency box area (red arrow), shallow slide out area where trainer went into the water (green arrow), and location of the underwater windows (purple arrow). Nets were put into the water in an attempt to control the whale but they could not get him to release Dawn. Bill Hughes was on scene within 5 10 minutes of hearing the emergency call, and told us he could tell that Dawn was no longer alive by the time he got to the pool. They were able to net Tilly into the adjacent medical pool but that pool did not have a false bottom, and they could not get the whale to release the body. They then used nets to direct Tilly into med pool and were able to raise the false bottom in that pool and ?nally got him to release the body. We viewed the medical records of the whale. He had recently been treated with antibiotics and anti?mgal drugs since about Feb 11 because his bloodwork indicated an in?ammatory issue, and his white blood cell count had been somewhat elevated at that time. Blood had been drawn on Monday Feb 22, and indicated he was improving. One antibiotic had been discontinued after the Sunday treatment, but he continues to be maintained on a second antibiotic and an antifungal drug. Blood was drawn again Thursday Feb 25. The whale had appeared somewhat lethargic last week but was much improved by Sunday February 21. We observed the whale while we were on site, and he seemed bright and alert. I reviewed the bloodwork and the medical records and feel from those documents and the appearance of the whale, that whatever was wrong last week was indeed improving. The bloodwork indicated an in?ammatory problem, and Dr. Dold said the treatment was precautionary. This whale had a similar issue last October that was treated and fully resolved. It is unknown where the in?ammation was but they had ruled out the teeth using a therrnography unit, but were suspicious of the respiratory tract based on history of 1 5.3.35 After careful re?ection I have several questions that would help me to form a ?nal conclusion. The announcer/trainer was key in this incident. I would like to know how much trainer experience that person had because it appears that he/she was the only person available to control the situation when it happened. I have a few questions about the moments a?er Tilly grabbed Dawn's hair. What did the announcer/trainer do as soon as they saw this happen? Did they use the recall tone/pipes immediately to recall the whale? - Did they go to the alarm system and how do they deploy the emergency alarm system? Do they make a phone call or hit a button? This is important because if the alarm system requires the person in that area to make a phone call, then that person can not participate in helping the victim for the moments it takes to make the phone call. Even if they have to run back and hit a button, I think seconds make a difference in an emergency like this. The only person available to help Dawn had to make a critical decision. If that person were an experienced trainer who knew this whale, I think they may have chosen to immediately try to control the situation by using a recall device or otherwise distract the whale. I think a less- experienced person would have opted to go to the phone/button and deploy the emergency system. The way their system is Set up ndw, it is impossible for the announcer/trainer to do both the emergency button/phone deployment AND provide immediate help or assistance to the victim I think the only chance Dawn had in this situation was to have an experienced trainer immediately available to try to control the whale, or to try to assist her by grabbing her to ensure she did NOT end up in the pool with this whale. Once she was in the pool with this whale, 1 think the situation was probably hopelessly out of control and I don't know that anything could have changed the outcome. The other problem I see with this situation is that if had Dawn been squatting or standing up, rather than laying down on that shallow area ledge, she might have had a better chance at controlling the situation. Laying in the water on that shallow shelf gave her virtually no control over the animal if he chose to misbehave and made it easy for her to slip into the pool. And she didn't have her back up person standing there to assist. I think any time they work with a dangerous animal, regardless of how well trained it is, there should be an experienced back up (spotter) whose only job is to get the situation under control by using methods the animals are preconditioned to respond to, such as the recall pipes/sound. Someone else with less experience could be the one who deploys the emergency system. (swear-?? trainer had, and how that person responded to this emergency, I can make a better evaluation of this incident and where the inherent weaknesses were. It appears that there were safety protocols in place and the safety procedures were followed. It seems to be a very unfortunate accident. I do not get the impression this incident started as an aggressive act by the whale towards its trainer but rather an animal that became possessive over the trainer after she entered the water. I feel we should evaluate Sea World?s new emergency contingency plans and their killer whale handling protocols once they have been updated. 4 .T r?me-?YI - I . krill/ruin: