by guest contributor Valerie Greene

I thought being a first responder when Dawn Brancheau was killed by Tilikum, SeaWorld’s star killer whale, was the craziest, most disturbing thing I’d ever experienced in my life. 

I was wrong. 

The last six months of life of another killer whale, Tokitae at the Miami Seaquarium, will haunt me forever. I’ve been asked by everyone from friends and colleagues to activists and journalists: “Why are you spending so much time fighting for that one whale?” 

I wasn’t quite sure at first, but as the pieces to the puzzle fell into place, my personal trauma resurfaced. I haven’t just been advocating for a whale. I’ve been advocating for necessary change to an industry that I was a part of. I’m advocating for the people who risk their lives every day to work with the whales. The marine mammal industry has never properly come to terms with the trauma and significance of the deaths of Dawn, here in the States, Keltie Byrne in Canada, and Alexis Martinez in Spain. No one else should get killed because of this industry. 

IMAGE courtesy Dawn Brancheau Foundation

The trauma of witnessing Dawn’s last moments took a long time to process because we weren’t properly allowed to think about what that day meant. That day was the true turning point when the industry changed forever. Overnight, the profession, the art, the expertise were altered and the consequences directly impacted the animals. We weren’t allowed to think about that impact. We had to do our jobs. 

The third dimension is terror

I knew I wanted to work with killer whales since the moment I saw them on a trip to Shamu Stadium in Orlando when I was a kid. I grew up in New Hampshire and going to SeaWorld wasn’t something that was practical or affordable, so my brother and I would pop in a VHS tape of the cult classic Jaws 3-D. 

Bess and Liz in JAWS 3-D. Courtesy Universal City Studios

The movie featured trainers doing waterwork with killer whales, with footage of SeaWorld’s real shows. SeaWorld’s chief engineer, Mike Brody, just can’t escape sharks following him wherever he goes, from New England down to Florida. There’s also the real-life trainer named Liz who plays herself in the movie. 

Fast forward to me becoming a SeaWorld animal trainer. I started out at Sea Lion and Otter Stadium and found out that Liz from Jaws 3-D still worked at the Orlando park. At Shamu Stadium. For my 22nd birthday, the training team gave me a Jaws 3-D poster, signed personally by Liz. 

There’s an expression “you should never meet your heroes” but that wasn’t the case with Liz. She was and is everything I thought a SeaWorld killer whale trainer would be. Brave, intuitive and a fierce advocate for the animals. She was one of my greatest teachers. 

PTSD

On June 21, 2023, a social media post consisting of a single line and a link brought back my past trauma. 

On that day, the Whale Sanctuary Project (WSP) wrote, “News has just emerged about an injury to a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando about a year ago.” They shared a news story about an incident at SeaWorld Orlando, where a killer whale bit a trainer and broke several bones.

In the comments, I saw people celebrating. “Good news,” they said. Others claimed it was “karma.” The WSP is an anti-captivity organization that claims to be working on a sanctuary for captive whales. In their webinars, they talk often about the death of Dawn Brancheau and other injuries of killer whale trainers without expressing empathy for the trainers themselves. As I scrolled through the post, I couldn’t help but see WSP’s sharing the article the way it did as a form of grandstanding. 

VIDEO: Whale Sanctuary Project

The trainer that WSP was bragging about getting injured was none other than my childhood idol, Liz, one of the longest-tenured, most experienced trainers in SeaWorld history. The injury happened while she was removing paint chips from Malia’s mouth out of an abundance of caution. Retrieving paint chips and other pool debris was something I did with frequency when I worked with SeaWorld’s killer whales in Orlando. The reason Liz had to go into Malia’s mouth in the first place was for the whale’s safety – so that Malia wouldn’t ingest a foreign object and get seriously ill or die. Liz is a hero and one hell of a trainer, and her bravery is not something that can be taught because it’s pure instinct. Yet, it’s still a complete miracle she made it out of the situation alive. 

Why would an organization, like WSP, which needs the help of trainers to manage animals at its sanctuaries deliberately promote a news piece about an injury to a trainer? I get it. WSP is trying to show how bad SeaWorld is by showing that their animals attack trainers. But do they think they’re exempt or infallible because they’re not “captivity?” I’ve got some bad news. If you need trainers to keep your animals alive and healthy within a confined space without the intention of wild release, you ARE captivity. 

The WSP and its sister organization Friends of Toki (FOT) have become the industry they claim to hate. The founders of WSP are profiting off of animals, yet have let both of North America’s lone killer whales, Kiska and Tokitae, die in concrete tanks, without accepting responsibility for their failures.

VIDEO: Whale Sanctuary Project

They’ve lacked the transparency that they’ve marketed to their stakeholders. WSP’s actions and omissions mirror those of the marine mammal park and aquarium operators, who like to deflect from negative publicity by pivoting to a different story: a sea pen in Washington, a new roller coaster. 

Even in the wake of Tokitae’s death, WSP is applying this strategy. They are shifting their attention immediately to other whales. WSP Founder and President Lori Marino, only two days before Toki’s remains were flown back to Washington, announced that she had set her sights on SeaWorld’s eighteen killer whales for her sanctuary in Nova Scotia. Does she really think SeaWorld is going to give her whales now? After the death of Toki, I wouldn’t trust WSP with a betta fish let alone a killer whale. 

When Regulatory Agents Fail 

In the news report shared by the WSP, they quoted a statement from SeaWorld: “Last summer, an orca gently and briefly closed its mouth on a trainer’s arm while the trainer was working to clean its mouth. The trainer received immediate treatment and recovered. As is required in these circumstances, the incident was reported to OSHA who investigated the matter and found no negligence or violations.” 

Indeed, the redacted OSHA report stated that no citations would be issued, since no specific OSHA standards applied. It’s a stark contrast to just thirteen years ago. When Dawn Brancheau was killed while doing “drywork” with Tilikum back in 2010, OSHA cited SeaWorld for exposing trainers to struck-by and drowning hazards when working with killer whales. They imposed a litany of safety measures on the company. But with Liz, hypocrisy raised its ugly head. OSHA failed to issue a citation to SeaWorld and the USDA failed to inspect Shamu Stadium and its reported peeling paint.

This is the same OSHA that would not respond to complaints about trainer safety with Toki (under Friends of Toki), and the same USDA that reported peeling paint, crumbling concrete and leaks in Toki’s tank, but then removed it from government oversight.

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

An unexpected result of this whole incident involves the OSHA report utilizing material on dental care taken from old SeaWorld manuals. One of the quotes could have ended on potential damage to teeth, but the portion OSHA included in the report went further:

“…Net pens are not acceptable to existing or newly planned aquariums because of the difficulty in underwater viewing. Another disadvantage of net enclosures is the danger of entanglement. Although this possibility is remote, it is something that would have to be considered carefully.” 

The result of this quote being in the report is that the inappropriateness of sea pens for killer whales is now part of the OSHA record. The Whale Sanctuary Project promises a net pen for their potential killer whales. 

Experts and not-so-experts

We are professionals and we are experts and we pick up on all the misdirected hate at trainers for the mistakes of the corporations. Hating our profession does not negate our experience with these animals. If you want our help, stop making us a target of hate. There will always be bad apples: trainers who aren’t doing what’s best for the animals, but that’s not the norm. The death of Toki came down to many things: management of the Miami Seaquarium under Palace Entertainment and The Dolphin Company, the arrangement made with the Jim Irsay-funded non-profit Friends of Toki, and the unethical actions by the USDA. 

As a proud SeaWorld alum, I naively thought SeaWorld would do something for Toki when I publicly called them out in the Miami Herald the day of the press conference announcement about her relocation. Oh SeaWorld. I loved you so much. I so wanted you to rescue Toki, but you failed. And she died in your backyard while you were right there to help, but refused.  SeaWorld stayed as silent during Toki’s debacle as they did about Blackfish. Well, SeaWorld, you should’ve engaged. You should have at least entertained the conversation. I hope Toki’s death ignites powerful change and forced evolution.

IMAGE: Facebook/Kyra Wadsworth

Sometimes working with animals means shit happens. The point is, if it could happen to a veteran like Liz, it could happen to anyone, including WSP and FOT’s trainers. That means it could have happened to their rookie trainer, who was somehow permitted to do killer whale waterwork with Toki as the whale was in decline. I’m not arguing that it wasn’t enriching for Toki to have waterwork in her life. I agree with WSP Executive Director Charles Vinick about waterwork being enriching for the whale, especially while she was kept in a decrepit toilet bowl. However, this rookie trainer did an aerial behavior in a condemned tank with a chronically ill whale. An aerial behavior is quite strenuous to the animal. This was another instance of poor planning and poor training protocols on behalf of Friends of Toki and Whale Sanctuary Project’s enrichment and training staff. 

While Seaquarium’s training program was, at the time, accredited by the International Marine Animal Trainers’ Association (IMATA), Friends of Toki’s was not. As such, Friends of Toki was allowing its trainers to work with animals with no federal animal welfare protections and no industry standard practices. 

Around a month before Toki’s death, Friends of Toki published a video designed to show off her health. Instead, we saw a Toki who was extremely reluctant to do a fast swim with the stretcher draped over the edge of the pool. Friends of Toki continually instructed a geriatric, sick animal, that had no shade and couldn’t see the bottom of her murky tank, to do a behavior that had repeatedly caused injury to her lower jaw in recent years.

The fact that the Whale Sanctuary Project and Friends of Toki are so blissfully unaware of their own blunders is indicative of the catastrophe to occur should they get their hands on another captive killer whale. Captive killer whales have a propensity to peel paint off the tanks, eat concrete, regurgitate their food and generally destroy things in their vicinity. 

The WSP’s proposed sanctuary is located in an area with fishing restrictions due to contamination. The area is filled with tailings from gold mining. Tailings are a by-product of the gold mining process of the late 1800s and early 1900s. They contain high concentrations of arsenic and mercury, two highly toxic compounds. Having these tailings in the sanctuary area with animals that frequently ingest things in their environment is a recipe for disaster. 

Evolution

SeaWorld and the rest of the marine mammal industry must evolve. The animals in their care need safer, better and more dynamic environments. They need to pay their trainers and animal care experts liveable wages. They need to take care of them when they get hurt on the job. For life. We put ourselves at risk for the company to make money. Yes, they make money off the animals, but they make it off of us too. 

There are good people in this world – both on the activism side and the industry side. We all love the animals. If there’s anything we could learn from Toki’s situation, it is that we have to find a way to all work together if we want the animals to have a chance. We all want the best feasible dynamic environments. We all want highly skilled and ethical people working with the animals and to properly compensate them for what they do. We all want both animals and humans to stay safe. We witnessed with Toki and Kiska, that we can’t rely on the government to protect them, we can’t rely on accrediting bodies, we certainly can’t rely on the Whale Sanctuary Project, Friends of Toki*, or The Dolphin Company. We can’t count on SeaWorld to save the day. And we have to beware of billionaires swooping in on their unicorns to fund it all. We need to count on ourselves. 

*Editor’s note. Lori Marino, Founder and President of The Whale Sanctuary Project, has argued that her group and Friends of Toki are two different entities. While this may be true on paper, the same could be argued about Sea World LLC (SeaWorld San Diego) and SeaWorld of Florida LLC (SeaWorld Orlando) being  two different corporations on paper, yet they share executive management. Just like WSP and FOT operate. This is yet another way WSP follows marine mammal park industry standards.