Sea World & That Black Fish.

Tilikum is now a household name, a name which interestingly translates as ‘friend’ in Chinook. The households that I know do not know Tilikum as a friend – but is that his fault?

Tilikum is a bull Orca who was captured in 1983, just off the coast of Iceland where he was kept in a small pen whilst awaiting transport to the first of his many ‘forever’-homes. Tilikum currently resides in Sea World, Orlando, FL but he has also lived in Sea Land of British Columbia (which has since closed, but we’ll come to that).

(I do not own anything. Image owned by Blackfish/Gabriela Cowperthwaite, All Rightful Owners)

Whilst in captivity, in his various locations, Tilikum has fathered 21 calves, only 11 of which are known to be alive today – to give you an idea of his size, Tilikum weighs 12,000 pounds which equals 5,400kg. As well as the many whale-calves, Tilikum is also responsible for three deaths; one trainer in Sea Land BC, one trainer in Sea World Orlando FL and one man who trespassed into his pool. Over 50% of Sea Worlds ownership of Orca share genes with father Tilikum – because apparently, breeding an animal known for specifically violent tendancies and then putting those offspring in a pool with humans is a good idea.

Were the deaths Tilikum’s fault? It’s not actually that easy a question to answer.

Technically, yes. Yes, Tilikum killed three people.

In 1991, Tilikum’s first victim was a marine biology student, and part time trainer at Sea Land in British Columbia; Keltie Byrne. Keltie was twenty when she slipped into the pool, working as Tilikum’s trainer. All  three orcas in the pool pulled Keltie to the bottom and held her submerged. Some people say that the whales were experimenting – playing- unbeknownst to a human’s breath hold capacity and that Keltie Byrne’s death was purely an accident. The whales to blame for Keltie’s death were; Haida, Nootka and Tilikum. Haida and Nootka are both female, and were pregnant at the time of the attack which no one knew.

After Sea Land suffered massive financial problems due to Keltie’s death, they closed and put Tilikum up for sale like they were having a car boot sale of all their old junk. Sea World Orlando bought Tilikum, as they knew the biggest male whale in captivity would be worth their money.

When Sea World bought Tilikum, they chose not to inform their staff and their trainers to the full extent of Tilikum’s involvement in Keltie’s death – does this explain why they were all so willing to climb into the water with him? Did Sea World purposefully ignore Tilikum’s violent history, endangering the safety of their staff, to continue to put on a show and draw customers in?
It looks like it.

Tilikum killed again in 2009. Daniel P. Dukes was found dead, draped across Tilikum’s back as Tilikum swam up and down the pool – parading the body. Dukes had visited Sea World during the day of the attack, but then he proceeded to take it upon himself to stay after closing time and invade the Orca pools by trespassing, having evaded security. Although Dukes’ official cause of death is drowning, according to the autopsy numerous wounds, contusions and abrasions were found on the body. There were also parts of Dukes’ body found at the bottom of the Orca pool.
Despite what some people may say, the autopsy also reports that Daniel P. Dukes was not intoxicated in any way at the time of his death.

Just one year later, tragedy struck Sea World within their family.

Veteran trainer, Dawn Brancheau who had trained with Tilikum for many years was killed. After a scheduled ‘Dine With Shamu’ show at the Sea World Orlando Orca Pool, Dawn was massaging Tilikum as part of the normal post-show routine. Tilikum then grabbed Dawn from the platform where she laid next to him, and dragged her into the pool.
Sea World says that Dawn Brancheau was dragged into the water by her pony tail – which apparently was deemed inappropriate whale-wear for trainers.
Many witnesses however, and video evidence suggests that Dawn was dragged into the water by her arm. There’s talk over whether there was fish involved as Tilikum was rewarded for a good show with food, maybe he mistook her pony tail for a fish, maybe something else happened. Dawn Brancheau’s official cause of death was drowning and blunt force trauma.
Tilikum tore Brancheau’s scalp off and macerated before swallowing her arm.

Tilikum is not the only badly behaved orca in captivity – the documentary Blackfish also mentioned the Ken Peters incident in 2006. Katsaka is another captive whale at Sea World, she weighs 5,000 pounds, and she stunned audiences by dragging trainer Ken Peters down to the bottom of the pool and back again, by one foot. Katsaka mauls and breaks both of Ken’s feet submerging him over and over again before letting him surface for a few minutes only to be taken down again. Ken Peters was luckily a trained Scuba Diver, so he knew how to hold his breath and how to breathe once he’d returned to the surface – maybe it was this training that let him get away with his life. Trainers Dawn and Keltie were not so lucky.

In Sea World of San Diego, an incident put down to ‘trainer error’ and ‘timing issue’ involved an Orca launching up and slamming its full body weight down onto a trainer called John. Training staff featured in Blackfish tell audiences that nothing held that trainers body together aside from his wetsuit. Amazingly, John survived but lives with a body full of metal hardware to remind him of the risks he took and the injuries he sustained.

Another trainer tells a story of an Orca called Orchid who dragged a trainer off the side of the pool arena. The female trainer got away with just a compound fracture in her arm.

After Dawn’s death in February of 2010, that August saw Sea World fined with $75,000 by OSHA for three safety violations – two of which directly related to Dawn Brancheau’s death. A year later; a year of isolation for Tilikum, he was reintroduced to the Sea World regime and from 2012 he has performed in shows full-time, as if nothing ever happened. 

Sea World has their own records of over 100 ‘unanticipated’ incidents where killer whales (including Tilikum) have bitten, rammed, lunged at, pulled, pinned and swam aggressively with Sea World trainers.
And yet, Sea World still want OSHA to overturn the law that now says there must be a barrier between whales and trainers.

Still, we return to the question of blame – is it Tilikum’s fault?

When Tilikum arrived at Sea World in 1992, he was bullied profusely and attacked viciously by Katina and other whales. This was not new for Tilikum. In the pool he was kept in, in Sea Land British Columbia, Tilikum was the bottom of the Orca hierarchy under the two dominant females; Haida and Nootka. They behaved aggressively toward him and forced him to live in a separate, smaller pool in isolation.

The constant attacking and bullying that Tilikum was subject to was because in the wild, Orca live in a very matriarchal society, being the only male in the tank with two females he was always going to suffer the full brunt of the shunning. In British Columbia, Tilikum had learned that if he did not perform a trick correctly, there would be a withholding of food from not only him but also the two female whales. Haida and Nootka would bite and rake Tilikum down the whole length of his body – there is footage in Blackfish of Tilikum perched on the platform that Dawn Brancheau would later lay on before being killed, with a giant laceration on his side – the blood gushed and the trainers let him go back into the tank with the attackers. 

Then, of course, there is the Dorsal Fin issue.
Sea World states that a large percentage of all Orca have a bent Dorsal Fin. In actuality, Tilikum had a collapsed fin due to stress. Bent Dorsal Fins are the sign of an unhealthy Orca which is why a large percentage of captive Orcas have bent fins – very few in the wild.

Further research after watching Blackfish a number of times poses many questions – why doesn’t EVERY pool in Sea World have the ability to raise the floors, which could have saved all of the victims mentioned above? Why did it take more than one death for people to realise that you can’t play with Whales like you can a puppy or a kitten? Why are people so hell bent on fishing animals out of the wild and forcing them to live concurrently with humans?  Why do people think this is okay, or that’s it’s done and dealt with because Blackfish came out?

Sea World are still fighting the new rules about barriers between whales and trainers – they want their trainers back in the water. How have they not learned it’s not safe to go back in the water?

I can’t cover everything every mentioned about Tilikum/Blackfish, but in my opinion, if you want an eye opening expose on what happens to captive whales – watch Blackfish, do a little of your own research and read the rebuttals of Blackfish claims on the Sea World website
 I was living with my head in the sand.

The Murder of Sophie Lancaster (The S.O.P.H.I.E Foundation)

With a story of such magnitude, it’s best to start with the facts, I think.
Sophie Lancaster was attacked and killed in the UK, 2007. You might have seen her story on the news or floating around the internet. She was with her boyfriend Robert Maltby, when the two were attacked by a number of young males whilst they were walking through Stubbeylee Park in Rossendale, Lancashire.

Sophie and Robert both suffered severe head injuries sustained by their attackers stamping on their heads. Sophie is said to have cradled Robert Maltby while the men beat her and ‘jumped up and down on her head’. Police said that both Sophie and Robert had been so brutally attacked that when they arrived on the scene, Police could not tell who was male and who was female. Robert Maltby fell into a lengthy coma and eventually woke up with lasting brain damage. Sophie, however, fell into a coma which unfortunately she never woke up from. On 24th August, 2007 Sophie Lancaster’s family agreed to turn off the life support after hospital staff and medical professionals agreed that she would never regain consciousness.

What was the reason behind the attack? Sophie & Robert were ‘moshers’; Sophie and her boyfriend dressed alternatively which caused five young men to take it upon themselves to attack the two.
The attackers celebrated their crime after, telling their friends they had done something to rid the world of an abomination by “doing something good.” They told their friends; “there’s two moshers up Bacup Park – you wanna see them – they’re a right mess.” Thankfully, there were two teenagers who were also in the park and they stayed with Sophie and Robert after calling an ambulance and attempted to tend to the wounds. Sadly, it wasn’t good enough to repair the damage that had been caused. Brendan Harris, The Hulme Brothers; Joseph and Danny, Daniel Mallett and Ryan Herbert were all charged with Sophie Lancaster’s murder and in 2008 they all appealed their sentences. Due to his honesty, being that Ryan Herbert’s was the sole ‘guilty’ plea, his was the only appeal granted. His minimum sentence was reduced from sixteen years and three months to fifteen years and six months.

Still, after the darkness there is light. Sophie Lancaster’s Mother Sylvia founded The S.O.P.H.I.E Lancaster Foundation which stands for; Stamping Out Prejudice Hate & Intolerance Everywhere.

“Since her death in August 2007, following the horrific attack on her and her partner Rob in Stubbeylee Park, Bacup, Lancashire, we have had lots of kind offers of support and donations. Sophie and Rob dressed in their own unique way, expressing their individuality as creative artistic people. After consulting friends and family, we felt a charity should be set up in Sophie’s name. The charity known as the Sophie Lancaster Foundation will focus on creating respect for and understanding subcultures in our communities.” – Sylvia Lancaster.

It saddens me to know that I didn’t learn of Sophie’s story until this year when I saw a S.O.P.H.I.E wristband on a co-worker and asked what it was in aid of. Illamasqua is a high-end make up brand specialising in ‘make up for your alter ego’ which makes the S.O.P.H.I.E cause a perfect beneficiary for their fundraising; Illamasqua have designed four items which bear the S.O.P.H.I.E logo – the Sophie Smoky Eye Set (£50), the Medium Pencil in S.O.P.H.I.E (£5.20), Powder Blush in S.O.P.H.I.E (£21.50) and the Eye Colour Pencil in S.O.P.H.I.E (£15.00). £3.00 of every Illamasqua with Sophie product bought goes to The Sophie Lancaster Foundation and online there’s the option to simply paypal a donation of a pound from the Illamasqua website to the Foundation. Illamasqua sell the S.O.P.H.I.E wristbands as does the original Sophie Lancaster Foundation store, which you can find here.
 It’s not just Illamasqua that has taken a role in raising awareness and funds for the cause; The ‘Sophie Award’ is given at the Bacup Film Festival for innovative and experimental film making. In January of 2009, Bloodstock Open Air Concert renamed the second stage ‘The Sophie Lancaster Stage’ and in June 2014 came the biggest honour of all – Sophie’s mother, Sylvia Lancaster was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for community cohesion, especially in the reduction of hate crime.

 I’m completely shocked that something of such aggressive nature happened to a couple who were being nothing but themselves. It makes me sad that there are people out there who can’t understand that differentiation between people is good, and individual and unique. Causes like this, don’t make me want to fall in line, they make me want to be more alternative if anything. However, I am glad that the alternative sub-culture, has risen to support one of their own. I’m not too sure how I feel about the term ‘sub-culture’ – I feel like it makes people who dress more alternatively than others sound like something in a petri dish? Anyway...

 After rambling a lot, the point of this post was to raise awareness and to express my shock that the attack even happened in the first place.
If you want to learn more about The S.O.P.H.I.E Foundation, you can follow them online here:
 Hopefully they wont mind that I've borrowed a picture from the Illamasqua website.
Sophie_Charity (Twitter)
Sophie Lancaster Foundation. (Official Website)