The 3 Most Terrifying Orca Attacks in History

On Christmas Eve 2009, Alexis Martinez was 29 years old and an orca trainer at Laurel Park Tenner Reef. Martinez had been working at Laurelo Park since 2004. He started training orcas, also known as Killer Whales, in 2006. He loved the job, but lately there had been some doubts on his mind.

 He couldn’t help but feel that the job had taken a toll on him, and frankly, he didn’t feel as safe in the water as he used to. Martinez had a nagging feeling that something was going to go horribly wrong. In retrospect, it wasn’t just a feeling that worried Martinez. In fact, as his girlfriend later revealed, the man was concerned about the animals behavior, particularly about Keo, one of the male orcas.

 Laurel Park had four orcas, Kido and Tikoa, two males, and Kana and Skyla, two females. Alexis Martinez worked closely with them. All four orcas were bred in captivity at SeaWorld Orlando in the United States before being flown to Lauro Park in Tenneref. But the orcas weren’t happy. They had no dominant female to lead their makeshift pod, as would be the norm for orcas in the wild.

 So they were stressed, caught in power games for social status and uncertain. With no one to follow, the orcas most likely felt confused and unsafe, making them skittish and aggressive. In the months before his tragic demise, Alexis documented the animals behavior in his journals, expressing his worry about their apparent frustration and aggressiveness toward each other.

 However, the animals concerning behavior didn’t emerge only in relation to each other. On September 2nd, 2009, Martinez wrote that one of the other trainers, Brian Roach, had a small incident with Keo. The man added that it was a very bad day for Keto. All was not well at Laurelo Park. Despite his concerns, Alexis Martinez continued working at the park, training the animals.

 There was a lot of work to be done. Christmas was approaching fast, and Alexis felt the stress and pressure of working on a new show for the special occasion. He was exhausted, but that was just the way things were. Martinez knew he had to be well-rested and relaxed in order to stay safe in the water with the killer whales, but that wasn’t always an option for him.

 Shortly before 10:30 a.m. on December 24th, 2009, Alexis Martinez started his usual training session with Kido. Keo was a 14-year-old male orca born and raised in SeaWorld all over the states before he was flown to Loro Park. With only a day separating them from the much anticipated Christmas show, Martinez knew he had to make sure everything would go smoothly.

 The session started well enough. Martinez was going to perform alongside another trainer. They ran through the morning practice session along with five other orca trainers. Keo, the male orca, was in a seemingly good mood, eager to perform and be rewarded with tasty fish. Despite this, the trainers were being very focused.

 They knew Keo was usually more interested in working alongside other orcas. He preferred it to performing alone in the pool. Before the session started, the trainers had each taken their designated places. Alexis Martinez joined Keo in the water. At first, Keo was well behaved and performed the way he was supposed to. He listened to the trainers and got his rewards.

 Then Martinez tried a behavior called a stand-on spy hop. In the stand-on spy hop, the trainer stands on the orca’s rostrm or the tip of its beak as the animal rises up and out of the water. It’s a dramatic, impressive move. Keo reached the proper height but came up in a twist which caused Alexis Martinez to lose his balance and fall off the rostrm into the water.

 The behavior was good, but not good enough. Martinez decided it wasn’t worthy of a reward, but it wasn’t worthy of a reprimand either. Instead, he issued a least reinforcing scenario, also known as an LRS. He made eye contact with Keo and then made a short pause, which meant that despite the fact that Keo had failed, he still had the opportunity for reinforcement if he remained calm.

Because Keo was calm, Alexis returned to the stage and rewarded the animal with a snowball of ice, a treat for the animal. Martinez attempted the spy hop again. It went the same way. Keo reached the proper height, but twisted again. Martinez fell off. The man issued an LRS again.

 Another trainer then called Keo over. The trainer fed the animals some fish, then sent it back to Alexis Martinez to continue the practice session. Martinez grabbed Keto’s rostrm with both hands to steer the whale underwater toward the stage. It was a normal movement, but that’s when things started going wrong for the trainer. Keo started to take Martinez deeper than needed or normal, closer and closer to the bottom of the 36- ft pool.

 The man let go of the whale and swam up to the surface in order to give the whale another LRS. This time though, the killer whale lost its calm. Instead of staying put, Keo positioned himself between Martinez and the stage. It was a defiant move, the first sign of the incoming aggression. Upon seeing this, Brian Roich acted quickly to diffuse the situation.

 He noticed that Keo didn’t look committed to remaining under control and that the animals eyes were a little wide. Roach told Martinez to slowly swim to the ramp leading to the other pools and get out. The movement was enough to get Keo’s attention and then Alexis Martinez’s fate was sealed.

 The orca began swimming furiously toward the 29year-old man. Once Keito reached Martinez, he grabbed the man’s leg and pulled him to the bottom of the pool. When Keo resurfaced to breathe, they believed he was finally obeying. But then the animal went back under the water to get to Martinez. Keo pushed Martinez around the pool and then resurfaced.

 The trainer’s body draped across his rostrm. Finally, the orca swam into the empty back pool. But when the trainers attempted to close the gate, Keo turned around and wedged his head between it to prevent it from closing. Another net had to be used in order to divert the orca from the gate. Finally, the attack was over, but Alexis Martinez didn’t resurface.

 Brian Roach jumped into the water and swam to the bottom of the pool to retrieve Martinez. Paramedics arrived and took over the efforts, but it was too late. Alex Martinez was gone. Martinez’s death wasn’t without controversy. Laurel Park claimed at first that his death was a result of an unfortunate accident, but many things didn’t add up.

 The attack had taken place at about 10:25 a.m., but Martinez wasn’t pronounced dead until 11:35. Plenty of time to get a story straight. And the initial reports made no mention of the blood pouring out of the man’s ears, nose, and eyes, a sign of massive internal bleeding. The blood would have been inconsistent with the SeaWorld and Laurel Park version of a simple drowning.

 The official autopsy shed more light, describing Alexis Martinez’s death as violent and listing his injuries as multiple cuts and bruises, the collapse of both lungs, fractures of the ribs and sternum, a lacerated liver, severely damaged vital organs, and puncture marks consistent with an orca’s teeth. Alexis Martinez’s death got almost no coverage.

 But two months later, another SeaWorld trainer, Don Brancho, was killed in front of thousands of spectators at the attraction in Orlando, Florida. Don Brancho made up her mind when she was 10 years old, back when she was still Dawn Terres, and her parents took her to SeaWorld in California. She’d known right then and there what she wanted to be when she grew up.

 Seeing Shamu, the world’s most famous orca, perform one of the routines at SeaWorld was enough to convince the little girl. She wanted to work with animals. Even better, she wanted to work with orcas, infamously known to the world as killer whales. There are no other animals like orcas, quite literally.

 While orcas belong to the oceanic dolphin family, they are also the only species in the genus Orcanness. They are among some of the most recognizable sea creatures with their sleek looking black and white patterned bodies and their dorsal fins. Despite their cute looks, make no mistake, they are apex predators. Unrivaled in their natural habitat, orcas feed on fish, seals, and other species of dolphins.

 They don’t normally see humans as prey, but this doesn’t mean our interaction with the species is as limited as it should be. Some populations of orcas are considered threatened or endangered due to marine mammal parks such as SeaWorld, among other things. And as Dawn Brancho’s story shows, it took a human tragedy for marine mammal parks to adjust their practices and their treatment of the spectacular creatures.

 The woman first spent two years working with dolphins at Six Flags in New Jersey. It wasn’t until 1994 that she began her career at SeaWorld Orlando where she started out as a trainer by working with otter and sea lions. 2 years later in 1996, Dawn married Scott Brancho and she started working with orcas.

 Her childhood dream was finally true. Don Brancho worked hard for her dream, even when she had it in the palm of her hand. She knew working with orcas was dangerous, though attacks in captivity are very rare. In order to maintain her safety, Brancho had to be fit. As a result, the trainer ran marathons, lifted weights, and cycled to stay in good shape.

 By the time she became a senior trainer, Brancho was already wellknown. She took part in multiple SeaWorld public performances, essentially becoming the face of SeaWorld. Billboards throughout Orlando showed Dawn Brancho performing with her beloved orcas. Her shows attracted the public like no others. The various stunts she would perform alongside the mighty animals delighted the young and the old alike.

 In 2010, Don Brancho was already established as one of the world’s most famous orca trainers. At 40 years old, Brancho was still as dedicated to her work as ever. Seeing the 5’1 woman getting massive orcas to obey her was impressive, and the public relished in her shows. One of the most popular shows offered by SeaWorld in 2010 was called Dining with Shamu. The concept was simple.

 Visitors enjoyed a meal while being entertained by an orca training performance. After the show, visitors could also go to the viewing area and snap some photos of the orcas. While the original Shamu had died in 1971, SeaWorld trademarked the name and used it for various shows. Even more, several of the park’s orcas have been given the name over the years.

 On the afternoon of February 24th, 2010, Dawn Brancho was set to perform a Dine with Shamu show. Her co-orker for the day was Tilum Shamu, a 27year-old male orca who weighed around 12,000 lb and measured 23 feet. Rancho had performed with Tilkum plenty of times before, and the two of them were quite close despite the orca’s past history of aggression towards humans.

 In 1991, when Tilkum was already 8 years into captivity, he and two other orcas drowned a trainer at Sealand of the Pacific in Vancouver. In 1991, he made another victim, a man who trespassed in SeaWorld after hours, was found dead, lying across Tillum’s back. But Brancho and the killer whale had developed what was called a close bond over the years.

 According to John Harrove, a senior trainer at SeaWorld, Tilkum had a great relationship with her and she had a great relationship with him. Even more, Tillum seemed to love Brancho and Brancho most certainly did love the whale. But it was all about to change on February 24th, 2010. The show went well at first.

 Takum was obedient, performing all the stunts the way he was supposed to. Rancho was not alone with the whale. The practice was for each trainer to have at least a spotter, a trainer who would ring an alarm and throw a rope or net into the tank if a trainer were to be attacked by a whale. On that Wednesday, Brancho worked alongside two spotters, Jan Topleski and Lynn Shaber.

 The show went well and soon enough it was over. After the stunts, Rancho usually had a bonding session with the orcas just before visitors could come and take pictures of the animals. And it was during the bonding session that it all went horribly, horribly wrong. The 40-year-old was interacting with the orca nose tonse. And then something happened.

 Something that terrified the audience. From where Jan Topleski was standing, it seemed like Don Brancho’s long hair floated on the water directly in Tilum’s mouth. Brancho struggled to free her hair from the orca’s mouth, but Tillum was known to be possessive. He disliked letting go of his toys.

 While Topleski and others saw the whale getting a hold of Brancho’s hair, other witnesses claimed the orca had actually grabbed the woman by the arm. No matter which one of these was correct, there was no doubt about what happened next. Tilkum pulled Brancho into the pool, submerging the woman underwater. They struggled for a bit.

 The orca swung the woman in his mouth. Seconds later, Brancho was seen trying to swim towards the surface. Tilkum retaliated. He struck Brancho, but the woman persisted. Once again, the orca struck Brancho. Then he immediately began swimming underwater with brancho in his mouth. The animal was agitated, swimming erratically.

 Staff tried to ask for control by slapping the water, but Takum seemed to have forgotten his training. Instead of obeying, he thrashed violently, becoming more and more agitated. Finally, 30 minutes later, after Tilkum had begun his attack, several SeaWorld employees were able to redirect the orca into a smaller pool.

 Tilkum still didn’t want to release Brancho’s now lifeless body. But this smaller pool was suited with a very useful addition, a hydraulic base. The bottom of the pool could be raised, which essentially beed the animal. Staff members then used a net to extract Dawn Brancho from Tokum’s mouth. Brancho had suffered horrible injuries.

 Her spinal cord had been severed in the attack and she had been scalped. Tilkum kept attempting to get Brancho’s body even after she was removed from the water. When her body was placed 5 ft away from the pool, Tilkum kept lifting himself above the pool wall as if he was trying to reach Brancho. Brancho died of drowning and traumatic injuries.

 Her death was ruled an accident. As a direct result of the tragedy, SeaWorld was faced with the need to change its protocol. SeaWorld trainers no longer entered a pool to perform a show following Brancho’s death. OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, fined the park in August 2010 for three safety violations, citing the company willfully put its staff at risk.

 SeaWorld filed a series of appeals in order to receive permission to return to Water Performances, but a special labor department commission declined to hear the case in 2012. In 2016, following public backlash, SeaWorld stopped breeding captive orcas. The company pledged to focus on conservation and rehabilitation of the orcas in their care. Orcas are not pets.

 They are not performers. They are wild animals that deserve their freedom. Was an orca. He was made famous by the documentary Blackfish, which details the life of captive orcas. It’s an incredibly sad and moving insight into the terrible conditions these magnificent animals are subjected to. Tillum was just 2 years old when he was ripped away from his family in the wild.

He was separated from his mother and towed behind a boat towards Canadian shores to begin a life in captivity. Once he arrived at Canada’s coastline, he was transferred into a tank at Sealand, Victoria, British Columbia. It was there in a tiny pool where he was made to perform mindless tricks in front of a fascinated crowd day in and day out.

 Orcas are thought to be one of the most intelligent animals on Earth. They have highly complex social interactions with other individuals, both within their pod and from outside it. Typically, wild orcas spend their entire lives with their mothers, and pods can be made up of four generations. They form friendships and lifelong bonds with each other.

 They help other individuals when they’re sick or injured, and they can display a range of emotions. Being held in captivity is one of the harshest forms of animal cruelty when it comes to orcas. Tilkum had no variation in his daily routine at Sealand. There was little or no mental stimulation for him. Not only that, but he was also placed in a pool with two older dominant females who would bully him.

 They rad him with their teeth, causing him to bleed. They bashed into him to assert their dominance, and inside such a small pool, there was nowhere for Tillum to go. It was the start of a life of misery for the young killer whale. Kilty Burn was a marine biology student who was enthusiastic and eager to learn. During her spare time, she worked at Canada’s Seal Lamp.

 It was a way for her to earn extra money to help fund her studies and was an environment in which she could put her learning into practice. Working with Tikom and the other orcas at Sealand was a rewarding and physically demanding job. Working as an animal trainer, Kelty knew the importance of building a rapport with the animals she worked with.

 Being assigned to train the orcas was an exciting opportunity, but she had no idea that her part-time job would one day cost her her life. That tragic day was February 20th, 1991. The enthusiastic 20-year-old had just finished a successful show with Tikum and the two females. The packed audience had lapped it up, marveling at the speed, agility, and power of the orcas as they performed in the pool in front of them.

 When the audience started to file out of the area at the end of the show, Kelty began tidying up. She walked around the edge of the water, scooping out the various toys and floating objects from the surface of the pool with a net. But suddenly, she slipped and fell into the water. She was a strong swimmer and went to pull herself out onto the side when she felt a sharp tug on her foot.

 She looked down and noticed that Tilicum had hold of her foot in his mouth. Kelty let out a panicked cry as the killer whale pulled her backwards and dragged her underwater. The three whales had never had anyone in their pool before. It wasn’t part of their routine. The only toys they had been allowed to play with were small plastic ones that they were commanded to push around the water to entertain the crowd.

 This was a new experience for them. It turned out to be a deadly experience. Beneath the surface, Kelty fought for air, but Tillum pulled her to the bottom of the pool and refused to let go. He tugged her along effortlessly. She was tiny in comparison to his huge frame. He could have ripped her to shreds then and there, but instead, he wanted to have some fun.

 Kelty’s lungs felt like they were going to burst. She could see the surface of the pool above her. It was so far away, she didn’t know if she could hold on much longer. But then momentarily, Tikcom released his grip on the young student and she swam to the surface. Gasping for air, she made a mad dash for the side of the pool. But the three orcas weren’t finished with her yet.

 They were excited by this new play thing in the water. They had never had anything in the pool before that was so interactive. They were fixated on Kelty as they pushed her around and bumped into her over and over. They bit down on her, causing her to cry out in pain. When Kelty was just feet from the safety of dry land, they grabbed her once more and pulled her backwards.

 Horrified onlookers heard her cry out, “I don’t want to die.” as she was dragged underwater again. Staff rushed to the pool. There wasn’t a specific safety protocol for this kind of event. It had never happened before, and trainers weren’t allowed in the water with the whales at that time. They threw fish into the water in an attempt to get them to release Kelty.

 They hit a bucket on the side of the pool and slapped the surface of the water to try to distract the orcas, but it didn’t work. They shouted their recall commands, but none of them responded. Fellow trainer Karen McGee threw a life ring toward Kelty as she resurfaced once again. Kely made a desperate grab for it, but the orcas kept her away.

 The youngster screamed out Karen’s name, begging her to help, but Tikum and the two females, Nutka and Haida, kept her from grabbing hold of the floating buoy. They knew what they were doing. They knew she was in distress, and still they kept dragging her underwater and pulling her around their pool like a play thing. She was at their mercy.

 With the orcas weighing in excess of six tons, the young competitive swimmer was no match for them as they tugged at her again and again. When Kelly resurfaced a third time, she no longer moved. To the shock of her colleagues, it was clear that she was dead, drowned by three captive orcas. She had been stripped of her clothes and floated on the surface covered in bites and bruises.

 She was the first person to be killed by a captive killer whale in history. It sent shock waves across the world. It took two more hours before staff at Sealand could retrieve Kelty’s body from the water. It was incredibly traumatic for staff and emergency responders to watch the orcas drag the body of their deceased colleague around the pool.

 But the orcas played tirelessly with her until eventually they released her and allowed staff to scoop her out with a huge net. She had drowned just feet from the edge of the pool and in front of her friends and colleagues who were powerless to help. It had been a terrible mistake, but it had been one that could have been avoided.

 Paul Spong, director of Orca Lab, who researches orcas, said that the incident was waiting to happen. If you pen a wild killer whale and deprive them of almost all mental and sensory stimulation, they are going to become psychologically damaged. The same can be said for humans treated in a similar way.

 Nobody could blame the whales for Kelty’s tragic death. The incident had been years in the making following a decade of mistreatment. Only a year later, Sealand closed down. It never recovered from the terrible death of Kelty and serious questions were raised about the ethics of keeping orcas in captivity. Tilkum, Nukea, and Haida were rehomed.

 Hilikum was transferred to Orlando SeaWorld where his captive conditions were significantly improved. But it was too late. The psychological damage had already been done to the now fully grown orca. And in time, he would strike again and again.