Killer Whale Killers

In February 2010, a SeaWorld trainer was killed by a killer whale (Orcinus orca). The particular killer whale involved has been involved in three of the four human deaths attributed to killer whales in captivity. A second trainer had been killed just 9 weeks earlier by a SeaWorld killer whale on loan to a facility in the Canary Islands. As a result of the most recent incident, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited SeaWorld in August 2010 for a willful violation of the US Occupational Safety and Health Act, because of the potential and specific dangers the agency considered killer whales to pose to trainers. SeaWorld appealed the citation, which went to court in September/November 2011. In addition, the controversy over holding killer whales in captivity led the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife to hold an oversight hearing in April 2010.