Tilikum Downfall

This is the story of a young orca whale named Tilikum, One of the largest orcas at SeaWorld, He weighs 12,500 pounds and is about 22 feet in length. 33 years ago on November 1983 a 2 year old orca was captured in Iceland where he was named Tilikum and was approximately 13 feet long; Torn away from family and put in a cement holding tank in a Marine Zoo in Iceland the poor calf would swim in small circles and float aimlessly on the surface. Tilikum later on was transferred to SeaLand in Canada where he had to share a tank with two female orcas (Haida and Nootak) who were regularly injuring Tilikum. He was forced to do shows 8 times a day, 7 days a week; The stress and exhaustion gave him stomach Ulcers. A trainer named Keltie Byrne fell

Keltie was the first to be killed by Tilikum's stress and frustration. After Byrne death they closed down SeaLand and put Tilikum for sale. SeaWorld purchased him for their breeding program. The 54% of the Orcas at SeaWorld have Tilikums DNA. After 25 years at SeaWorld Tilikum started to show an abnormal and repetitive behavior where he would chew on metal gates and on the concrete sides of the tanks which has caused his teeth to warn down. The stress of being in captivity has also caused him to be aggressive towards humans and because of that there have been 3 death: One being Keltie Byrne in 1991, the second attack was to Daniel P. Dukes in 1999 and the most resent one the death of Dawn Brancheau in 2010. In my opinion the death of Dawn has been the most famous in SeaWorld because there is more information about her death than the others and also is the most recent death at SeaWorld. According to the documentary "BlackFish" Dawn died when Tilikum grabbed a hold of her upper arm and pulling her underwater while he was doing that he dismembered her and broke most of her bone then he

Tilikum has been reported to be seen floating in the water's surface for hours something that it's not normal in the wild. After a year in isolation they retuned Tilikum to perform. Aggression towards humans is rarely seen in the wild but why is it that the orcas in SeaWorld are aggressive toward the trainer? They live in cramped tiny pools and are forced to live with other orcas that are not related to them this makes them stressful and that why they are aggressive toward humans and sometimes each other. Besides Tilikum recently on September 20th, 2015 on of San Diegos Orcas named "Nakai" hit his face with a portion of the pool during show time despite the whales injury they kept the show running. Later on they found a piece of his chin at the bottom of the pool. Another thing that I noticed is that SeaWorld has lied to us and there are also some interesting thing we did not know about SeaWorld; For starters When the orcas get sunburn they cover it with Black Zinc Oxide, Some of SeaWorld orcas where kidnapped but the once that were not captured they were killed, The trainers at SeaWorld are not biologist but performers, The Orcas in captivity don't live has long as they are supposed to and the collapse dorsal fin is not normal. SeaWorld say they prioritize there