Early reports indicate that Sea World employees were aware that a man had been seen around the whale pools frequently in recent days. Sea World and all marine parks should have security officers posted around the whale pools while the park is closed to prevent this kind of tragedy. He was in the pool that held Sea World Orlando's only male orca of breeding age. The whale, Tillicum, weighs 11,000 pounds and was transferred to Sea World from a park in Canada after a trainer there was killed by Tillicum and two other orcas.
Orcas are highly intelligent animals with a complicated social structure.
They are also large, strong, wild animals. Putting orcas in captivity creates an environment in which boredom is often the norm, and a reaction to a novel 'object' in the tank is to be expected. This important safety message is not communicated to Sea World's audiences, who are told that the animals are friendly and enjoy being around humans. This man obviously believed what he heard at Sea World. You may recall the dedicated investments of time and money to move the 20 year old bull from a small tank in Mexico City to a large salt-water tank in Oregon, and then to a sea pen in Iceland.