Blackfish
1
Orange County Fire Rescue.
6600 Sea Harbor Drive.
SeaWorld Stadium.
Okay.
We actually have a trainer in the water
with one of our whales--
the whale that they're not supposed
to be in the water with.
Okay.
We'll get somebody en route.
Okay, through gate #3 to Shamu Stadium.
Gate 3.
Orange County Sheriff's Office.
We need SO to respond
for a dead person at SeaWorld.
Uh, a whale has eaten one of the trainers.
A whale ate one of the trainers?
That's correct.
Do you believe?
My parents first brought me to a SeaWorld park
when I was very young.
From that point forward, I was hooked.
It meant everything to me because
I'd never wanted anything more.
watching National Geographic specials
and seeing whales and seeing dolphins
and as a little kid
just being really incredibly inspired by it.
I never went to SeaWorld.
I grew up in New York,
so I went to the Bronx Zoo.
Grew up on a lake with horses.
We'd swim the horses.
I grew up around the ocean.
I came from the middle of the country
in flatland Kansas.
I'm from Virginia.
Traveled down, did the theme park thing
in Orlando when I was 17
and saw the night show at Shamu Stadium.
Very emotional, you know, popular music.
And I was just-- I was very driven
to want to do that.
Then I saw what the trainers did...
and I said,
"That's what I want to do."
One of the trainers there, he goes,
"What are you doing out there?
You should be a trainer."
I go, "I don't know how to train animals.
in my life."
How do you prepare yourself for an encounter
with an 8,000-pound Orcinus orca?
I always thought
you needed, like, a master's degree
in marine biology to be a trainer.
It takes years of study and experience
to meet the strict requirements necessary
to interact in the water with Shamu.
Come to find out, it really is more about
your personality and how good you can swim.
I went and tried out, got the job right away.
I'm like, "Yeah!"
So excited, you know.
I was so, so excited.
I really wanted to do the job.
I couldn't wait to get in the water
with the animals.
I really was proud of being a SeaWorld trainer.
You know, I thought this was
the most amazing job.
I showed up there on my first day,
not really knowing what to expect.
I was told to put on a wetsuit
and get in the water.
Hi, Mom!
Oh, I was scared out of my wits.
First of all, I put my wetsuit on backwards
because I was raised on a farm in Virginia.
- Hi, Dad!
- My first thought
and memory of that time
was that dolphins are a lot bigger...
...heh, than they look
when you get in the water next to them.
Well, I watched the Sea Lion & Otter Show,
and this guy, Mike Morocco,
with a dress on as Dorky,
the alter ego of Dorothy--
in a dress with a sea lion,
the Coward Sea Lion, right?
And he's walking along with this little basket,
and I go, "I will never,
ever do that."
You know?
Two months later...
Hi, I'm Dorky!
Walking out onstage with a sea lion.
I was overwhelmed and I was so excited.
I mean, just seeing a killer whale...
is breathtaking.
I was just in awe.
It's shocking to see how large they are
and how beautiful they are.
Being in the presence of the killer whales
was just inspiring and amazing,
and I remember seeing them for the first time,
just not being able to believe
how huge they were.
You're there because you want to train
killer whales and that's your goal.
Yay!
I didn't know it was going to happen,
so I wasn't expecting it.
And one day they say,
"Okay, Sam, you're ready to go."
Come on, you got it.
"You're going to stand on the whale.
You're going to dive off the whale.
The whale's going to swim under you
and pick you up again.
And then you're going to do
a perimeter ride around the pool."
Good!
Keep moving.
Ride him to the slide-out.
They just told me to go do it and I did it.
Wow, I did-- I just rode
a killer whale.
Yay, girly!
When you look into their eyes,
you know somebody is home.
Somebody's looking back.
You form a very personal relationship
with your animal.
There's something absolutely amazing
about working with an animal.
You are a team.
You build a relationship together.
You both understand the goal
and you help each other.
I've been with this whale
since I was 18 years old
and I've seen her have all four of her babies.
We've grown up together. Huh?
That's the joy I got out of it.
It's a relationship like I've never had.
Bro,
I have to know-- are you nervous?
I'm scared.
- Oh, no.
- Nice hair, Jeff.
Did you see anything?
Projection for the future of Jeff Ventre.
Jeff Ventre is going to go over there,
he's going to shine.
- You're going to notice...
- Dawn.
- Oh, that's Dawn.
- Wow.
He's going to be my supervisor one day.
There you go.
I knew Dawn when she was new.
She was a great person to work with
and she obviously blossomed
into one of SeaWorld's best trainers.
This is Dawn Brancheau.
Dawn is the senior trainer
here at Shamu Stadium.
I kind of knew Dawn in a past life.
It's a tough job, isn't it?
Yeah, we really do go through
a lot of physical exertion.
You can see in the show
we do a lot of deepwater work,
breath holds, very high-energy
behaviors with animals.
Obviously they're giving out
a lot of energy too,
but we're working together
and having a lot of fun as well.
She's beautiful, she's blonde,
she's athletic, she's friendly.
You know, everybody loves Dawn.
And I mean this so sincerely,
watching you perform yesterday--
you're amazing.
- Thank you.
- You really are.
She captured what it means
to be a SeaWorld trainer.
She had so much experience
that it made me realize
what happened to her
really could have happened to anyone.
This is Detective Revere
with the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
Today's date is February 24, 2010.
The time is 4:
16.In the room with me right now
- Is that correct?
- Correct.
- So the arm is nowhere...
- Right.
OSHA, on behalf of the federal government,
is basically suggesting that swimming with orcas
is inherently dangerous
and that you can't completely predict
the outcome when you enter the water
That's the crux of the OSHA case.
Stay out of proximity with the animals
and you won't get killed.
It will have a ripple effect
through the whole industry.
This was national headline news.
SeaWorld's whale performances
may never be the same.
Right now the theme park is arguing in court
to keep whale trainers in the water,
something OSHA says is extremely dangerous.
These are wild animals,
and they are unpredictable
because we don't speak whale.
We don't speak whale, we don't speak tiger,
we don't speak monkey.
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"Blackfish" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/blackfish_4221>.
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