Tilikum

Besides Keiko, the next famous orca is Tilikum. Tilikum has been in the eye of the news media for several years now. Tilikum is still living at Sea World Orlando. He is the largest orca living in captivity. Just like Keiko, Tilikum has a collapsed dorsal fin. Not many orcas have the collapsed dorsal fin in the wild but lately there have been plenty in captivity. Tilikum is mainly focused in the documentary, Blackfish, but I will talk about that in another post. Tilikum has been involved with 3 deaths during his captivity. Although he has been involved with the deaths, Sea World will not return him to the wild.

Tilikum with 2 other female orcas performing at Sea Land.

A former trainer at Siylend Pacific province of British Columbia, Canada, Colin Baird, used to train Tilikum and that "he was very easy to work with." The accident when another trainer, Keltie Byrne, slipped and fell into the tank and the 3 orcas kept her from reaching the surface. Baird says it was and accident and that it was not the orcas fault. Baird does not blame Tilikum for the deaths. Baird understood how Tilikum was and would leave him alone if he had to.

"They have personalities, for the lack of a better word, individual personalities, and they have good days and bad days just as we do," Baird said. "There were some days, Tilikum would have a certain look in his eye -- then I would just say, 'Nope, not getting in the water with him today.' "

Colin Baird with Tilikum during his time at Sea Land.

Baird moved on to Keiko and helping him return to the wild. Baird grew attached to Keiko and took it hard when he learned of Keiko's passing. Keiko was the last orca that Baird trained. The news of Tilikum would continue with the next 2 deaths at Sea World. Baird worries for Tilikum everday and wonders what will happen to him.

 "I felt badly for Tilikum, and wondered what his coming days were going be like in terms of, was he going to be secluded off to some pool just used for stud?" Baird said. 

Sea World was interviewed about how they are keeping things straight. The interview makes it sound like Sea World is perfect and things are improving. Others say that Sea World is keeping Tilikum just for breeding. I would have to believe that as well. Since the death of Sea World trainer, Dawn Brancheau, Sea World only uses Tilikum at the end of the show. He is not trained by any other trainer.

Dawn Brancheau and Tilikum before her death at Sea World.

Tilikum is a great animal just like any other orca and they need to be returned back to the sea. As far as I know, there should not be anything wrong with Tilikum and Sea World says that they are there to rehabilitate and help sea animals, but obviously they like the orcas too much to let them go.

Free Willy

This is Keiko in the wild.

I am sure that besides learning about Orcas from Sea World, the only other way is from watching the Free Willy movies. That is how I became interested in orcas. Yes people, Willy was a real orca, but Willy was just his acting name. His real name is Keiko. There are 3 movies with Keiko and the last film uses a different orca but I really just want to focus on the movies that star Keiko. The actor,
Jason James Richter who plays Jesse in the movies, will always thank Keiko for this opportunity. He was not afraid when he was will Keiko. He states, "I remember it being one of those moments of pure and utter fascination as a child..." This is how I felt and still feel to this day. Although Richter does not do much acting now, he still remembers his time with Keiko.

The 1^st movie, Free Willy, is about Willy living in captivity. He lives in a dolphin tank and will not listen to any of his trainers. The only one that Willy accepts is a troublesome young kid named Jesse. They relate because they feel they are alone. Those two learn to figure out what to do with Willy along with Jesse’s friends and new family. This movie has a great example of how Sea World is using the orcas in the tanks. My opinion is that the tanks should be bigger and only used to rehabilitate the orcas and returned to the wild. I hope people will watch this movie and understand that you can feel what the orcas need and not just some sideshow attraction.

The first Free Willy movie came out in 1992.

This movie came out in 1995.

The 2^nd movie, Free Willy 2: the Adventure Home, is all about family. Willy is free and reunited with his pod. You learn that he has a brother and a sister. I know this may sound a little “girly” of me but I relate because I too have a brother and sister (note: at the time I watched this movie I did have a brother and sister, now I have 3 more sisters). I am all about family which I am sure you are as well. This movie overcomes family issues and what happens in an oil spill. Oil spills not only hurt the waters, but the land and animals. When watching, you will see the oil company plans to use the trapped orcas and sell them to marine parks. This kind of gives you an idea as to what companies will do for money. The orcas were not harmed during the movie. 

This movie came out in 1997.

The 3^rd movie, Free Willy: the Rescue, is about poaching. Even though there is poaching on land there is also poaching on the sea. Jesse returns and becomes friends with a whaler’s son named Max. Jesse uses this to his advantage in order to learn the poachers. Max does not want to be like his father, who is one of the hunters, because Max like whales. The lessons learned in the film are father/son relationships, poaching is never aloud, and when you believe something is wrong you need to do something about it.

Although the acting may not be that great like if you were using Brad Pitt or Emma Stone but you learn so much. These movies are great for kids and hope they learn to value life. The final movie finally helps set Keiko free. Keiko was released to the wild after many dilemmas. More info on Keiko will be discussed later. Michael Jackson also helped with singing songs for the movies. The Free Willy-Keiko Foundation was founded in order to help free Keiko and hopes to do the same for other orcas.

Documentary The Whale

You learned some facts about the orcas from last time. When you see orcas in the news, you see that they are very dangerous, and you should not be around them. What you don't know is that most of the problems came from Sea World issues. You hear that orcas have killed trainers over time, but what the media does not mention is that there is no record of orcas attacking humans in the wild. In an article, Why Killer Whales Don’t Eat People: Where Science and Legend Meet, it discusses a little bit about why orcas do not attack humans in the wild. In Sea World, the orcas do not simply attack humans for food but when your in a "bathtub" for most of your life, you tend to get a little crazy and that is how the orcas feel.

A great example of an orca not attacking humans in the wild is the documentary, The Whale. The orca that is in the video was just a young orca. The orca was a male named Luna and it was separated from its pod. Normally orcas are very social and must stay with their families especially if they are young. There are different types of orcas and Luna was known as a Resident orca which meant they only eat fish. Luna surprising lived about 4 years with the people of Nootka Sound. They interacted with him by petting him, and even talking to him. Although he was never reunited with his pod, Luna made a family with the town. The people and Luna played together and sometimes it seemed that Luna even helped out with some of the logger workers. Luna would even let the people pet his tongue! How incredible is that. Humans and orcas side by side and not in a contained "bathtub." There was no issues besides what other people had ideas for.

As time went on, some people that really did not welcome Luna became very concerned for his safety and thought it would be best to not interact with him because Luna might hurt himself with one of the boats. Yes, some people started to believe that same idea but orcas cannot live without socialization. Luna would try his best to meet people and those people knew it was hard to push him away.

Sea World started to get involved and claimed that they would return Luna to his family but the natives of the land decided to make their own plans. They had a calling that told them that Sea World should not take Luna. After much planning and having Luna stay away from Sea World, the towns people were able to keep Luna away from Sea World but then charges would come about. Up to 1,000 dollars of fines if people would interact with Luna. It was heartbreaking for people and Luna. Eventually, there were only few people who would interact with Luna only to make sure he was safe from accidentally hurting himself. The documentary is great for all ages which teaches us that not only do we need to respect the wild life but to know that our species can be safe with each other. It is a great emotional experience and it tells of a wonderful life this young orca had without the life in a "bathtub."

Just the Facts

When you think of some kind of sea animal what do you think of? I think of Killer Whales or another name Orcas (Orcinus orca). They are in fact not whale but dolphins, the largest in the family. Since I was a kid, I have always loved Orcas. They are black and white hence the name Sea Panda. They have white bellies and black on top. They also have white spots just above their eyes. I used to think the white spots were their eyes but that is not the case. They may look mean and scary but that is just how they are suppose to look like for when they hunt. They are very big. They can be as long a school bus and weigh up to 6 tons!


Orcas are very family oriented. there has been research that a baby will stay with its mother for all its life. They have been known to be in a family with at least 40 other killer whales. These group of Orcas are called Pods. The pods use effective skills in order to get food. They work together and communicate with each other. Each pod has its own specific language. Some other researches shows that one pod near Japan can completely different that say a pod on the West Coast of the United States.

My idea of the Orcas has changed now that I am not that young, naive girl I once was. I do NOT want to see them in Sea World or in any kind of captivity. They belong in the ocean, wild and free. I hope to someday that the Orcas will be free and not for some kind of entertainment.