shamu s true potential. we see it each and every day. that s why all our interactions are very carefully thought out. especially our waterwork interaction. whoa! [ applause ] you big, dork. especially our waterwork interactions because they re potentially the most dangerous. i ve been expecting it since the second person was killed. i ve been expecting somebody to be killed by tilikum. i m surprised it took as long as it did. first tonight, a six ton killer whale has lived up to his name killing an experienced trainer at seaworld orlando today. a tourist at an earlier show said the whale seemed agitated. trainers complained the whales weren t operating. the whole show, the main show was a disaster that day. there were whales chasing
you get in the water next to them. well, i watched this sea lion and otter show and this guy mike moracco, he comes out during the show with a dress on as dorky in a dress with the sea lion, the coward sea lion and walking along with a basket. i thought i will never ever do that, you know. two months later, hi, i m dorky. walking out on stage with the 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, you know, in the presence of the killer whales was just inspiring and amazing
sequences went off great. i was really excited just to be capturing this because it was kind of turning out to be a great show. a show that s kind of complete, it doesn t it probably only only happens a few times a week. at the very end of the show, liz was working tilikum and apparently tilikum lunged out of the water at her. and i had captured tilikum coming out of the water kind of turning sideways and appeared to me to try to grab liz, and at that moment, the tape became unusable. i was just kind of basically instructed to get rid of the tape. wanting to kind of preserve the tape, i actually used the editing equipment and snipped out that little half second or second when he did that and stitched it back together so it just kind of looked like a glitch in the tape. and i was like look at this. and they said no, this is no longer usable. so we had to destroy the tape.
what i found odd at first was the way they were acting around this whale and what they told us seemed to be two different things. the first day he arrived, i remember one of the senior trainers at seaworld, tilikum was in a pool and she was walking over a gate and she had her wet suit unzipped tied around her waist and making cooing noises and going hey, tilikum. what a cute whale and play talking at him and one of the supervisors said get her out of there, and just screamed at her like get her away from there. like they were so worried something would happen and i remember thinking, why are you guys making such a big deal out of this when he didn t actually kill her? well, clearly management thought there was some reason to exercise caution around him. clearly, they knew more than they were telling us. ladies and gentlemen, the next to be seen you can only see right here at seaworld. jeff was out in the audience filming one of the shamu shows. it was a perfect show. all the hot do
i thought you needed 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 and got the job right away. i was, like, yeah. i was so excited. you know? so, so excited. i really wanted to be there. 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. i thought, this was the most amazing swrob. 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. i was scared out of my whits. first of all, i put my wet suit on backwards because i was raised on a farm in virginia. my first thought and memory of that time was that dolphins are a lot bigger than they look when you get in the water next to them. wel