Tilikum (1981-2017)

Possibly one of the most famous orcas in recent history, Tilikum was the star of the CNN documentary Blackfish and the subject of the books Death at Seaworld and Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish.

Tilikum was captured off the coast of Iceland in 1983, at approximately two years old. After his capture, he lived for nearly a year at Hafnarfjördur Marine Zoo. Then, he was moved to Sealand of the Pacific, an aquarium in Canada, with two female orcas.

After a series of trainer deaths, Sealand of the Pacific closed, and Tilikum was purchased by SeaWorld and moved to SeaWorld Orlando. There, he was used in shows and for SeaWorld’s breeding program. Brutal trainer deaths by captive orcas (including Tilkum) continued, but the company argued in the US Court of Appeals that “contact with killer whales is essential to the product offered by SeaWorld.”

As a transient orca, Tilikum would have naturally been aggressive to establish territorial boundaries when his pod traveled and to hunt a wide variety of large prey. Life in captivity cannot in any way replicate the needs of an animal who spends their days swimming and diving hundreds of miles while interacting with their pods and catching prey. The psychological suffering of captivity likely contributed to Tilikum’s aggression.

Tilikum died from a bacterial lung infection on January 6, 2017, after months of battling illnesses. He suffered in captivity for 33 years, but many of his descendants still live and perform for crowds at SeaWorld parks.

World Animal Protection urges everyone who is moved by Tilikum’s story never to visit amusement parks where wild animals are kept captive and forced to perform for entertainment. Protect marine animals by supporting the SWIMS Act, which would phase out the exploitation of orcas, beluga whales, pilot whales, and false killer whales by making it illegal to capture and breed these animals for public display.