Legal battle for trainers' family

SeaWorld Orlando and the family of trainer Dawn Brancheau who was drowned recently by one of the facility’s orcas are preparing for a legal battle to prevent video footage being made available to the public of the animal pulling her into its tank and drowning the trainer in front of park guests.

A spokesman for SeaWorld said the park has offered to assist the Brancheau family in any way they can, including helping them prevent the release of images. SeaWorld's own surveillance cameras were turned over to the Orange County Sheriff's Office as part of the agency's investigation into the accident. SeaWorld has acknowledged that its cameras recorded the event, although the park has declined to describe the footage in detail.

The Sheriff's Office investigation, which the agency calls a routine death investigation and not a criminal probe, could conclude at any time. Once that happens, the materials it has obtained would become subject to Florida's public-records laws. The Sheriff's Office has already received multiple requests for copies of the video. SeaWorld and Brancheau's family are thought to be readying a request for a court injunction to at least temporarily block the release. In addition to protecting the Brancheau’s family, SeaWorld no doubt has other reasons for wanting to keep the video footage from becoming public.

Presently SeaWorld is reconsidering whether to keep using Tilikum in performances and have decided not to make any decisions about its interactions with all of its killer whales until it has completed an internal review of training and safety policies. The company says it hopes to complete the review, which will also include input from representatives from outside marine parks and aquariums, sometime this month. Tilikum hasn’t appeared in any shows since the accident, at 12,000 pounds, he is the largest of the 26 killer whales in the company’s collection. SeaWorld has developed a series of safety protocols specifically for Tilikum, permitting only the company’s most experienced trainers to work with the whale. However, the company are not allowing trainers into the water with any of its orcas until the safety review is complete.