OSHA Cites Sea World Following Trainer's Death- Former Safety Director Comes Forward With Allegations

On Monday, August 23rd, OSHA cited Sea World for three safety violations, including one willful violation, following the death of an animal trainer in February. The agency defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health. The willful citation, carrying a penalty of $70,000, was for exposing its employees to struck-by and drowning hazards when interacting with killer whales.

"All employers are obligated to assess potential risks to the safety and health of their employees and take actions to mitigate those risks," said Les Grove, OSHA's area director in Tampa, Fla. "In facilities that house wild animals, employers need to assess the animals under their care and to minimize human-animal interaction if there is no safe way to reliably predict animal behavior under all conditions."

The park's former safety director, Linda Simons, is alleging Sea World did not do enough to keep its employees safe from killer whale Tilikum, with officials telling trainers that anyone who got into a pool with him "would come out as a corpse (abcnews.com)." Simons was fired from her job at Sea World during the investigation into trainer Dawn Brancheau's death. She is now speaking out on what she calls questionable or even dangerous safety practices at the Florida park that could result in another tragedy.

Simons claims that while investigating policy she came across a poorly executing training exercise that had taken place just weeks before Tilikum's attack on Brancheau. According to Simons, many of the employees didn't respond at all during the training drill and of those who did many of them didn't follow protocol.

In addition to the history with this whale, the OSHA investigation revealed that SeaWorld trainers had an extensive history of unexpected and potentially dangerous incidents involving killer whales at its various facilities, including its location in Orlando. Despite this record, management failed to make meaningful changes to improve the safety of the work environment for its employees. OSHA's investigation revealed that Tilikum was one of three killer whales involved in the death of an animal trainer in 1991 at Sea Land of the Pacific in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. SeaWorld had forbidden trainers from swimming with this whale because of his dangerous past behavior, but allowed trainers to interact with the whale, including touching him, while the trainers were lying on the pool edge in shallow water.

According to the Washington Post, Sea World spokesman Fred Jacobs said the park will contest the citations. "SeaWorld disagrees with the unfounded allegations made by OSHA today," Jacobs said in a statement.

Along with its citations, OSHA proposes not allowing trainers to have physical contact with Tilikum, the killer whale involved in trainer Dawn Brancheau's death, unless protected by a barrier. OSHA's serious citation, carrying a $5,000 fine, is being issued for exposing employees to a fall hazard by failing to install a stairway railing system on the front side, left bridge of the "Believe" stage in Shamu Stadium. One other-than-serious violation has been issued for failing to equip outdoor electrical receptacles in Shamu Stadium with weatherproof enclosures.

Sources:
Osha.gov
De Nies, Yunji, and Sarah Netter. "Sea World WhistleBlower Alleges Dangerous Practices at Park Where Trainer Was Savagely Killed - ABC News." ABCNews.com. 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 24 Aug. 2010.
Press, Associated. "OSHA Fines SeaWorld $75,000 in Death of Trainer." WashingtonPost.com. Web. 24 Aug. 2010.