0 >> the man is hiding behind the woman. that poor woman was left fending for herself. very funny. i'm don lemon in new york. thanks for watching. cnn films, "blackfish" begins right now. orange county fire rescue? >> 6600 sea harbor drive, sea world stadium. >> okay. >> we actually have a trainer in the water with one of our whales, the whale they aren't supposed to be in the water with. >> okay. we'll get somebody in route. >> gate number three sea world stadium. >> gate three. >> orange county sheriff's office. >> we need a respond to a dead person at sea world. a whale ate one of the trainers. >> a whale ate one of the trainers? >> that's correct. ♪ do you believe? >> my parents first brought me to a sea world park when i was very young. from that point forward, i was hooked. it meant everything to me because, you know, i never wanted anything more. >> i remember, you know, being probably in first or second grade watching national geographic specials or specials and seeing whales and dolphins and as a little kid, just being really incredibly inspired to it. i never went to sea world. i grew up in new york so i went to the bronx zoo. >> grew up on a lake with horses, swim the horses. >> i grew up around the ocean. >> i came from the middle of the country in flat land kansas. >> from virginia traveled down, did the theme park thing in orlando when i was 17. and saw the night show at shamu stadium, very emotional, you know, popular music. and i was driven to want to do that. >> and i saw what the trainers did. and i said "that's what i want to do." >> one of the trainers there, he goes "what are you doing out there?" you should be a trainer. i said "i don't know how to train animals." i've never trained animals in my life. >> how do you prepare yourself with an encounter with an 8,000 pound orca. >> i thought you needed a masters degree in marine biology to be a trainer. >> it takes years of study and experience to make 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 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 sea world trainer. i thought this was the most amazing job. >> i showed up there on my first day not really knowing what to expect. i was told to put on a wet suit 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. >> well, i watched this show and this guy mike moracco, he comes out during the show with a dress on, as dorothy in a dress with the sea lion, the coward sea lyon and walking along with a basket and go i will never ever do that, you know. two months later, hi, i'm dorothy. walking out on stage with the sea lion. >> i was overwhelmed and i was so excited. i mean, just seeing a killer whale is breathe taking. >> 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 and i remember seeing them for the first time, not just being able to believe how huge they were. you're there because you want to train killer whales and that's your goal. i didn't know it was going to happen, so i wasn't expecting it and one day they say okay, sam, you're ready to go. you're going to stand on the whale, you're going to dive off the whale. the whale will swim under you and pick you up again and you'll do a perimeter ride around the pool. they just told me to go do it and i did it. wow, i did -- i just rode a killer whale. >> when you look into their eyes, you know somebody is home. somebody is looking back. you form a very personal relationship with your animal. >> there is something absolutely amazing about working with an animal. you are a team. and you build a relationship together, and you both understand the goal, and you help each other. >> i've been with this whale since i was 18 years old. i've seen her have all four babies. we've grown up together. >> that's the joy i got out of it is a relationship like i never had. >> i have to know, are you nervous? >> i'm scared. >> no. >> nice hair, jeff. [ laughter ] >> jeff ventre will go over there. >> don -- >> that's dawn. >> wow. >> i knew dawn when she was new. she was a great person to work with and she obviously blossomed into sea world's best trainers. this is dawn brancheau, the senior trainer here. >> i guess you can say i knew dawn in a past life. >> it's a tough job, isn't it? >> we do go through a lot of physical exertion. you do a lot of deep water work, breath holds, high-energy behaviors with the animals. they are giving out energy, too, but we're working together and having fun. >> she's beautiful, blonde, athletic, friendly, everybody loves dawn. >> i mean this so sincerely, watching you perform yesterday, you are amazing. >> thank you. >> you really are. >> she captured what it means to be a sea world trainer. she had so much experience that it made me realize what happened to her really could have happened to anyone. >> this is detective rivera with the orange county sheriff's office. today's date is february 24, 2010. the time is 4:16. in the room with me is thomas george tobin, is that correct? >> correct. >> did you see any blood in the water or anything like that? >> that's part of it. she was scalped and there was no blood. >> okay. >> so pretty much we knew then the heart wasn't beating. >> once they were able to pull her away, how did he let go? >> he didn't. >> he never let go of the -- >> of the arm. >> he swallowed it. >> so the arm is nowhere -- >> right. >> on behalf of the federal government, he is basically suggesting that swimming with orcas is dangerous and you can't predict the outcome when you enter the water or their environment. >> the crux of the case, stay out of the proximity of the animals and you won't get killed. >> it will have a ripple effect through the industry. this was national news. >> sea world whale performances may never be the same. >> right now the theme park is arguing in court to keep the whale trainers in the water. it's something osha says is dangerous. >> these are wild animals and unpredictable because we don't speak whale. we don't spring whale, tiger, a we don't speak monkey. >> tempers flared when osha's attorneys suggested sea world only made changes after dawn brancheau's death. outraged the public. >> osha doesn't want the trainers going back in the water without a physical barrier between them and the whales. >> being in close proximity to the predators is dangerous. >> they won't get on the water, riding, things like that? >> if you were in a bathtub for 25 years, don't you think you would get a little irritated, aggravated, maybe a little psychotic? >> the situation with dawn brancheau didn't just happen. it's not a singular event. you have to go back over 20 years to understand this. >> it was a really exciting thing to do until everybody wanted to do it. >> what were they telling you you were going to do? >> capture orcas. >> they had aircraft, spotters, speedboats, they had bombs they were throwing in the water. they were lighting their bombs with a settling torches and their boats and throwing them as fast as they could to heard the whales into codes. but the orcas had been caught before, and they knew what was going on, and they knew their young ones would be taken from them so the adults without young went east into a cul-de-sac and the boats followed them thinking they were all going that way while the mothers with babies went north but the capture teams had aircraft, and they have to come up for air eventually, and when they did the capture teams alerted the boats and said no, they are going north, the ones with babies so the speedboats caught them there and herded them in. >> and then they had fishing boats with same nets that would stretch across so none could leave, and then they could just pick out the young ones. >> we were only after the little ones, and the little ones, you know, big animal still, but i was told because of shipping costs, that's why we only take the little ones. >> they had the young ones that they wanted in the corrals, so they dropped the same nets and all the others could have left but they stayed. >> they were trying to get the young orca in the stretcher and the whole family is out here 25 yards away maybe in a big line communicating back and forth. well, you understand then what you're doing, you know. i lost it. i mean, i just started crying. i didn't stop working, but i, you know, just couldn't handle it. just like kidnapping a little kid away from a mother. everybody is watching, what can you do? but the worst thing i could think of, you know, i can't think of any worse than that. you know, this really sounds bad but when the whole hunt was over, there were three dead whales in the net, and so they had peter and brian and i cut the whales open, fill them with rocks and put anchors on the tail and sink them. well, really, i didn't even think about it being illegal at that point. i thought it was a p.r. thing. >> they were finally ejected from the state of washington by a court order in 1976. it was sea world by name that was told do not come back to washington to capture whales. without missing a beat, they went from washington to iceland and began capturing there. >> part of revolution and two change of presidents in central and south america and seen some things that it's hard to believe, but this is the worst thing that i've ever done is hunt that whale. ooh, homemade soup!