Palmer woman featured in new movie ‘Blackfish’

PALMER — Years after leaving the killer whale pools as a trainer at SeaWorld, Sam Berg is making a splash on the big screen.

As a 22-year-old animal science graduate, Berg was thrilled when she landed a job at SeaWorld as a killer whale trainer at the Shamu Stadium in Orlando.

“I was proud to be a trainer,” she said of the three and a half years she worked at SeaWorld.

Tuesday at the Palmer Lions Club meeting, Berg recalled the tragic death of Dawn Brancheau at SeaWorld in February 2010 and described how it led to her involvement in the 2013 documentary “Blackfish.”

“The moment I saw the photo of Dawn and heard what the company was saying I realized I was one of a few people in the world who knew SeaWorld was lying,” she said.

While SeaWorld described Brancheau’s death as a drowning, Berg said the autopsy report includes graphic details that tell a different story.

Instead of a straightforward drowning, Tilikum pulled the woman into the tank by her arm, ripping her arm off, and scalped her in the attack, Berg said.

“It was clearly an aggressive act,” she said.

Brancheau’s death was the third fatal incident in which Tilikum was involved since his capture off the coast of Iceland Nov. 9, 1983, when he was about 3 years old.

The 22.5-foot long, 12,000-pound bull also was involved in the deaths of Keltie Byrne on Feb. 21, 1991, and Daniel P. Dukes on July 6, 1999. Berg said there were incidents where other whales and dolphins caused injuries to trainers and park guests as well.

Said another way, of the four human fatalities caused by captive whales, only one did not involve Tilikum

As a result of Brancheau’s death, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiated an investigation into SeaWorld and ultimately filed a lawsuit against the $2.2 billion business.

During the trial, lots of information came to light through Freedom of Information Act requests, Berg said. And some of that behind-the-scenes footage at SeaWorld also is included in the movie.

“It’s kind of embarrassing to me now what I told the public about orcas,” Berg told the Palmer Lions.

Since leaving SeaWorld, she said she has learned a lot about orcas from the scientists who study them in the wild; like that the whales swim 80 to 100 miles a day.

“There is so much we can observe in the wild, there is no need to keep them in captivity,” Berg said.

The Palmer woman, who owns and operates Alaska Center for Acupuncture with her husband Kevin Meddleton, said she was interviewed by morning TV shows following Brancheau’s death, and later by writer Tim Zimmermann — and others — who penned a piece called “Killer In The Pool,” which published in Outside in July 2010.

It was that story and her own odd experience at SeaWorld with her children that inspired filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite to make the documentary.

Berg said she doesn’t see the film as an activist piece. She said her part in the film begins with her explaining that as a former SeaWorld trainer, the business wasn’t what she thought it was when she signed on as an animal-loving 22-year-old.

“What we thought this was is not what it really was,” Berg said.

She said her one disappointment with the film is it stops short of suggesting a course of action for humans to help whales.

After her Palmer Lions presentation, Berg answered audience questions, including one about why a whale that has killed three people is still alive.

“If it was a pit pull he wouldn’t be alive,” Berg replied.

But SeaWorld has a profit motive for keeping the leviathan alive, she said. The multi-billion dollar company takes in about 70 percent of its revenue from killer whales like Tilikum. More than that, she said this bull also is the primary male used for breeding at SeaWorld.

About 54 percent of whales in SeaWorld’s collection have Tilikum’s genes and several of those progeny already have attacked trainers, Berg said.

She said the fact that he is in poor health could be a factor in his behavior.

“He’s very sick and probably in a lot of pain,” Berg said.

Some whales held in captivity are healthy enough to be released back into the wild, though it would have to be done slowly while the animals relearn behaviors like how to eat live fish.

“Basically, they just don’t belong there and we can’t meet their needs,” Berg said.

Too small habitats, animals kept captive without companionship of their own kind for decades and wild animals removed from their family groups — or pods — are just some of the issues that are harmful to captive whales, Berg said.

That leads to a mortality rate in captivity that is 2.5 times greater than in the wild, she said.

She told the story of an orca named Lolita that has been in captivity at the Miami Seaquarium for 43 years, but is healthy enough she could rejoin her pod, which includes Lolita’s mom, grandmother and cousins, Berg said.

Since the film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 19, Berg also has traveled with the film to the Sarasota Film Festival, the Miami Film Festival, the Korean Green Film Festival in Seoul (where the film won the audience choice award), the Seattle Film Festival, The Telluride Mountain Film Festival and to the movie’s premieres in New York and Los Angeles.

At Sundance, the film was picked up for distribution by Magnolia Films for the U.S., CNN bought the TV rights, Dogwoof bought the United Kingdom and Europe rights and Madmen bought the Australia rights.

She said there is some buzz around the film about a possible Academy Award nomination, too.

In Alaska, see “Blackfish” Sept. 30 at the Beartooth Theater Pub in Anchorage and on CNN Oct. 24. Berg said she also is working to see if Magnolia Pictures will show the film in Wasilla.

For more information, visit blackfishmovie.com or bit.ly/13TWudw.

Contact Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.