The documentary on Sea World’s near forty year history of holding orca whales captive will air on Thursday night at 9/8c on CNN.

Tilikum

The New York Times reports that the documentary will use the backdrop of the 2010 death of senior trainer at Sea World Orlando,  Dawn Brancheau. Brancheau was killed when Tilikum, a 12,000-pound bull orca, grabbed her as they interacted in shallow water and dragged her into a deep pool, mutilating and drowning her. This was the third death that Tilikum had been implicated in since being captive in 1991.

Jane Velez-Mitchell suggested afterward in a CNN panel discussion, “If you were in a bathtub for 25 years, don’t you think you’d get a little irritated, aggravated, maybe a little psychotic?” Sea World explained the acts of Tilikum like that of a small child who just wanted to horseplay and was not acting aggressive or violent.

Debates about the treatment of orcas, from the way they are captured, usually by whalers who will snatch orca calves, to the confines in which the whales are held in marine parks have raged for near four-decades. Former trainer turned critic, John Jett, told The New York Times,  “When you look into their eyes, you know somebody is home, somebody’s looking back.”

The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has listed the capture of these whales for marine parks as the number two reason, under commercial hunting, for the depletion and endangerment of orca whales. However this practice remains legal.