SeaWorld Orlando on Monday announced the death of one of its last killer whales, Katina.
The 50-year-old orca had been at SeaWorld Orlando for nearly 40 years and was one of just five killer whales at the park, which halted its orca breeding program in 2016.
“Her health had begun to significantly decline as she entered her geriatric years,” a statement from the park reads. “Over the last several weeks, our animal care and medical teams have worked around the clock to closely monitor her declining health and as her condition worsened, the decision was made to prioritize her comfort and welfare.”
She was known for “her tendency to stick her tongue out and enjoying the ‘speed swim’ to create a cyclone of water,” SeaWorld said. She mothered seven calves while at the park.
Animal rights and anti-captivity organization PETA said in a statement Katina was removed from waters off the coast of Iceland in 1978. The group says she was one of just three remaining orcas at SeaWorld that were captured from the wild, and the 46th orca to die at the park.
SeaWorld Orlando this spring faced a fine after a September 2024 incident in which a trainer was injured while interacting with a killer whale, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration launched an investigation of the aquatic theme park that revealed the trainer was not properly protected while working with the whale, and that trainers were exposed to the “potential for bites, struck-by, and drowning hazards.”
That investigation followed the park’s most notable OSHA investigation in 2010 that took place after park trainer Dawn Brancheau died after being dragged into a water enclosure by male orca Tilikum, the park’s largest whale at the time, during a “Dine With Shamu” show.
Just four human deaths caused by captive orcas have been recorded — and three of those attacks were by Tilikum.
Tilikum was later the subject of a 2013 documentary film, Blackfish, which aimed to inform viewers about the controversy surrounding keeping orcas in captivity. After the film’s release, SeaWorld stopped allowing trainers in the water with animals and later announced in 2016 that it would end its orca breeding program.
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