"If you're going to train killer whales, it's a given that you're going
to get wet," says Tracy Karmuza at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. She worked with
Keiko, the killer whale featured in the hit movie Free Willy.
Karmuza trained Keiko to eat live fish. Keiko was poorly treated in a Mexican
aquarium for 19 years until he was moved to Oregon in 1996. Eventually
the Free Willy Keiko Foundation relocated Keiko to a new ocean pen located
near Iceland. Keiko had always eaten frozen fish provided by the aquarium,
but had to develop a taste for live fish to prepare him for his new home.
"We taught him to catch live fish," explains Karmuza. "We had to train
him to have this skill. Since live fish are wrigglers and slimier than frozen,
he was not used to eating them. We started off with feeding him fresh dead
fish, then stunned fish that don't wriggle as much, then gradually built [up]
to live salmon. We blew a signal to him to let him know he was doing well."
Killer whales usually only eat fish. Trainer Anne Kent says their name
is really a misnomer. "The whales were observed killing other whales and were
first called whale killers. The name got reversed to killer whale. But they
don't prey on humans." The familiar black and white markings of a killer whale
are camouflage. The black on top blends in with the dark ocean, and the white
on the bottom blends in with the sunlit surface waters seen from the depths.
Dave Elliot loves the relationship he's developed with the killer whales
at Marineland. "It's so fantastic when you jump in the water and the whale
meets you, without signaling or prompting. They'll roll over and barrel for
you, which means they're enjoying themselves. They wouldn't do that with other
sea mammals because it leaves them in a vulnerable position."
Elliot spends a lot of his time training the whales for the public. "We'll
do play sessions as part of training. We'll do hide-and-seek, where the whales
try to find me or just play with the hose, which the whales love!
"Training mostly involves positive reinforcement. We reward the animals
who respond positively to us or to the other animals. If a dominant whale
has a toy and then shares it, we blow a whistle which is 100 percent positive
behavior reinforcement. If the whale displays negative behavior or is non-responsive,
there's no punishment. We just don't reinforce anything. It's called least
reinforcing stimulus or LRS, and lasts for three seconds. We'll try again
and if the whale doesn't respond again, we'll just further reinforce the LRS.
It works well and the whales learn without punishment.
"I've been doing this for 20 years. We try to develop more complicated
routines, like aerial training, to keep the whales stimulated as well as ourselves.
It's very rewarding. The public, especially kids, are so fascinated by the
whales. They have a ton of questions -- where do they come from? How many
teeth do they have? I think you can learn more in an aquarium than in the
wild. We can study how a mother whale nurses her young, how often, which side
she uses."
Kent enjoys her job, except for the physical routine of hauling heavy buckets.
"Also, working outside when it's wet and cold isn't much fun. But it's really
a great job. I'm really lucky."
The toughest part of the job for Karmuza are training sessions that don't
go well. "It's very frustrating. But most of the time the whales respond,
and I'm walking on air. The first time Keiko came up to me on his own, I was
overwhelmed, completely overwhelmed. It took almost a month for him to come
to me for a scratch."
Helping animals is the main mandate of Karmuza's aquarium. "Our foundation
is unique in what it's trying to do. It's the first time anyone's attempted
to release a killer whale in 19 years. Keiko was brought here only for rehabilitation.
Our message might be a cliche, but I believe it: We take so much from the
ocean, it's time to give something back."