Martinez was instructed to swim slowly to another pool while a colleague distracted Keto. However, Keto went straight for Martinez, slamming into him, forcing him underwater, and violently toying with his body. Eventually, other trainers managed to call Keto into a different pool so they could retrieve Martinez, who had suffered fatal injuries. Tragically, his death predated Dawn Brancheau’s fatal attack in SeaWorld by only a few months.
The Prior Orca Attack at Loro Parque
On 2007, 29-year-old German orca trainer Claudia Vollhardt was hospitalized after an attack from Tekoa the killer whale. Vollhardt was working at Loro Parque’s Orca Ocean, rehearsing a trick with Tekoa where the orca pushed her feet with its snout as they swam together. Instead, Tekoa slammed into the woman from beneath, grabbed her arm in its mouth, and pulled her underwater several times before freeing her. At the time, the Loro Parque spokeswoman called the incident an accident because “the whale did not bite her. If it had, she would have lost her arm.”
