A distressing video capturing the unimaginable assault on Spanish orca trainer Alexis Martinez has unsettled many viewers.
The 28-year-old individual had been engaged in work with orcas at Loro Parque’s Orca Ocean located in the Canary Islands.
Alexis Martinez was killed by the orca named Keto during a Christmas show rehearsal on December 24, 2009.
He tragically died two months before an orca attacked and killed Dawn Brancheau, a trainer of 14 years.
Estefanía Luis Rodriguez, the partner of Alexis Martinez, revealed in the aftermath of the tragedy that her partner had voiced concerns in the weeks leading up to his fatal encounter with Keto. According to Rodriguez, Martinez had observed a troubling shift in the behavior of the killer whales. He noted that they were becoming increasingly disobedient, erratic, and, most alarmingly, aggressive—traits that seemed to signal an escalating danger.
Keto, the 6,600-pound male orca responsible for the attack, was born in captivity in 1995 at a SeaWorld park. He had never known the vastness of the ocean, confined instead to a life in captivity. At the time of Martinez’s death, Keto had been transferred on loan to Loro Parque, an amusement park in Spain, where he would tragically turn on his trainer.
The tragedy happened when Martinez tried to perform a stand-on spy hop where the trainer balanced on the killer whale as he rose out of the water.
But Keto leaned on one side, and according to another trainer, the orca seemed to have deliberately positioned himself between his trainer and the stage.
Martinez had been instructed to ease his movements and transition calmly into another pool, following protocols designed to maintain trust with the whales. Meanwhile, other trainers deployed standard cues and controls—methods that had proven reliable countless times before. But this time, Keto, the killer whale, defied every command. In a chilling act of aggression, he drove his rostrum—the rigid, pointed front of his snout—into Martinez, pinning him beneath the water, where he proceeded to thrash and manhandle the trainer’s body with alarming force.
Eventually, the team wrested back control of the situation, recovering Martinez’s lifeless form from the depths. But it was far too late. The damage inflicted was catastrophic—internal bleeding, devastating trauma. The injuries proved fatal.
The autopsy report was grim in its conclusion: Alexis Martinez, the orca trainer, perished from massive trauma inflicted by the animal. The findings detailed multiple crushed bones, ruptured organs, and distinct bite wounds left by the orca’s powerful jaws.
In the wake of this tragedy, SeaWorld responded by temporarily halting all in-water activities involving whales across three of its marine parks—a stark and sobering pause in an industry built on the edge of spectacle and risk.
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