Disturbing truth behind 'video of trainer Jessica Radcliffe being savaged by orca'

A recent viral video was believed to show a marine park trainer named Jessica Radcliffe being fatally attacked by an orca, but it turns out it’s the product of AI. In fact, there is no credible source confirming a trainer named Jessica Radcliffe was ever attacked - or that she even exists.

The clip spread rapidly on TikTok and other social media outlets. It showed the 'fake' whale trainer being killed by an orca in front of a live audience during a whale show at Pacific Blue Marine Park, but it didn’t really happen. The entire ordeal was cooked up by artificial intelligence, with no news reports or official records showing Radcliffe ever existed.

According to the International Business Times, the hoax video was created using “fake voiceovers” and “unrelated footage”, while “borrowing elements from real incidents to appear believable”. 

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In the video, Radcliffe was said to have been killed during a performance with an orca then alternate versions of the footage claim the attack was triggered by menstrual blood. However, there’s no scientific or supporting evidence of this being a factor in shark or whale attacks.

The viral clip shows a blonde woman gripping the sides of an orca’s mouth before the whale dives below the surface with her. The video then cuts to showing the orca rising out of the water with what looks to be human remains in its mouth, as the water turns red.

It’s a jumpy, distorted clip with the stunned audience in the background often “glitching”, a tell-tale sign of AI.

IBT reported fact-checkers from outlets including Vocal Media “found no mention of Radcliffe in marine park employment records, public databases or legitimate news coverage”. It added: “Searches of official marine safety reports also returned no results.”

While it is deeply disturbing how easy it is for fake or AI videos to sweep social media so rapidly, this one may have been deemed more believable due to instances that have occurred in real life.

Over the years, SeaWorld and other marine parks have been plagued by controversies, with more people concerned about the ethics of keeping marine life in captivity.

Hit documentary film Blackfish covered some of the more serious events in which animals attacked their captors.

In 2010, SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed by an orca named Tilikum. The whale, who spent most of his life in a tank in Orlando, Florida, after being captured in Iceland in the 80s, was also involved in the deaths of Keltie Byrne in 1991, as well as Daniel P. Dukes in 1999.

In 2009, Spanish trainer Alexis Martínez was killed by SeaWorld-owned orca, Keto, at Loro Parque's Orca Ocean in the Canary Islands.

In the wild, there are no documented cases of orcas intentionally killing or seriously injuring humans as prey.

In a post on Reddit, one social media user queried why that might be. One person surmised: “Humans don’t have much body fat compared with a seal, which is what orcas really need. We are quite bony and don’t taste very good to whales or most sharks.

“Sometimes humans may get bitten as a ‘what is this?’ exploration from big sharks, but even if this kills the person their body is rarely eaten.”

They added: “We don’t taste good to most marine predators.”