San Diego

A group of animal-rights activists is expected to demonstrate today in front of Sea World to protest the death of Kandu, a 14-year-old killer whale who bled to death after a confrontation with another whale.

Robert Melvin, spokesman for an ad hoc group called Friends of Whales, said the protesters will sponsor an “educational picket line” so that the public “can understand what is going on” at Sea World. Melvin said he expects about 50 protesters, who belong to animal rights groups, to picket from 10 a.m. to noon.

“It’s very likely that the close confinement they are in contributed to Kandu’s death. . . . They’re put in a glorified fish bowl. Orcas have a well-structured society, and when you take them out of that society and put them in another, everything is distorted. It’s like you are living in a closet for the rest of your life,” said Melvin.

Sea World officials said that Kandu, who weighed 4,600 pounds, suffered fatal hemorrhaging in the nasal passages after colliding with Corky, a 7,000-pound female. The impact fractured Kandu’s upper jaw and brought about the massive bleeding.