www.esryle.comLOCAL NEWS ACROSS THE NATION
Posted on 07/27/2004 8:32:00 AM PDT by esryle
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- A popular whale performance at SeaWorld Adventure Park in San Antonio, Texas turned into a horror show this past Friday afternoon.
Thousands of stunned park visitors witnessed a Killer Whale attack a trainer during a sea show for several minutes - including Houston, Texas resident Justin Lecourias and his family.
"I told Crystal, I said something's wrong. This ain't right, something's going on and then it got real bad," Lecourias says.
Lecourias says the whale seemed out of control and none of the trainers could calm him down so he and his family braced themselves for the worst.
"The whale would come up and the guy would go under before he hit him so I guess it wouldn't hurt him that much and then one time he didn't come up for quite a period of time and that really freaked me out then," Lecourias explains. "I was videotaping and I told the kids to close their eyes, something was wrong and the whale was jumping and that's all he could do was take a bite out of the guy."
Trainers were eventually able to calm the whale but the show didn't go on.
"And I saw the other trainers out the corner of my eye and I looked down and they were slapping the water and blowing their whistles," says Lecourias. "The dude was coming out of the water and he was like, you know, exhausted, coming around, the trainers and everyone around him was going nuts."
SeaWorld officials cancelled "The Shamu Adventure" shows for the rest of the day.
The trainer amazingly was unhurt and says he's not sure what set the whale off. But the animal is near breeding age and that might have been the reason for the strange behavior.
Since the Friday incident they've returned to work, hoping to excite more visitors, but in less dramatic fashion.
FEED Willie.
Warning, horny teenage killer on the loose.
I suspect that if the whale wanted to kill him, it would have been over real quick.
I'm actually opposed to keeping killer whales and dolphins in captivity. They're highly intelligent animals and captivity must be torturous for them.
Whales saving themselves!
< /sarcasm>
The headline is a crock. If that whale had attacked him it would have used its teeth and the trainer would be dead.
I dated a whale trainer for Sea World for about six months. Those whales have very specific ways of letting the trainers know they aren't happy with them.
bump
Woops! Trainer Bob just got eaten by Shamu kids. It's natures way. Could someone get Trainer Tim over here and fish Trainer bob's head out of the tank?
When you broke up, did you say "So long and thanks for all the fish?" :)
Hence the name KILLER whale.
Not TAME, ZANY, SHOWMAN, LOVES CAPTIVITY whale.
If he was attacking the trainer there would have been a nice red cloud in the water.
The next to last sentence of the article suggests that the whale might have had something else in mind.
When you did what she wanted, did she reward you with tuna?
Is a Killer Whale and assault weapon now?
Left 'cause she had you jumping through hoops?
Which park, and what time period? We've become friends over the last few years with several of the trainers at Orlando.
The headline is a crock. If that whale had attacked him it would have used its teeth and the trainer would be dead.
If it were Tillikum, the biggest one in captivity, who is down at Orlando, the trainer would be GONE.
Several years ago there was a Darwin Award winner who hid out in the Orlando park till after closing (getting stoned in the bushes). He took off his clothes and climbed down into the tank with Tillikum in it. They found him the next morning, dead, on top of Tillikum's back, with the whale circling the tank keeping the guy up out of the water. Unfortunately he died of hypothermia (the tank water is 50 degrees). The whale is trained to support a swimmer in distress, but there wasn't anyone around to come help.
Those whales have very specific ways of letting the trainers know they aren't happy with them.
One of our friends had an incident like the one described in this article. She couldn't do water work for about 4 months. We were there one time when a funny one happened. The trainers put the whales on "time out" when they do something wrong. Well, the trainer missed the foothold on the flippers for a throw and the stunt didn't work. The whale promptly put the trainer on "time out." It was hilarious.
"Is a Killer Whale and assault weapon now?"
You'll have to pry my Killer Whale out of my cold dead hands...
Lol! You could say that.
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