Killer Whale Attacks SeaWorld Trainer During Performance

WFTV ^

[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.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

"FEED Willie."

LOL
FREE Willie oil.

[freedumb2003]

Hmmmm,wonder if this chick is related to the whale?

I love the smell of scorched troll-whale meat in the morning!

Sarah17 in repose?

[Modernman]

such a little smart mouth! You won't last long here little missy.

Not to scare you or anything, but I'm guessing your mother probably said the same thing to you at one point :-)

[cyborg]

Yeah you're right :o)

[TMSuchman]

Do I smell a ZOT in the wind?


do we send out a warning order to the Freeper Arty BN?

[cyborg]

She's went to her crying room already.

[Rebelbase]

"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."

I would think living in a fishbowl might have someting to do with it.

[martin_fierro]

grow up loser

OK, NOW what have you done?

[Phsstpok]

ah callow youth

ignorant of the written word

even berift of knowledge of made for tv cartoons

google e e cummings archie and mehitabel etc

there are no new ideas including refusing to use punctuation or capitalization

spelling is still helpful

however

[Tijeras_Slim]

Nothing out of the ordinary. :)

[U S Army EOD]

I once had a friend who took his girl friend to a costume/square dance at a dude ranch. They were dressed up as a cow with him in front and her in back. They took a short cut across a field and were acosted by a very large Brahma bull who seemed quite aggressive. At first he told his girlfriend to be very still. This didn't work because the bull became more aggressive and started sniffing around them. In a fit of panic, she asked him what should we do now. He replied that he was going to bend over and eat grass and suggested she should brace herself.

[U S Army EOD]

Check out my latest post.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Naked and being carried around on a whale's back is not theway that I want to be found dead.

But then again we usually don't get the choice.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I think sarah17 and Lauralee Braswell should put on a WWF cage match.

I nominate them for "Teenage Know-It-All Death Match Cage Fighting."

And to make it even, both have to fight to the death.

[BigCinBigD]

Maybe the trainer set the whale up on a blind date and she turned out to be a dog. :o)

[G32]

I went to this Sea World about 4 years ago, and sure enough the whale attacked a performer. Not real bad, but busted him up a bit.

[Phsstpok]

Naked and being carried around on a whale's back is not theway that I want to be found dead.

By that time the guy wasn't up to being embarrassed.

Who I felt sorry for was the young lady who found him. She'd not noticed him in the back pool because she was up observing a pregnant female in the front pool. It wasn't her fault, but you know that she questioned what she should have done differently.