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.
Just saw the video. The whale was definitely not in attack mode. It was leaping partially out of the water, with his belly landing on the trainer.
Don't all women?
You guys are on fire today! Lol!
Was the whale male or female? If it was male this guy is lucky he isn't walking bent over with his legs spread for the rest of his life. If it was female, I bet the guy never gets in the swimming pool with a horny fat woman again.
No, not actually. Killer whales will play with their kills like cats. I've seen them (on television) toss around seals for play.
Not unlike male teens. ;)
Something's fishy here.........
If you think about it, being a killer whale trainer is perfect training for a woman when it comes to dealing with the men in their lives.
You have this big, dumb animal. You take away its freedom. You make it jump through hoops and balance beach balls on its nose. Every once in a while, you give the poor creature something fishy-tasting and its happy.
It really is like dating.
I have seen this also and in some cases where the whale will knock a seal around for a while, then carry the seal back to the beach unharmed, but scared to death.
SAN ANTONIO -- A killer whale performance at SeaWorld came to an abrupt end Friday when one of the giant marine mammals slammed his trainer underwater repeatedly.
No one was injured in the incident involving the killer whale, named Ky, and his trainer, Steve Aibel.
"It looked like Ky lost a little bit of focus," Aibel said in an exclusive interview with KSAT 12 News.
Aibel has trained with Ky for the past 10 years, and said he was caught off guard by Ky's behavior.
One of them got smashed against the pool wall by an orca a few years ago, IIRC.
Ohio park in the late 80's. She's not a trainer anymore but I think some of the folks she worked with still are.
I think I'd read about that guy. We had some folks try to do the same but security was tight anough that they didn't pull it off. What makes someone think that getting into the water with an animal that size who lives in the arctic and eats 500+ lb. seals is beyond me. Let alone doing it without a wet suit.
I would have loved to see that time out. What a riot. The old girlfriend received a "nip" on the thigh from one of the whales when it was moody one day. No teeth, just the front of it's mouth from the teeth forward. To date the largest and ugliest bruise I've ever seen.
And to think, this guy's got kids of his own?! Children shouldn't be having children. We are in serious trouble...
It looked like they were playing volleyball with the seals.
Killer whales: Hey yall wanna play some volleyball?
Seals: Yeah thats sounds fun! Hey, what the...whoosh..ahhhhhrg I dont want to be the BALL!...helllllllp me peta!
LOL, You're gonna get flamed.
Michael Moore Alert!!
Ah yes, wild animals going wild, surprise, that is why they call them wild.
Disney has gotten a lot of people killed with his & their BS crap of attributing human traits to non-humans.
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