Posted on 02/24/2010 4:14:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind
SeaWorld in San Diego has canceled its Shamu whale show at least for Wednesday after an Orlando SeaWorld employee was killed in an encounter with a whale at that theme park.
"We're terribly saddened by the loss of the member of our SeaWorld family, it doesn't matter what park," said SeaWorld San Diego spokesman David Koontz. "We have canceled our afternoon Shamu show here today."
Koontz said park officials had yet to make a decision about to whether to cancel Thursday's show. Orlando SeaWorld officials are not revealing the identity of the victim, although a local TV station is reporting that a female employee was killed after she was grabbed by one of the theme park's whales at the start of a public show. Park guest Victoria Biniak told the station that the trainer was a veteran of SeaWorld and had just finished explaining to the audience the show they were about to see.
At that point, Biniak said, the whale came up from the water and grabbed the woman.
"He was thrashing her around pretty good. It was violent," Biniak said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
A big fish like that does not belong in a fish bowl. Teach him to hunt and set him free.
Was it a Killer Whale?
Apparently this is the third person the whale has killed. He killed his trainer in 1991 and another person who fell in the tank when the park was closed.
Yes, it was.
Is Sea World hard of learning?
If you were cooped up in a cage or tank for that long, you’d be pissed off too. These are wild animals and people tend to forget that.
The last time I visited Marineland, just South of St. Augustine, one of the female trainers was swimming in a tank full of male Bottlenose Dolphins. The dolphins were showing some pretty aggressive behavior and the announcer mentioned something about female dolphins in a connected tank being in heat. I don’t know much about dolphin reproduction but I do know that the sense of smell is able to detect pheromones, just as it is in other animals. I didn’t ask the trainer where she was in her cycle but the dolphins were going bonkers.
Anyone think that congress will be investigating Disney any time soon?
They don’t call them killer for nothing.
Killer whales are above us on the food chain. One is taking a risk when working with them. People don’t pay to see someone in a fish tank playing with guppies.
“Was it a Killer Whale?”
Shamu collectively are Orca. The species used to be called killer whales. Actually, Orca are not whales—they are large members of the dolphin family. Absolute shame about the trainer, not yet named. My family is sad.
If this was at the start of a public show, the horrific videos will be hitting YouTube shortly.
Seaworld isn’t Disney I don’t think.
I’d have killed more than three.
What’s sad is that dolphins are capable of committing suicide and some will swim fast into the sides of their tanks to kill themselves.
Oops. You’re right. Saw Orlando and thought Disney.
These are higher creatures who should not be confined. With all of the terrific filming in nature of every conceivable animal/bird/fish on God’s earth one wonders why zoos are even necessary. Is not there much more to be learned from seeing an animal in its natural environment than from seeing it locked up in a cage? Only where an animal is truly endangered is there a plausible argument for maintaining breedstock in nature preserves, not fricking cages.
I just heard on the news this whale has killed twice before.
They are called KILLER WHALES for a reason! Can’t the park operators understand that!
Bottlenose Dolphins are extremely sexual, and very aggressive when aroused. Totally Serious.
Also, Bottleneck dolphins are so intelligent, they are dangerous. In the wild they frequently see swimmers moving toward the shore. They will grab them and pull them under. To them, it looks like they are about to wash up on the shore and die - So they attempt to rescue the swimmer.
There are lots of stories and anecdotes out there about attempted dolphin rape on tourist swimmers. No joke.
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