Originally Posted By Labuda So here's an interesting article I found this morning - seems that one of the Sea World San Diego whales had a tantrum yesterday. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/29/killer.whale/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/ 29/killer.whale/index.html</a>
Originally Posted By SuzieQ I saw that on the news this morning. The whale grabbed it's trainer of 12 years by the foot, twice, and held him underwater! He's in good condition at the hospital this morning.
Originally Posted By cstephens So it was Kasatka! I heard the news on the radio last night, and they just kept saying it was Shamu, and I kept waiting for them to release *which* Shamu it was. I hope the trainer doesn't have any serious injuries, but I'm not surprised it's Kasatka. She's the leader of the group, and she can be temperamental. She hasn't shown any seriously aggressive behaviour to the trainers, but she has towards the other whales when she's trying to keep them in line. And the "grab their feet and pull them underwater" thing is what the whales will do with a seagull if they can catch one. I wonder if something happened earlier in the day that triggered her behaviour. I hope they're able to figure it out. /cs
Originally Posted By mele That Orca didn't go crazy...she went Orca! (Sorry, reference to a Chris Rock joke.)
Originally Posted By dresswhites i recall sea world has had problems with its whales from time to time. after one incident, it was revealed that the trainers were college aged and really didn't have any knowledge of killer whales. i wonder if the current trainers are more than just stunt performers.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss The problem is that whales are not domesticated animals, and humans really don't have any business using wild animals to do tricks for entertainment. Because they are not domesticated, even the best trained whale's instincts may take over, and you end up with these kinds of stories.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 Also, as they try to get the shows more and more complicated with new effects, tricks, and such, its probably stressful on the whales sometimes. And, trekkeruss is right, they aren't domexticated. I'm sure they have their bad days too. It's funny, because I don't really care about the tricks they get them to do, I'd rather just watch the whales do what they do, and swim around with each other.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 ...speaking of which, I was addicted to that whale cam they have on their website for a while. It was based out of San Diego, but it was so fascinating to watch them in the tank.
