Via Rachel Greenhalgh: Statement from a former SeaWorld Trainer. “Something that I really fought towards the end of my career was putting our whales in the med pool. There’s a part in Blackfish where Tilikum is at SeaLand in Canada and and they talk about placing the whales in what they called ‘The Module’ which is the equivalent to SeaWorld’s med pool. We still do that at SeaWorld today. And we do that for show reasons. The med pool’s chief purpose is for medical purposes; for husbandry purposes. We also think it’s important to put the whales in there at other times to condition it as being positive as well.The med pool, in California, Texas and Florida they vary slightly in size - very slightly - but they’re about 8ft deep. 8ft deep, and we’re talking about killer whales. And they’re approximately 15ft by 30ft. Width x length. And we would put in there one OR MORE, regularly, almost every single show, whales were staying in the med pool. And we needed to do that; I say we - the Entertainment Department and approved by the Animal Training department were allowed to do that to achieve the ‘look’ of the show that they wanted. Because some whales were incompatible at certain times, or other reasons, and you didn’t have the space. So that is still happening today, that’s not something from the 70’s or 80’s or 90’s that doesn’t happen any more, that happens today at Shamu Stadium in Texas, California, Florida. Whales are being housed [in the med pool] for extended periods of time, and repetitively, because of show reasons, or because of a Dine with Shamu.”---John Hargrove, former SeaWorld trainer.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 00:22:49 +0000