14 DAY TRIAL // Visitors at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, noticed a pilot whale apparently stranded on the side of the pool, trying desperately to get back in. They filmed it and the video went viral almost immediately, casting a very bad light on SeaWorld for not taking better care of the distressed whale.
The man who shot the video, who was visiting SeaWorld for his daughter’s 11th birthday, tells the media that the incident happened roughly 10 days ago.
He says people around him, his family included, kept screaming for someone from SeaWorld’s staff to come and help the whale for many minutes.
“After about 10 minutes, I realized it was in distress. I felt very concerned, so I went down and told one of the employees who just dismally responded and said ‘it's having fun, it's playing’,” the man says, as cited by the Christian Post.
“He didn't even bother to look at the whale, so I went back to the crowd. I began recording. In that time you can hear people upset, people were screaming,” he adds.
The whale continued to struggle to get back in the water, but its efforts were all in vain.
As the video report from MSN below notes, eventually, two staff members came and helped it back in, but not before an announcement was made through the SeaWorld speakers that the “stranded” whale was only playing.
In a statement to the media, SeaWorld insists that the whale was never in any danger because this is normal behavior for them when they’re playing or socializing.
The only reason this particular whale appeared to be struggling was because it was, indeed, having a hard time to get back in the water because of its lack of experience.
“Pilot whales come out on the ledge all the time and always get back into the deeper water without any problem. The younger animals are still inexperienced and sometimes it takes them a bit longer,” SeaWorld says.
It does not address the question of why it took staff such a long time to intervene and offer assistance to the pilot whale.