Can trainers still swim with dolphins?

SeaWorld shows featuring trainers riding or standing on dolphins are now a thing of the past. In a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SeaWorld Entertainment revealed that it's halting such stunts at its parks in Orlando, San Antonio, and San Diego.



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SeaWorld spokeswoman Aimee Jeansonne-Becka said the company does not need the lift floors anymore; trainers no longer perform in the water with killer whales.

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SeaWorld apparently did not see it that way, and the killer whale shows have continued as before, only now the trainers do not perform any water work with the orcas. This of course saves trainers from being attacked but does nothing to relieve orcas from the frustrations and anxieties of incarceration.

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OSHA imposed the ban following an investigation into a Feb. 24, 2010, incident in which a 12,000-pound killer whale named Tilikum pulled Dawn Brancheau underwater, drowning the trainer at the Orlando theme park. The court's administrative law judge ruled that SeaWorld's safety program is inadequate.

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Today, trainers are able to effectively monitor the animals' health, weigh them, clean teeth, and perform sonograms on females to check on pregnancies, to name just a few things.

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SeaWorld San Diego's theatrical Shamu show, One Ocean, will end Sunday and will be replaced this summer with a new Orca Encounter designed to showcase the killer whales' natural behaviors in the wild.

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OSHA came back with the decision that SeaWorld was obligated to protect their trainers from any known risk, and having them in the water with the ocean's top predator was way too dangerous to ever have happen again. So the ruling stood, despite many appeals to judges in various levels of court.

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As of September 20, 2023 there are: At least 176 orcas have died in captivity, not including 30 miscarried or still-born calves. SeaWorld holds 18 orcas in its three parks in the United States.

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Tilikum pulled SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau into the water in 2010, killing her after a show at the theme park. In the wake of Brancheau's death, SeaWorld removed trainers from the water and implemented new safety procedures.

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On February 24, 2010, toward the end of a Dine with Shamu show at SeaWorld Orlando, the orca Tilikum pulled down an experienced trainer. Dawn Brancheau, a 40-year-old with extensive training experience, drowned as at least two dozen tourists looked on from above a whale tank and from an underwater viewing area.

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The black vests wrap around the waist and go over the shoulders in a design similar to a small life jacket. “I don't think the guests even notice that it's there,” said head trainer Kelly Flaherty Clark.

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