SeaWorld finally scraps pool performances with killer whales after years of outrage and recent death of Blackfish star Tilikum
The show that featured orcas playing with trainers and leaping high out of the Shamu Stadium pool had its final performances on Sunday
SEAWORLD San Diego has ended its long-running killer whale show after years of criticism and falling crowds.
The show that featured orcas playing with trainers and leaping high out of the Shamu Stadium pool had its final performances on Sunday.
This summer, the San Diego park will unveil a new attraction in the revamped pool.
Orca Encounter is billed as an educational experience that will show how killer whales eat, communicate and navigate but the animals will still receive cues from trainers.
Al Garver, a former orca trainer and vice president of zoological operations, told the San Diego Union-Tribune: "You will still see a whale leaping out of the water.
"We want to be able to demonstrate behaviours people would see in the wild with the killer whales and their abilities as a top predator in the sea.
"The vast majority of behaviours people have seen in our shows will be very suitable for demonstrating that."
The park has 11 orcas, ranging in age from 2 to 52 years old.
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Under pressure from activists and faced with declining ticket sales, SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. announced last year it was ending its theatrical orca shows and breeding program.
Parks in Orlando and San Antonio will end their shows by 2019.
SeaWorld has seen attendance fall since the 2013 documentary Blackfish criticised conditions of captive orcas, implying confinement made them more aggressive.
The film chronicled the life of Tilikum, an orca that killed a SeaWorld trainer during a performance in Orlando in 2010.
The movie's director told CBS that the new show was designed to make the audience feel better, not the animals.
"The trainers aren't safe, and the whales aren't happy," Gabriela Cowperthwaite said. "They're still just doing manic circles around concrete swimming pools."
SeaWorld reported on Friday that Tilikum, who was believed to be about 36 years old and in poor health, had died in Orlando.
SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. announced last month that it was eliminating 320 jobs across its 12-park company.
The company also announced that it would help develop its first SeaWorld park without orcas, in Abu Dhabi.
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