Orca holds trainer underwater at SeaWorld SanDiego

According to the article, it wasn't Shamu. It was another whale at Shamu stadium. Does SW still call all their whales Shamu, no matter what the name of the whale actually is?

Shamu is a stage name... or perhaps better stated a character name in the show... (eg 'George and Gracie' playing the part of Shamu and Mamu in Believe)

Forgive the Star Trek reference.

Based on the incident at Orlando's SeaWorld, I'm thinking this is similar in that it was more "rough play" than an ATTACK. If you're in the water and an orca wants you dead, you're a goner...

Pretty sure Shamu is more of a generic name, almost like a "brand"...it's what you call any orca when you haven't been properly introduced... :)

Agreed. I was at lunch and saw CNN drilling it to death, and I think it's a non-story, personally. Animals play and don't realize they can harm people. The big headline "KILLER WHALE ATTACKS" is pretty stupid.

Yes the name of the whale has changed since the original posted article on Yahoo. So it probably was either the original writer just used Shamu generally or the character name thing mentioned above.

I like how in the video they go by KILLER WHALE.

Jeff is right, animals don't realize what they're doing.

This is why Six Flags Marine World doesn't have trainers in the tank with Shouka on a regular basis. They say she is fairly aggressive for even an orca and I assume they want to avoid accidents like this.

Ok about the name.

All whales are named Shamu

Have you ever noticed that everywhere but Marine World they have a whale named Shamu

Yeah, while the whales are all called Shamu on stage, they do have names of their own.

Yea they do have names of there own. Shamu is a Stage name. I believe there are 7 Shamu's in the CA park.

Training or not, a whale is a whale. I don't think you can train a whale, no matter how much you try, to behave like a dog. It's big, strong and humans go into its territory.

maybe the headline should've read: Another stupid human tempts fate with Killer Whale!

Well seeing as how they have repeatable behaviors that they can perform when asked by humans, I'd say that you can train whales.

"Trained", not "tamed"... ;)

Jeff: I see. So maybe the trainer made the whale hold them underwater by some learned command. Hmmm, free advertising at its finest.

Trained not tamed is right.
;)

I think Jeff is correct about this being a non-issue. Sham-ette is back performing today: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15986167/

Anyway, my dog nips my ankles once in a while when he gets excited. I'm just glad he doesn't weigh several tons.

*** This post was edited by janfrederick 12/1/2006 11:53:56 AM ***

Personally I think that the whale was just playing....like said above if the whale wanted him dead then he would have been dead. They are the most adapt hunters of the sea. Or he might of just been having a bad day.

Got a 2 and a half year old who loves Shamu. He plays with toy Shamu in the tub all the time. He saw the news last night...and combined with our recent hyping of our Orlando trip in a few weeks...he has convinced himself that he is going to swim/play with Shamu. When I explained to him that we only "watch" Shamu he started crying out-of control for over an hour last night. Anyhow, I've got to figure a way to convince a 2 and half year old that we cannot swim and play with Shamu.

^ Autopsy pics of the Orlando "swim with Shamu" session?

I'm KIDDING....geez, so serious you people are.. ;)

Or a nature video showing how wild Orcas sometimes like to *play* with their food. Perhaps you could get him to switch to dolphins. At least there's the possibility that he could swim with them one day.

Speaking of which, next time you are in SoCal, take the boat to Catalina and watch them playing off the bow.