SeaWorld seeks OK for orca encounter stage
A year after announcing it would phase out its long-running Shamu show in San Diego, SeaWorld is asking the California Coastal Commission this week for permission to start building a stage for its new orca encounter.
If the commission signs off at its meeting Friday, SeaWorld says it could begin construction in January and finish it by April.
The company has described the revamped killer whale attraction in broad terms: Visitors would no longer see the orcas engaging in theatrical, synchronized leaps and dives but instead would witness the marine mammals’ natural behaviors such as hunting, eating and communicating.
In its application submitted to the commission — whose staff is recommending approval — SeaWorld is proposing to dismantle Shamu Stadium’s existing show set, now dominated by four LED screens and a giant depiction of a whale tail. In their place would be a new backdrop behind the show pool designed to mimic an outdoor coastal setting in the Pacific Northwest.
The new scenery will be a pastoral landscape, incorporating a rugged coastal inlet, artificial Douglas fir trees, cliffs and waterfalls. A large video screen that will feature imagery of killer whales in the wild, along with graphics and other information about the orcas, will help educate SeaWorld visitors.
The company emphasizes that the project involves no reconstruction or modification of the pools where the orcas are housed.
That’s a major departure from a $100-million plan, since abandoned, that the Coastal Commission approved last year to double the volume of the orcas’ habitat. Although the commission approved the plan, it imposed a condition that SeaWorld cease breeding its orcas.
The company protested but months later, responding to mounting public pressure, announced it would end captive breeding of its killer whales at all three SeaWorld parks. It also said it would no longer move forward with the tank expansion project.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has called on SeaWorld to release its killer whales into seaside sanctuaries, called the new orca attraction a “marketing ploy … designed to deceive visitors while doing nothing for the orcas floating listlessly in tiny concrete tanks.”
In recommending approval of SeaWorld’s design for its new orca experience, the commission staff imposed conditions focused on minimizing the effect of noise on the orcas and to avoiding interference with public access.
