Shadow Over Sea World : The Deaths of 6 Whales, 3 of Them Prized Orcas, Raise Questions at the San Diego Theme Park

When Bob Lavenberg called Sea World last month to say that a live megamouth shark had been captured off Dana Point--only the second such known occurrence ever--he thought he was making the San Diego theme park an offer it could not refuse: the opportunity to house and study a species so rare that, until 1976, scientists were not aware it existed.

Lavenberg, curator of fishes at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, was surprised when Sea World officials declined. They told Lavenberg they lacked the expertise and facilities to ensure the 15-foot megamouth’s survival. But as well as worrying about the shark’s health, Sea World officials seemed to fear for the park’s image.

“They said, ‘One of the things we don’t want to do is take this animal and have it die on us,’ ” Lavenberg said. “No. 1 was they did not have the facilities to take it, and No. 2 was there was a potential that it would die. They were very sensitive about this. . . . They did not want to have it die on their hands.”

In light of the park’s recent history, such sensitivity is not surprising. In 2 1/2 years, six whales have died at the San Diego park--including three killer whales, the park’s most popular attraction. Officials maintain that except for Kandu, a killer whale that died after an accident during a performance, all died of old age or diseases that could have stricken them in the wild.

The string of fatalities has cast a shadow over the private amusement park. Sea World officials acknowledge that the losses have taken a toll on staff morale.

“I don’t think we would ever step back away from helping animals just because we were concerned that somebody was going to start taking (shots) at us,” said Brad Andrews, a Sea World vice president and assistant zoological director based in Florida. How decisions are made about housing animals “boils down to what’s best for the animal,” he said.

“No one likes to accentuate the negative,” said Bob Gault, president of Sea World of California, who added that people come to the park “to escape the day-to-day hassles of life,” not to confront them. Gault asserts that, especially since they were bought by Anheuser-Busch from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1989, the four parks have dealt more frankly with the passing of their animals.

“We’re not like Disney, where a ride breaks down and they can just go plug in another one,” Gault said. “In life there is birth and there is death, and at Sea World we experience both of them.”

Recently, questions have arisen about how deaths may affect future births--specifically the captive breeding of killer whales. This September, Kanduke, one of the chain’s two remaining male killer whales, died unexpectedly at the Florida park. Since then, Sea World veterinarians have been shuffling breeding plans to manage what some experts say is a poor gender ratio.

Without federal permits to capture killer whales in the wild, the four parks--in San Diego; San Antonio, Tex.; Aurora, Ohio, and Orlando, Fla.--depend largely on newborns to stock their exhibits and shows. But, among them, the four parks have 12 females and just one male: Kotar, an orca at the Texas park.

“That’s certainly not optimal,” said Tom Laughlin, a marine biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle. “Biologically, one wants to have heterozygosity in the gene pool--more than one male contributing. The more vibrant the strain--the more diverse--the more resistant offspring is to disease.”

The necessity of breeding healthy young is heightened by Sea World’s economic dependence on killer whales. As well as being the star attraction in the San Diego park’s “Baby Shamu Celebration” show, killer whales are the centerpiece of the park’s marketing campaign.

Sea World visitors are invited to shop for Shamu-embossed gifts, from sweat shirts to jewelry, and to pose for $4 framed snapshots with a stuffed orca at the Shamu Photo Stand. The name “Shamu,” which is used for whichever whale is performing in the 5-million-gallon Shamu Stadium, is a registered trademark.

“They’re one of the key elements in the draw,” said Harrison Price, a consultant in attraction management and development and a former Sea World board member.

A National Marine Fisheries Service inventory of Sea World’s marine mammals, living and dead, shows that over the San Diego park’s nearly 30 years of operation, scores of animals have died largely unnoticed by the public. When an animal has a public identity, its passing attracts attention.

In September, 1988, Orky sank to the bottom of his pool and died just three days after the birth of a calf he fathered--Orkid, commonly known as Baby Shamu. Estimated to be 27 to 32 years old, Orky was the oldest killer whale in captivity at the time, and a necropsy conducted by Sea World showed he had died of acute pneumonia brought on by old age.

Nine months later, a 15-year-old beluga whale named Little Girl died of cardiopulmonary collapse. On loan from the Minnesota Zoo, Little Girl had come to San Diego to accompany Big Mouth, a sick male beluga receiving treatment for an inflammatory bone disease. Big Mouth died the next summer, as did an ailing false killer whale named Asia.

But it was Kandu’s death that shocked most people. In August, 1989, during a performance, the 4,600-pound mother of Orkid charged into another whale, Corky, and broke her jaw. The impact caused hemorrhaging of major arteries in the 14-year-old whale’s nasal passages and Kandu bled to death.

Memories of that fatality--called a freak accident by Sea World officials--were still fresh when Knootka, a killer whale in her mid- to late-20s, died of a rare fungal infection last March. Knootka’s was the first death at the San Diego park since Anheuser-Busch had taken the helm, and officials were noticeably more open about the whale’s illness and death.

“It’s important to be up-front about it,” said Dan LeBlanc, who handles media inquiries at the San Diego park.

Andrews said the recent deaths have prompted changes in breeding schedules--some of which reach 15 years into the future. The lone male, Kotar, is not related to any of the 12 females, he said, so there is probably no genetic reason why he cannot mate with them all.

Andrews said the program--which has produced five healthy captive-born babies in as many years--is self-sufficient. Recent blood samples taken from Keneau in Texas and Kasatka in San Diego indicate a high likelihood that both are pregnant by Kotar, he said.

Whether the park’s new openness will affect public opinion is unclear. Sea World’s attendance, like that of most Southern California amusement parks, is down this year from last year--a downturn that Price, the consultant, attributes to a decrease in long-distance tourism. During the first eight months of 1989, nearly 3 million people visited the park--about 200,000 more than the same period this year.

A study by the Southwest Fishery Science Center in La Jolla found that the probability of a whale surviving one year in a U.S. park is roughly the same as in the wild--90% to 95%.