A trip to SeaWorld turned into an upsetting day for a family that watched a whale get stranded for 25 minutes before any trainers would help it get back into the water.
Carlo De Leonibus and his wife Ashley took their 11 year old daughter, Catiana to the Orlando theme park for her birthday since she loved dolphins. She was watching along with her family as a short-finned pilot whale, which is related to dolphins, got stuck on the ledge of its pool, the New York Daily News reports.
The show had been postponed and the staff members left the stage due to a lightning storm, leaving the whale to struggle for several minutes as the audience looked on.
De Leonibus claims that he told a SeaWorld employee about the stranded whale and they told him not to worry as it was a common behavior.
"He said, 'Oh, it's just playing. They do this all the time. It is normal behavior,'" De Leonibus told The Daily News.
De Leonibus returned to the stands and began to record the whale struggling. He posted the video to YouTube and it has since gone viral. More than 135,600 people have viewed the video.
The audience can be heard yelling and cursing in the background, telling the staff that the whale was in distress.
"The crowd was really upset and panicking," he said. "My daughter was
screaming."
An employee can be heard trying to calm the audience down and saying they were aware of the situation as the whale continued to try to wiggle its way back into the pool.
De Leonibus says that two trainers showed up 15 minutes later and finally pushed the pilot whale back into the water.
He says that his daughter was very upset over the incident. "She's been really disillusioned by SeaWorld," he said.
SeaWorld spokesperson Nick Gollattsheck told WTSP that the behavior was normal. "The pilot whales come out on the ledge all the time and always get back into the deeper water without any problem," he said.
"The animals seem to enjoy it" he said, "and it has no effect on their health or wellbeing. The younger and more inexperienced animals - like the one on the video - sometimes take a little longer, because they haven't completely mastered the technique yet. The whale was never in danger."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
