Killer Whale Nearly Drowns Trainer at SeaWorld in San Diego

At LAist, "Video: Terrifying Footage Shows Killer Whale Attacking Trainer At Sea World."

My wife and I took the boys to SeaWorld sometime last year. We took a few photos but I never did blog about it. It's not as fun as it used to be. The Shamu show was really different from when we took my first son in the late 1990s. I don't think the trainers got in the water with the whale, there were none of the super high jumps out of the water, and the music played at lower volume, more subdued. There might even have been less lighting. I think I recall strobe lights and all that back in the 1990s, with booming music like a summer beach party. And the dolphin show --- in the past really one of the highlights of the park --- has been changed into something like Cirque De La Mer. It's called Blue Horizons, but mostly it's human performers taking up a lot of time rather than the dolphins performing. And again, none of the old huge high jumps that the dolphins used to do. It was interesting, but I doubt I'll be back any time soon.

Anyway, Anderson Cooper's segment is here, although I don't believe the theory of his guest, David Kirby.

Here's the raw video, from Telegraph UK. The trainer is lucky to be alive. Dawn Brancheau was held under and drowned in 2010.