SeaWorld installs new safety equipment in whale pools

[eeyoreguy]

SeaWorld Orlando is continuing to work to make the killer-whale pools safe for their trainers. They have installed "net boxes" that are designed for trainers to get safety nets into the water quicker if there is an emergency.

Trainers use the nets both to distract and to guide distressed whales out of the main pool and into a contained area.

Nets have long been a feature of the orca pools; however in the case of the fatal incident in February, they didn't properly deploy. When trainers tried to unroll the nets to assist Dawn Brancheau, the trainer who was killed by the whale, the nets repeatedly snagged. According to SeaWorld, the new net box would allow a single trainer to get the net into the water in 15 seconds. A net box has been installed in one of the pools in Shamu Stadium as a test, and if successful, will be added to pools at all three of SeaWorld's parks.

[Isafari]

More info HERE

[Kate]

It would be good to think that this would work, but im not so sure a net would stop a whale if it was intent on doing something