For the first time since the late 1990s, SeaWorld is doing something different with its dolphins. The local amusement park\u2019s new multi-million dollar dolphin show, Blue Horizons, opens May 29. “It\u2019s definitely unique,” said Bill Hoffman, SeaWorld\u2019s assistant curator of animal training. “It\u2019s got a storyline and it moves you. It\u2019s a very spectacular and very emotional show.” Gone is Dolphin Discovery, the show that ran for 13 years and featured the iconic lighthouse and lighthouse keeper. Here, in a revamped stadium is Blue Horizons, the 22-minute show that has been a staple at SeaWorld Orlando for the last five years. “What\u2019s great about that is we can take that show that we love and tweak it a little bit for our park here and make some changes wherever possible,” said Rick Schuiteman, the park\u2019s director of show production. While trainers at SeaWorld\u2019s three parks still haven\u2019t returned to the water with killer whales since the death of a trainer in Orlando in February, 22 trainers will be in the water with dolphins and pilot whales during Blue Horizons. Hoffman said that while both killer whales and dolphins are of the same scientific order, procedure has not changed with the way trainers monitor and interact with the animals. “We always evaluate our animals \u2014 their disposition, how they look,” Hoffman said. “We read their precursors and that\u2019s just part of training the animals. Regardless of what\u2019s going on currently, we\u2019ve always done it that way and will continue to do so.” Blue Horizons features two pilot whales and 16 dolphins. The show also incorporates 50 birds from five different species all housed in the aviary within the stadium. “We have more dolphins than we\u2019ve ever had in any production before,” Hoffman said. “It\u2019s very spectacular and we\u2019re very excited.” But the animals are not the only performers in the new dolphin show. Human performers include divers, acrobats and bungee acts. “We have a number of high-energy sequences where we go out and perform and the animals leave the pool momentarily,” Hoffman said, “and we have acrobatics and water effects and all sorts of neat things taking place.” The show\u2019s story centers around a young girl named Marina, who each morning looks out of her window into the sea and longs to be a part of the ocean world. One morning, a dolphin beckons to her to join and she quickly obliges. “She goes out and joins the dolphins and they swim together, play together and she can be part of this amazing adventure,” Schuiteman said. For more information, visit www.seaworld.com\/sandiego.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the first time since the late 1990s, SeaWorld is doing something different with its dolphins. The local amusement park\u2019s new multi-million dollar dolphin show, Blue Horizons, opens May 29. “It\u2019s definitely unique,” said Bill Hoffman, SeaWorld\u2019s assistant curator of animal training. “It\u2019s got a storyline and it moves you. It\u2019s a very spectacular and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":272301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"SeaWorld premieres Blue Horizons show later this month","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}