SeaWorld’s new Orca Encounter show is a live documentary, intended to educate and entertain visitors by incorporating facts and figures about killer whales while demonstrating their behavior with orcas acting it out in front of the audience. The orca presentation features an infinity screen, which is three stories tall and long enough to span the length of the exhibit. With eye-catching, moving scenes of beaches, lakes and rippling water, audience members may feel as if they are on an island watching the orcas glide gracefully through the ocean.
Various aspects of the behavioral habits of orcas in the wild are examined on the high-definition video screen and then demonstrated by the killer whales in the tank throughout the show. The video uses graphics and text to help guests understand the trainers’ narration.
Communicating, hunting and playing are just a few of the activities covered by the show.
A trainer introduces the whales’ communication skills by pointing out that orcas are social creatures. At a trainer’s prompting, one of the orcas demonstrates a dolphin call that she learned and, according to the trainer, had taught to some of the other orcas as well.
Visitors are taught that orcas have to work together to surround and disorientate or exhaust their prey. The orcas at SeaWorld demonstrate this activity by swimming swiftly through the water, as they would if they were in the wild and trying to surround a school of fish. The aggressive swimming tactic causes gallons of water to gush over the sides and into the drains outside the tank, while slightly ominous music plays over the speakers.
To imitate what it would look like for the orca to be hunting a seal in the wild, the orca pushes herself out of the water and onto the slippery surface, center-stage, and shakes her head back and forth, mouth open as if she were holding a seal.
Playful behavior is also demonstrated, which is the crowd’s favorite. The orcas swim the tank’s length, splashing gallons of water over the “wet zone” with their powerful flukes. Some guests leap to their feet and race up the stairs, while others laugh and embrace their soggy fate.
