A Whale of a Problem
In the summer of 1985, my family went to Orlando. We got to visit Disney World, Epcot Center and SeaWorld. SeaWorld was pretty cool because we got to see a show featuring Shamu, their killer whale. We were sitting close enough to the water tank that we got splashed when she jumped. 12-year-old me thought it was awesome.
As an adult, however, the show may not have been very cool in retrospect. While all SeaWorld locations had a Shamu, they were named after the original calf captured in 1965 in Puget Sound, Washington. She was subsequently sold to SeaWorld in San Diego and became a star attraction.
In 1971, Shamu bit a SeaWorld employee who was attempting to ride her for a filmed publicity event. The killer whale died shortly after the incident.
Ever since, SeaWorld has been criticized for the captivity, treatment and breeding of marine animals, particularly orcas and dolphins. The theme park was even the focus of the documentary “Blackfish,” which exposed the brutal and abusive conditions for captive orcas, and the people they had killed.
So, SeaWorld is no stranger to controversies stemming from captive, dangerous animals. The latest? A duck.
In March of 2024, Hillary Martin, a resident of Orange County, Florida, was visiting SeaWorld in Orlando. While there, she rode the park’s Mako “hypercoaster,” a 200-foot-tall steel coaster that reaches speeds up to 73 miles per hour and is named after the world’s fastest shark. While on the ride, she claims a duck “flew into the path” of the roller coaster, struck her in the face, “causing loss of consciousness and personal injury.”
Martin maintains that she has endured “permanent physical injuries, disfigurement, and mental pain and suffering” as a result of the collision. Further, she suffers from the “loss of ability to lead and enjoy a normal life.”
So, Martin sued SeaWorld Orlando and its parent company United Parks & Resorts in Orange County Circuit Court, alleging that the resort “failed to keep its premises in a ‘reasonably safe condition’ and didn’t warn guests … about dangerous conditions,” including the possibility of “potential rogue ducks.”
Mako, designed by Swiss coaster manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard, propels riders through open-air track sections above the park’s central lagoon. Martin’s attorneys contend that the ride’s location “created a zone of danger for bird strikes by positioning Mako near a body of water, which could disorient nearby birds and increase the risk of similar incidents.”
The lawsuit argues that SeaWorld failed to “maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition by negligently failing to correct a dangerous situation” that the park “either knew or should have known” about. Martin also asserts that SeaWorld did not warn her about this potential risk of ducks flying afowl before going on the ride.
Martin is seeking more than $50,000 in damages. A trial to hear the case has been scheduled for November of 2027. The lengthy timeline is to accommodate both sides engaging in extensive expert analysis, including biomechanics, ride engineering, and avian-behavior studies, to determine how the collision occurred and whether SeaWorld could have reasonably prevented it. Other theme parks and their patrons will be paying close attention to see if the trial could open the door for similar cases in the future.
“The safety of our guests and employees is a top priority, and we take these situations seriously,” SeaWorld said in a statement. They then purportedly said that while they were sympathetic to Ms. Martin’s injuries, the incident certainly wasn’t on porpoise.
Reg P. Wydeven
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