Credit: SeaWorldWhen Guests think of SeaWorld San Diego, many of the Park’s offerings come to mind, including thrilling attractions, outstanding animal presentations and experiences, delicious dining offerings, and an overall wonderful experience for the whole family to enjoy. However, thanks to recent news, Guests became aware of one of SeaWorld’s lesser-known practices.
However, recent news shed some light on some of SeaWorld’s practices that may not be as popular among Guests.
On Monday, officials from the San Diego Park announced the rescue of a “repeat offender” by a specialized group of Team Members. This was the third time SeaWorld San Diego has had to deal with the offender, a wild sea lion nicknamed “Freeway” by the rescuing team.
FOX 5 San Diego reported that the rescue took place on April 7th in a City Heights storm drain, where the animal was found headed in the general direction of the highway. Members of the rescue team rushed to block the area to prevent a situation similar to Freeway’s previous rescue.
This last encounter took place in January after the sea lion was spotted wandering on Route 94, west of Interstate 805. Concerned drivers tried to contain the animal to the middle lanes to prevent it from moving and getting injured while the SeaWorld rescue crew arrived at the scene to bring Freeway to safety.
However, this had not been the first encounter with Freeway. Eric Otjen, part of the SeaWorld rescue team, commented, “This animal has been in our rescue facility before. It was rescued in early November from Harbor Island Drive, was released shortly after and has been showing up in kind of odd situations and spots since then. This is the weirdest, though.”
Currently, Freeway is in good condition and is going under routine evaluations by officials at SeaWorld San Diego as part of any animal rescue carried out by the Park.
Not all Guests are aware that SeaWorld locations worldwide have rescued over 40,000 animals as of this month, with 21,000 of those incidents involving the SeaWorld San Diego team. Officials state the most common rescues in California tend to be sea lions, seals, sea and shorebirds, and sea turtles.
More on SeaWorld
We recently saw SeaWorld Orlando claim the title of Best Theme Park given by USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Travel Awards and is celebrating it by giving away free beer for Guests 21 years and older. The Park also won the category of Best New Attraction with Ice Breaker.
We’ve also seen SeaWorld’s social media team have the time of their lives after creating a vicious yet hilarious fight on Twitter against Universal, which escalated to the point where Busch Gardens Tampa and Six Flags Magic Mountain joined in.
With parks in Orlando, San Diego, and San Antonio, SeaWorld has a variety of thrill rides to offer its Guests, including Ice Breaker, Infinity Falls, Mako, Kraken, Manta, Journey to Atlantis, NEW Texas Stingray, Riptide Rescue, Sea Swinger, Wave Breaker: The Rescue Coaster, Great White Roller Coaster, Steel Eel Roller Coaster, Rio Loco, Tidal Surge, Emperor, Electric Eel and Tidal Twister.
What do you think of SeaWorld’s efforts to rescue and rehabilitate wild animals? Let us know in the comments below!
