Once you’ve been smooched by a beluga whale, you’ll never again believe “a kiss is just a kiss.”
As time goes by, the encounter seems more and more special, a brush with an enormous and gentle creature whose pearly white skin fairly glows in the dim light of the Wild Arctic exhibit.
People who touch–and are touched by–Spooky and Bandit during SeaWorld Orlando’s new Beluga Interaction program come away with a sense of awe and a better understanding of these whales, whose natural habitat is the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas.
“Our education department does a survey afterwards, and everything’s been very positive,” says Steve Lehr, assistant curator for mammals at SeaWorld Orlando. “Everyone’s loved it.”
Spooky and Bandit, who originally came from waters around Canada, are real charmers. The whales, who performed at SeaWorld San Antonio in a whale and dolphin show before moving to Orlando in 1995 when the Wild Arctic exhibit opened, are trusting enough of strangers to open their mouths and let you feel their tongues or to sidle up close and expose their soft, spongy sides for touching.
The setting for the interaction is intimate too. The lights are low, and only two people at a time may visit the whales, accompanied by two trainers.
Trainers Melissa Ranly and Lisa Thompson showed us hand signals to ask the belugas to come alongside to let us touch them. The whales responded to other signals asking them to poke their heads out of the water so we could feel their melons, the soft bulge on their heads. They spoke to us with the musical birdlike sounds that call to mind the whales’ nickname, “sea canaries.”
Later on, if you feel comfortable and the whales feel comfortable, you can ease into the 24-foot-deep tank to swim with the creatures.
Watching, touching and swimming with the animals is so captivating, you might miss some details the trainers will tell you about the whales’ behavior. But you’ll still remember they like cool waters. In fact, you’ll remember that in their natural habitat, their white coloration protects them from predators–they can camouflage themselves among the icebergs.
Spooky (1,700 pounds) and Bandit (a dainty 1,200 pounds) thrive in 55-degree water, and you’ll be sitting and swimming in it too.
A wet suit with boots protects you from a Popsicle fate as you chill in about 10 inches of water–legs dangling in the water and exposed hands gripping the ledge–in the Wild Arctic exhibit and lean out for a beluga kiss. You’ll adjust quickly as you and the whales warm up to each other.
A maximum of six people a day, five days a week, can join the belugas in their tank. The number is kept low to make sure the whales are comfortable, Lehr says. And because the program has been operating only since May 1 and hasn’t been widely advertised, that’s an exclusive group right now, making the experience seem even more special.
So who would be Spooky and Bandit’s predators in the wild? “Polar bears, killer whales, people who hunt for sustenance in the Canadian seas,” Lehr says, plus humans whose actions directly or indirectly degrade the whales’ fragile environment.
Spooky and Bandit soon will be sought after, too, by people with more friendly intentions
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IF YOU GO
SEAWORLD DETAILS
SeaWorld Orlando is 10 minutes south of downtown Orlando. It is open year-round at 9 a.m., with extended hours during summer and holidays. Basic admission is $59.75 adults and $48 children ages 3-9 (good for second admission to the park within seven days). Single-day Print(at)Home e-tickets purchased at least seven days in advance are $53.80 and $43.20. Unlimited general admission through Dec. 31 is $64.95 and $54.95 children. Prices do not include taxes. Parking is $8 for cars and motorcycles, $9 for RVs. 800-327-2424; www.seaworldorlando.com.
Space is limited for the “Animal Connection” programs, so reservations should be made well in advance.
– The Beluga Interaction Program, available Thursday-Monday, is $130, in addition to the park admission fee. Participants must be 13 or older, and must be comfortable in the water.
– In the Sharks Deep Dive Program, avail-able daily, two people in diving helmets and wet suits are immersed in a shark cage for close encounters with sand tiger sharks, nurse sharks, sawfish and other marine life. The per-person charge is $150, plus admission to the park. Participants must be at least 10 and do not have to be scuba certified.
– The Marine Mammal Keeper Experience, also available daily, is an eight-hour program in which people work alongside marine mammal experts with a variety of animals including manatees, dolphins and beluga whales, helping prepare diets and learning about the animals’ behavior. The cost is $399, which includes park admission. Participants must be at least 13.
Discovery Cove, SeaWorld’s sister property, also offers animal interaction programs. Guests can swim with dolphins, snorkel with tropical fish and hand-feed exotic birds. Admission is $259 plus taxes for the dolphin-swim package or $159 for the non-dolphin package. Discovery Cove also offers a Trainer for a Day program for $429 plus taxes that includes a dolphin swim, feeding and contact with animals. All fees are less in the offseason. 877-434-7268; discoverycove.com.
–A.J.M.
