Mid-Air Dolphin Collision Ends in Death

by Jarrett Martineau | April 28, 2008 at 07:49 pm | 1309 views | 5 comments

This is a truly strange accident: two dolphins collided in mid-air, during an aerial stunt at Orlando's SeaWorld, killing one of the dolphins.

This is the first time such an incident has occurred at SeaWorld and trainers and park officials are investigating.

ORLANDO -- A 30-year-old female dolphin died Saturday at SeaWorld's Discovery Cove after colliding with another dolphin during an aerial stunt.

Sharky was performing a jump for park visitors when she collided with the other mammal and died, said spokeswoman Becca Bides. Visitors who witnessed the accident were standing more than 50 feet away, Bides said.

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Lori Konar

at 20:50 on April 28th, 2008

This is one of SeaWorld's dolphins in a pool behind the scenes. The picture was taken during a tour.

Lori Konar has contributed a photo to this story.

nixxyblue

at 13:05 on May 2nd, 2008

Such a sad story. I hope they figure out why it happened and stop it happening again.

My image was taken in the sea off the island of Pico, in the Azores.

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LittleRoundtop

at 03:35 on May 5th, 2008

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unfocused mike

at 03:15 on May 6th, 2008

photo of a young wild dolphin exhaling just before surfacing alongside our boat in southwest florida. i'm incredibly sorry to hear about that death at seaworld and hope that nothing like that ever happens again. dolphins are such amazing creatures i'd consider trading places with one of them. of course, i'd want to be swimming free and just do tricks for people when it suited my mood like this guy. he actually did put on a show for us. he had a piece of mangrove root in his teeth that he kept tossing in the air, picking up and throwing it again and again. i felt honored to have witnessed it.

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Just Pics

at 19:55 on May 11th, 2008

Just Pics has contributed a photo to this story.