Marineland of the pacific - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 22

upon the institution's employees. It's sad to see the early enthusiasm
and creativity wane, to be replaced by a “play-it-safe” approach.
In December 1965 Marineland missed a great opportunity to pio-
neer what was to become the most popular exhibit in oceanariums.
Don Goldsberry and Ted Gri‹n, from Seattle, had netted and trapped
a young, thirteen-foot female orca, or killer whale ( Orcinus orca ), in a
narrow inlet near Puget Sound. Earlier they had captured a large adult
male orca named “Namu.” Gri‹n and Goldsberry used a floating pen
to tow Namu to a larger pen they built o¤ the end of a pier near down-
town Seattle. Here Gri‹n had a remarkable one-on-one underwater
experience with the intelligence and gentle nature of the big male orca.
They befriended each other as Ted hand-fed chunks of salmon to the
animal and they swam and dove together. He realized the killer whale's
potential as an exciting oceanarium exhibit, and as a way to debunk
the myth of the orca as the “vicious killer of the seas.”
With the young female netted in a narrow inlet, Ted called Marineland
and o¤ered Bill Monahan, the general manager, the first opportunity
to buy the young female whale. Monahan said, in e¤ect, “No thanks,
we have pilot whales bigger than that, so why would Marineland want
to pay a lot of money for another whale just because it's black and white?”
Ted hung up the phone and called George Millay, president of the new
Sea World, down the coast in San Diego, and made the same o¤er.
Millay snapped it up.
The rest is history. The whale, named “Shamu,” was successfully air-
lifted to San Diego and soon became the star of Sea World's marine
mammal shows. Visitors flocked to San Diego to see this beautiful an-
imal perform. Needless to say, the boost in admission revenue quickly
recouped Shamu's buying price. Marineland eventually acquired or-
cas, but they missed being the first.
INVENTION OF THE SLURP GUN
I was learning fast during the years 1960-61, but not only at Marineland.
I had my boat tied up in a slip at San Pedro in Los Angeles Harbor,
and I took every opportunity I could to use it. Owning a boat and be-
ing poor are not a good combination. I looked for ways to make a lit-