This past Saturday the Entertainment Department with assistance from Animal Training hosted a group of USITT – Southwest members (United States Institute for Theatre Technology) to a day of "a behind the scenes look" at Sea World San Antonio. USITT – Southwest consists of students, educators and Theatre Professionals from Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana. This year their annual conference was held in San Antonio and one of the featured events was a visit to our park.

The next time you come to see the new Whale and Dolphin show at the park, look over to the right. You might see me playing with one of the newest members of the show team, Qinu.

After nine years, on October 30, 2009 we performed the very last VIVA! show. We shut down our stadium and began the monumental task of creating a new show. After almost three months of construction and painting, rehearsals for our new beluga whale and Pacific white-sided dolphin show are in full swing. It's a very exciting time for us!

[caption id="attachment_2642" align="aligncenter" width="456" caption="Okay, so I'm not really doing the actual painting...

It's official! We have a name for our new baby beluga. After a week of polling, 73% of the over 2,000 total votes make “Bella” the official name of our new baby beluga whale.

The response was terrific and we thank all who voted and encouraged their friends and family to do so. It was really awesome to get comments from parents who told us they cast their vote as a family.

Trainer Mike Pool has a good time with new mom Crissy and her calf.

It's been nine weeks since our family of beluga whales welcomed the newest addition, a beautiful baby girl.

Crissy and Her New Calf

The new baby beluga whale is long, thin, bald and has dark skin. By that description you'd think she was my very own daughter!

Beethoven and trainer Valerie Carleton Get Acquainted

We all huddled around the pool to witness his arrival. So many months of planning, preparing, and anticipation and now he's here. The very first baby beluga whale born at our park. So cute! So tiny!