A settlement requiring SeaWorld San Diego to follow strict standards designed to ensure the safety of its killer whale trainers was formally approved Thursday by California’s Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board.

Although the San Diego marine park and state regulators had reached a proposed settlement last month, it wasn’t considered final until approved by the appeals board and an administrative law judge.

As part of the new accord, state regulators are dismissing all four citations issued last year against SeaWorld, as well as related fines, stemming from allegations that the park failed to have protections in place for identifying hazards and correcting unsafe conditions when trainers and whales are interacting.

“A ruling by federal OSHA in 2012 imposing limitations on trainer interactions with killer whales during show performances also applies in California but does not address the hazards faced by trainers interacting with killer whales in the medical pool,” Cal/OSHA spokeswoman Erika Monterroza said Thursday. “The special order addresses these concerns and further provides that Cal/OSHA may re-inspect SeaWorld, with no objection, over the next two years to evaluate compliance with the special order and the effectiveness of its provisions.”


Among other things, trainers will be barred from surfing on the orcas, swimming under them, and also standing on the whales, except when necessary to get out of the park’s medical pool.

In addition to regulating interactions in the smaller medical pool, the settlement also spells out how close trainers can be to the water’s edge when working with the killer whales on slideouts that are part of the Shamu show.

The settlement’s safety regulations are unlikely to have any noticeable impact on SeaWorld’s theatrical orca shows, as the company long ago put an end to trainers joining the whales in the water, after the 2010 drowning death of a trainer at the Orlando park.

lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com

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