Stranded Pilot Whale Calf Finds Home at SeaWorld Orlando

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Photo Courtesy of SeaWorld

After a long journey, ”Fredi” is thriving in her new surroundings.

SeaWorld Orlando’s new 40,000 gallon rehabilitation pool in the Cetacean Rehabilitation Facility has its first resident -- a stranded pilot whale found beached in Key Largo last month.

The whale, weighing in close to 600 pounds and measuring 9 feet, was determined to be a 2-year-old female who was still a dependent calf, meaning that returning her to the wild was out of the question.

Animal experts used a stretcher to move the whale, who was named Fredi, into her first temporary home -- a water transport unit in a cooled truck. Dr. Chris Dold, chief veterinarian at SeaWorld Orlando, and other park animal experts kept a close eye on the big baby girl the entire five-hour trip, and that was only the beginning.

Now that she’s settled at SeaWorld, she’s being monitored around the clock by the park’s animal experts as they work to determine how to give her the best future.

SeaWorld’s goal is to have Fredi live with her own species, but for now, she’s socializing with two Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and doing very well, according to SeaWorld Orlando officials.

Now that she’s settled, she’ll be monitored around the clock by experts and, Dold and his team hope, will join the other pilot whales at SeaWorld.

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