BUBBLES WILL BE MISSED Popular whale dies

Posted on 06/13/2016 | About San Diego, California

Bubbles, a short-finned pilot whale that lived at SeaWorld San Diego for nearly 30 years died on Thursday, the park reported. Bubbles was in her mid-50s. A necropsy will be performed to determine the cause of her death.

“While Bubbles will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her, she has helped generations of park visitors gain a better appreciation for all animals and the ocean environment,” SeaWorld said in a statement.
Female pilot whales generally live to be about 60 in the wild, and Bubbles was believed to be the oldest of her species in a zoological park, SeaWorld said.
She was captured off the California coast in the 1960s and performed in marine park shows most of her life. She spent two decades at Marineland of the Pacific in Rancho Palos Verdes, where she had her own stadium.
She was moved to SeaWorld in 1987 when Marineland closed.
Park officials estimate 100 million people saw Bubbles perform over the decades.
Pilot whales, like killer whales, belong to the dolphin family and are considered highly intelligent and social, living in pods of 20 to 90. They are not considered endangered. They eat squid and fish and in the wild and can dive to more than 1,000 feet in search of prey.
SeaWorld announced in March that it was ending its killer whale breeding programme and stopping its traditional killer whale shows.