Sea World seems to have gotten itself in quite a bit of hot water lately. They have begun to reach out the federal agency which is investigation the death of a killer-whale trainer at the SeaWorld location in Orlando Florida, to talk about the possibility of negotiating a settlement, even before the investigation is complete.
The idea is for SeaWorld to strike a “pre-citation settlement” with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The organization has been investigation the safety practices of SeaWorld since February 24th, when one of their trainers, Dawn Brancheau, was killed by a 6 ton killer whale by the name of Tilikum.
However, SeaWorld is grasping at straws, as pre-emptive agreements with OSHA are relatively unheard of, and to actually reach one would require that the Orlando based SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment to agree to some work safety changes. This settlement might also allow SeaWorld a little more breathing room, and limit the amount of fallout from the safety probe, by making sure it is over as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t made clear on Monday whether or not the OSHA was even willing to consider such a setlement with SeaWorld. The OSHA has very recently begun to take a more strict approach to the enforcement of policies for theme parks and other entertainment venues.
SeaWorld has been “on notice” since last month after a bunch of work related injuries, and even deaths at SeaWorld Orlando, and Walt Disney World.