A woman is begging Texans who visited SeaWorld from 1997 to 1999 to help her solve a mystery she says has been haunting her since childhood: Did SeaWorld San Antonio once have an enormous fake whale head inside one of its attractions?
Jordyn (@whyjordie) posted a public call for more information about the whale head on TikTok. Her video has more than 2.1 million views.
The content creator, who calls herself the “Submechanophobia Queen” and shares videos about her fears of underwater objects, says the experience is what started her phobias in the first place.
“I need to know if this was real or if it was a Mandela effect,” she explains. “So many people have told me that they remember this, and so many people say that I’m crazy.”
‘I need to know if this was a nightmare’
For those unfamiliar, the Mandela effect describes a phenomenon in which multiple people share a similar false memory of an event or detail. Common examples include “the man from the Monopoly board game wearing a monocle and the Fruit of the Loom logo containing a cornucopia,” despite neither of these details ever existing.
According to Jordyn, the incident happened sometime between 1997 and 1999, when she visited SeaWorld San Antonio’s Great White roller coaster. Back then, she recalls, visitors had to walk through an arch of shark teeth and enter through an opening in a wall before climbing a set of stairs to reach the ride.
The issue, she says, was “a massive shark tank … that was kind of circular looking.”
“And inside of this massive shark tank,” she goes on, “was a giant blue whale head. A fake giant blue whale head looking at you through the glass of this shark tank.”
‘Nobody knows what I’m talking about’
She says this image has stayed with her for decades, eventually developing into submechanophobia, or the fear of submerged man-made objects. She says she also developed a fear of whales.
Now, Jordyn says she can’t find a single photograph of it.
“Nobody knows what I’m talking about except for the people that went there in the ‘90s,” she says. She notes that the original entrance has since been changed and the aquarium is long gone.
And it’s not for lack of trying.
“I have been on Reddit, I have been on SeaWorld forums for decades trying to find photos or videos of this giant whale head in this shark tank,” she says.
“Even thinking about it makes me want to throw up,” she admits. “Like, it is sickening to even think about this thing.”
In her latest appeal, Jordyn specifically “begs” anyone who visited SeaWorld San Antonio between 1997 and 1999 to go through their old media.
“I need to know if this was a nightmare that I had or if it was real or what. I wanna see this whale as much as I don’t wanna see this whale,” she says.
What is submechanophobia?
Submechanophobia is “the intense, irrational fear of submerged or partially submerged man-made objects.”
According to Medical News Today, common triggers include sunken ships, submarines, buoys, and other man-made objects underwater.
Doctors don’t fully understand why people develop specific phobias, though in this case, Jordyn makes it pretty clear in the caption of her video that “San Antonio SeaWorld is where my submechanophobia and fear of whales started.”
This makes sense. Medical professionals believe that when a child experiences fear of something specific, it activates the amygdala, which is responsible for emotions, behavior, and memory.
“When fear activates the amygdala,” Medical News Today writes, “it may cause pathological changes in the brain. These changes may adjust their threshold for fear, which can cause a person to develop a non-experiential specific phobia.”
Did SeaWorld actually have a giant whale head?
There is evidence supporting at least part of Jordyn’s recollection. The Great White opened in 1997 as the first roller coaster at any SeaWorld park. According to roller coaster enthusiast site COASTER-net, when the ride first opened, “riders queued around a large shark tank.”
The aquarium was subsequently removed, with COASTER-net reporting that the exhibit was relocated near the park’s dolphin attraction because it previously “didn’t have a line for people that wanted to see the sharks but not ride.”
A separate 2019 report from Expedition Theme Park also confirms that the shark aquarium was moved to the front of the park.
Jordyn’s memory of the ride’s original entrance and the long-gone shark aquarium seems to check out, but when it comes to the whale head, things get a bit murkier.
In 2021, a Reddit user going by the handle u/Wonder-Rabbit posted to the r/HelpMeFind subreddit, asking for photographs of a “‘nightmarish’ plastic whale head” in SeaWorld San Antonio. According to the description, it was “positioned in a way where it was looking directly at you as you walked by.”
For Jordyn’s sake, here’s to hoping someone in Texas still has a shoebox full of vacation photos from 1998.
@whyjordie
Subplot News reached out to Jordyn and to United Parks & Resorts Inc., SeaWorld’s parent company, via email.
