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Checking the video now. My suspicion is that it is one, and if so it would be the first on record on exhibit in the US!

EDIT: Yes it most certainly is!! The short little face and barbels are distinctive. What an awesome addition, I’ll be visiting ASAP!
If you are visiting could you also try and get some pictures of the fish in the cold water tanks where the giant pacific octopus is kept please? There are some interesting species there which are unsigned.
 
At least from the video, I was able to see:
  • Axolotls of course (leusitic ones I believe
  • California Two-spot Octopus
  • Coral Catshark
  • Blue Hippo Tangs
  • Black Longnose Tang (a pretty rare species)
  • Arc-eye Hawkfish
  • I believe a juvenile Asfur Angelfish? (or in it's transitioning phase since it has the stripes)
  • Bicolor Foxface Rabbitfishes
  • Stripey's
And what I'm 95% sure is a Northern Wobbegong (Orectolobus wardi) based on the video they posted on Instagram, but my Shark ID isn't the greatest, so I'll leave to Local_Shark. I did hear that there was a recent import of the species to the US and some went to public aquariums and the smallest ones went to fish stores. Looks like Seaworld SD may have gotten one of them.
A/the black longnose tang was kept in an outdoor tank which was next to a bar, the tank also contained copperband butterflyfish and arc eye hawkfish (both seen in the video) as well as a broomtail wrasse and yellow tang, so I wouldn't be surprised if they moved in as well.
 
I’m almost sure that SW won’t let Dozer being alone, so eventually at least one walrus is going to be moved. The big question is which walrus is going to be.

SWO’s walrus exhibit is a bit overcrowded but I every member of that pod has a role there. Garfield is the breeding male; ChouChou was transferred from SD so as to breed with him after no success with Dozer. Kora and Ukiaq are play mates, and Kaboodle is the only breeding female so far and according to the press news she is Ukiaq’s surrogate mother. Honestly I can only see Kaboodle going to SWSD, she could be a possible breeding partner for Dozer who has yet to sire a successful calf.

I've seen someone bring up importing a few walruses from Japan. It's been done before, with Chouchou, so it's possible

It would be a bit difficult to import more walruses from Japan, there are not many captive born animals available there, and also SW Abu Dhabi got two females from there two years ago.
 
The signs say that it is a tasseled Wobbegong
Yeah it's definitely not a tasseled. You can tell by the lack of large bristles on the front. I am almost certain it's a northern but I will confirm when I go.

I will head over there myself as soon as possible @splendens - I don't live in the area, but I can try to get there within the next few weeks and attempt to compile a photo gallery at least. I don't know my bony fish very well so I'd need help with a species list.
 
Does anybody have a record of the shark species that were featured in Shark Encounter over its existence?
I can confirm that on my most recent visit, they featured a lemon shark (Citrus), sand tiger sharks, nurse sharks, zebra sharks, and blacktip and whitetip reef sharks, as well as some excessively large brownbanded and whitespotted bamboo sharks from their touch pools. I believe they also still had bonnethead and leopard sharks in the tank that borders the main shark encounter tank. That roster really did not change very much over the 20+ years that I’ve been visiting.

Allegedly in their past, they attempted both bull sharks and blue sharks, neither of which lasted long. I’m not sure if they experimented with any other species. SWSD also previously held the world record for a great white shark in captivity, at 16 days, but I do not know if that was actually in Shark Encounter proper (it likely wasn’t this iteration, as it was in the mid-1980s and I believe this SE hadn’t been built yet).
 
SeaWorld San Diego unveils new Shark Encounter for 2026 | cbs8.com More details in the article. Looks like we’re getting some new tanks and the design seemingly takes inspiration from Orlando’s
Honestly from those renderings it looks much more like Georgias Shark exhibit if anything.
I can confirm that on my most recent visit, they featured a lemon shark (Citrus), sand tiger sharks, nurse sharks, zebra sharks, and blacktip and whitetip reef sharks, as well as some excessively large brownbanded and whitespotted bamboo sharks from their touch pools. I believe they also still had bonnethead and leopard sharks in the tank that borders the main shark encounter tank. That roster really did not change very much over the 20+ years that I’ve been visiting
Thats 10 species, so atleast one new species is being added to the exhibit.
 
Thats 10 species, so atleast one new species is being added to the exhibit.
Realistically, it will probably be another small species like Epaulette or Coral Catshark if I had to guess, however, considering they just got the Northern Wobbegong, I'm really hoping they're able to get another medium/large species for the main tank, or if it is another small species, it'll be on the rarer side. Excited to see what they come up with.
 
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