By Teri Figueroa
The San Diego Union-Tribune
SAN DIEGO — San Diego police Chief Scott Wahl had been chatting with one of his sergeants, Andre Thomas, at SeaWorld as they attended a “Shop with a Cop” event with school kids last year when Thomas excused himself. He said he had to go put on his wetsuit.
“I remember walking away going, ‘What is he talking about? That was really weird,’” Wahl recalled. He shrugged it off and headed to the next event on the day’s agenda: the dolphin performance.
And there was Thomas. In a wetsuit alright, a sleek black one with a patch that looks like a police badge sewn on the chest and sergeant’s stripes on the sleeves. And he was on stage. Like, as a performer. With the dolphins.
“I leaned over to my assistant chief. ‘Is that for real? Did he win an award or something to be part of the show? What’s going on?’” Wahl said.
That’s when the chief of police learned: Thomas — full-time police sergeant with a leadership position on the SWAT team — has a unicorn of a moonlighting gig. He trains and performs with dolphins at SeaWorld . Does it in front of packed crowds every weekend, as he has for years before he became a police officer.
“I was in awe,” Wahl said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
‘Killer whale trainer or a cop’
Thomas, 35, really does spend weekdays on police duty and weekends performing with dolphins at SeaWorld . Both were childhood aspirations. “I grew up thinking I’m going to be a killer whale trainer or I’m going to be a cop,” Thomas said.
Raised on “Free Willy,” “Andre the Sea Lion,” reruns of “Flipper,” and sharing his aunts’ adoration of marine animals, an 18-year-old Thomas moved from his native Fresno to San Diego , site of the closest SeaWorld .
Thomas took a job as a photographer at the park gates in 2008 — a foot in the door while he figured out his next steps. The next year, he auditioned to be a seasonal intern working with dolphins. More than 500 applicants, 16 open spots. With zero marine-animal experience but an ocean of charisma, Thomas got one of the spots.
Six months later, the internship — some of which bore all the glamour of scrubbing bird poop and bucketing hundreds of pounds of fish as dolphin food — developed into a full-time gig as a trainer.
He was in love with his job.
He was at SeaWorld in 2013 when he got a devastating call: His oldest brother had been murdered in Fresno .
“That was kind of the catalyst. What can I do to help prevent this from happening to somebody else?” he said. He began the application process to be a San Diego police officer.
But then came an opening for a killer whale trainer, which had been his ultimate dream, “the whole reason I moved to San Diego.” He snagged the job. Six months in, after he’d established “amazing relationships” with the orcas, San Diego police came calling. He wasn’t ready to leave and deferred entry into the police academy by a year.
“I thought when I left SeaWorld on Nov. 2 of 2015, I was done,” Thomas said. “I’d accomplished my goal. I knew if I sat at home that I wasn’t going to be able to live with the decision, so I started the academy the next day. I gave myself no time to think about it.”
He performed in the last show of the evening, then got up at 4 a.m. to start the academy.
Within a year, he was on patrol, assigned to Central Division. He was tapped for SWAT and later became a police academy instructor. A promotion to sergeant followed, and he was back at Central and back on SWAT, now leading a team of six.
Throughout, he was in love with his job.
An ‘instinctual trainer’
But SeaWorld . He missed it.
In 2016, he called his old boss, Wendy Ramirez , curator of dolphins. Talks led to an option: try out for the seasonal internship. Once again, Thomas bested everyone and was back for the summer. Same thing the following year. At that point, Ramirez and Thomas thought having him back one day a week year-round could work.
“That’s enough to keep him in the rotation, keep him with the animals,” Ramirez said. He was the beta test in that regard, but it’s not uncommon now, both said. With experience dating to 2009, Thomas is one of the longest-serving dolphin trainers on staff.
Ramirez says Thomas is an “instinctual trainer,” intuitively able to read the animals, an ability that “sets him apart.” He’s also a natural leader of people, she said. “One of his biggest assets is just his rapport with the team. He’s just the nicest guy, too.”
Sandy, a 49-year-old dolphin, seems drawn to him, eagerly moving toward Thomas when she spotted him near the edge of a backstage pool last weekend. She is the second dolphin he’d ever worked with. Thomas says Sandy is so good that novice trainers are sent her way; she trains the trainers. (Don’t tell the other dolphins, but she’s his favorite. OK, so is 36-year-old Melanie.)
On this particular day, the Sunday before Labor Day , Thomas was behind the scenes at Dolphin Adventure stadium planning out the 3:30 p.m. performance, deciding which trainers would team with which dolphins and what they would do. As he sketched it out, the other dozen trainers gathered around to take direction.
They were soon in front of a packed crowd. Thomas dove in and swam with Malibu , popping up simultaneously from the water and resting their extremities — his arms, her fins — on the edge of the pool. It’s a crowd pleaser. The stadium, which seats more than 2,700 people, erupted in cheers.
Mid-show, Thomas peeled off his SeaWorld San Diego wetsuit to reveal a second one underneath — the black one he designed to look like a police uniform. “I am a sergeant for the San Diego Police Department ,” he told the crowd, “and I’m still here, maintaining these amazing relationships that I have with these extraordinary dolphins. … I get paid to do my hobby.” More cheers.
Later in the performance, a twisting motion of Thomas’ arm sent 28-year-old Malibu swimming to the center of the pool to shoot skyward, spinning like a corkscrew.
“He’s multi-talented for sure,” Ramirez said of Thomas moments before the show. “If he were here full-time, he’d be a leader in our department.”
Wahl thinks the same with regard to Thomas’ future with the San Diego Police Department . “I truly do mean the sky is the limit for him as far as what he could do with his career. He could very easily be a future chief.”
A few weeks ago, Thomas was selected to be a part of the police department’s media services team, swapping SWAT duties for social media postings and chats with reporters. It’s the same office Wahl led years ago as the department spokesperson.
Back at SeaWorld , Labor Day weekend marked the last performances in the Dolphin Amphitheater until early 2026, as the stadium undergoes a renovation. Thomas’ performances are on hold during the stretch, but park attendees can still see dolphins at Dolphin Point and the underwater viewing area.
Perhaps it was meant to be, the way SeaWorld San Diego remained so intertwined in Thomas’ life. He recently asked girlfriend and fellow dolphin trainer Jessica Malley to marry him. She said yes.
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