What a minute, I know that whale! I used to run back and forth across his underwater panels while Juneau was still at SeaWorld Orlando. What a sweetheart. Never thought to bring my trumpet in to play him a tune.
And yes, the sillier you think you are being, the more entertaining you are to a marine mammal. In the field we call this “environmental enrichment”, when we literally play to break up a zoo animals’ day.
As highly acoustic animals, it makes sense that a beluga would respond to this quirky display. Never mind the dancing and enormous sombreros.