SEALS, DOLPHINS, AND WHALES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2000:
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans on May 9 extended the Atlantic Canada offshore seal hunt until the end of May. Between low pelt prices and poor ice conditions, sealers had killed only 86,000 seals out of quotas of 275,000 harp seals and 10,000 hooded seals.
The Vancouver Public Aquarium announced on April 26 that it will cease exhibiting orcas. Opened in 1956, the aquarium in 1967 became first in the world to keep an orca. The last resident orca, Bjossa, 23, is to be transferred to Sea World, which has 20 orcas among four facilities, each offering many times as much tank space. Bjossa has lived at the Vancouver Aquarium since 1980. Finna, her longtime male companion, died in 1997, and the aquarium staff was unable to find a replacement.
JoJo the dolphin, famous for socializing with humans off the Turks and Caicos Islands of the Caribbean, was recently hit by C l u b M e d water skiers for the 38th time since 1992, according to his longtime friend Dean Bernal. Via Canadian ally Gwen McKenna, Bernal asked that Club Med be boycotted until their water skiing programs in the Turks and Caicos—reportedly also menacing many other dolphins—are permanently halted. E-mail may be sent to Club Med CEO Philippe Bourguignon a t Philippe.Bourguignon@ClubMed.com. McKenna requests copies plus any response at gmkenna@interhop.net.
As many as 2,900 highly endangered Caspian seals died from an unknown disease or toxin in early May, bringing the small landlocked species to the verge of extinction.
