From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 1995:
The clock is apparently running out on the sea
lion/steelhead conflict in Puget Sound, in favor of sea lions
who were caught, caged, and sentenced to death in February
under 1994 revisions to the Marine Mammal Protection Act,
for menacing the last steelhead from the endangered Lake
Washington winter run as they approached Ballard Locks. A
variety of nonlethal methods have failed to deter the sea lions,
but a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society proposal to relocate
them to San Francisco Bay and a publicity-grabbing cage
occupation by Ben White of Friends of Animals apparently
bought them time until the salmon run was over. Forthcoming
amendments to the Endangered Species Act are expected to
relieve authorities of the duty to save the last fish of particular
runs when the species as a whole is not endangered.
A female orca calf, stillborn at the Vancouver
Aquarium on March 8, died from blood loss due to a pre-
maturely ruptured umbilicus. “A calf experiencing this kind
of catastrophic event would be doomed whether in an aquari-
um or in the wild,” said consulting veterinarian David Huff.
The calf was the third the Vancouver Aquarium has lost, with
none surviving longer than 97 days. The death came five days
after an infant orca died at the Kamogawa Sea World (no rela-
tion to the U.S. Sea World chain) in Japan. The losses, along
with that of another infant orca at Sea World San Antonio on
December 28, renewed protest against trying to breed orcas in
captivity. However, noted MARMAM online bulletin board
host Robin Baird, “A large proportion of the killer whale
calves who have not survived have been from two particular
mothers, both at aquaria which have not had a single surviving
calf.” Orca calves born at U.S. Sea World facilities by contrast
have a better survival rate than wildborn counterparts.
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