Dirty Pool III: Keiko

January 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1995:

ANIMAL PEOPLE hadn’t scheduled a third part

of our “Dirty Pool” series on propaganda interfering with

marine mammal protection, but as the second part went to

press on November 22, Warner Brothers and New Regency

Productions donated $2 million to a new Free Willy/Keiko

Foundation formed by Earth Island Institute, the purpose of

which is to raise $10 million to buy Keiko, the orca star of

both the 1993 film Free Willy! and a forthcoming sequel

made with out-takes; fly him to a yet-to-be-built rehabilita-

tion site in Newport, Oregon; and prepare him for eventual

release. But Keiko’s owner, the Reino Aventura amuse-

ment park in Mexico City, is apparently not yet commited.

The Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor,

Washington, made the matter look a bit like a re-run with a

November bulletin headlined “How is Keiko, and what can

be done to help?” CWR claims to have struck a verbal deal

in August 1993 with Reino Aventura, to fly him to a reha-

bilitation center in the Bahamas and prepare him for release.

However, the story goes, the Alliance of Marine Mammal

Parks and Aquariums got wind of it and dispatched execu-

tives to Mexico City in the Sea World jet to keep it from

happening. CWR gave up on the deal in May 1994.

Watson says pirate took submarine

January 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1995:

The Sea Shepherd Conser-

vation Society, according to a Nov-

ember 30 advisory, “is pursuing legal

action” to shut down Paul Watson pre –

sents the great whales, “a fraudulent

whale education exhibit presently tour-

ing Switzerland,” operated by Marine

World Expo, no relation to the Marine

World oceanariums, “which is owned

by John Buegler, a German ciizen

from Rodenbach. In September,” the

statement continued, “Captain Watson

agreed to allow Buegler to use his

name in return for 30% of the ticket

sales, to support the conservation

activities of Sea Shepherd.” Buegler

also was authorized to exhibit the Sea

Shepherd submarine on lease, and was

to return the submarine at the end of

October 1994. “Buegler has refused to

honor his agreement,” Sea Shepherd

alleged, “and has instead kept all

money raised from the exhibit. He also

refused to pay for shipping the subma-

rine.”

Dirty pool: (Part II of a two-part investigative series)

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

VANCOUVER, KANSAS CITY,

CHICAGO––Propaganda wins converts to

causes by reducing issues to good against evil,

forcing observers to take sides. Propaganda is

among the most effective tools of warfare;

but like warfare itself, it exacts a high price

from those who use it. Much as the dead

from either side don’t “win” a war, propagan-

dists for any cause often find themselves

obliged to wage wars they can’t afford simply

because they chose to use exaggerated

rhetoric in trying to win a simple reform. The

nature of propaganda is that in making broad

accusations of bad faith by the opponent, it

cuts off communication, making enmity out

of disagreement and mendacity out of misun-

derstanding.

Famine hits Puget orcas

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

The orca population of Puget Sound has

grown from just 68 in 1976 to 94 now, reports

marine mammologist Ken Balcomb, of Friday

Harbor, Washington––but may fall fast, as many

whales in the heavily fished waters show signs of

starvation. Males are apparently suffering more

than females; several are missing, presumed dead.

The famine is a blow to the hopes of

groups trying to win the release of orcas captured

from those waters, including Lolita, 30, of the

Miami Seaquarium, currently considered the best

candidate. The Seaquarium tank is unsafe, Ric

O’Barry of the Dolphin Project alleges, and could

be ruptured by displacement from Lolita’s leaps.

MARINE LIFE

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

Hong Kong is building a new airport on

fill dumped into the former main feeding area for

highly endangered Chinese white dolphins, a sub-

species found only in the Hong Kong harbor area and

actually more pink than white. Of the 400 white dol-

phins counted circa 1990, only 50 to 100 survive

––many in a bay already designated for similar devel-

opment. The Hong Kong government has responded

to the dolphins’ plight by hiring biologists Lindsay

Porter and Chris Parsons to document their demise.

The Kyodo news agency reported

November 11 that the Japanese Institute of

Cetacean Research is soon to sell 65 metric tons of

meat from 21 minke whales killed last summer in the

northwestern Pacific––the first whales killed there

legally since 1986. The price is to be $17 per pound.

While nominally honoring the International Whaling

Commission moratorium on commercial whaling,

Japan has killed 300 minke whales for “research” in

the southern Pacific each year since 1987, selling the

meat after cursory study. This year Japan planned to

kill 100 minke whales in the northern Pacific as well.

Kyodo didn’t make clear how many whales of the

quota were actually killed.

Retired shrimper Cyrus Seven has pro-

posed starting a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchery

near Houma, Alabama, to be funded by the shrimp

industry in lieu of using much-hated turtle exclusion

devices on their nets.

Another of the 12 former Ocean World

dolphins who was flown to the Institute for Marine

Sciences in the Honduras on September 15 has

died––Squirt, age 34, captive at least 30 years.

Doug Cook, her trainer until 1979, burst into tears

at the news. “You might as well have told me my

mother died,” he said. “Squirt was the dolphin who

kept me in the business. She had one bad eye––she

lost the sight in it in the wild––but she was just

amazing, like a person in the things she could

understand and do. She would watch you training

another animal, and all of a sudden present you with

the routine, the whole thing, and get all of it right

the first time. She would improvise during a perfor-

mance, and if you tossed her a fish, it became a per-

manent part of her act. She loved to perform.”

Squirt died seven weeks after Trouble, her seven-

year-old niece, succumbed to pneumonia. Worried

by that death, Cook went to Honduras himself for a

first-hand look at the Institute for Marine Sciences,

which is part of the St. Anthony’s Key dolphin swim

program. He found the conditions and care excellent,

he said, a few days before Squirt died, but added

that he personally would have kept the dolphins in

the same social groups they had at Ocean World, to

avoid bullying, rather than putting them all into the

same lagoon together. Two of the dolphins, Mabel

and Tiger, are reputedly bullies; Tiger, he said,

once killed a young dolphin in a fight over food after

being starved as punishment by then-Ocean World

trainer Russ Rector. After Squirt’s death, Cook spec-

ulated that both dead dolphins might have overheated

on the flight from Florida. Overheating, he said,

may not kill dolphins immediately, but can lead to

death later of problems such as cirosis of the liver

that “can look like ordinary conditions of age.”

Merlin, one of the first five dolphins

brought to The Mirage dolphinarium in Las Vegas,

died October 29 at age 30-plus. Veterinarian Lanny

Cornell said the death was due to old age. An

Atlantic bottlenose acquired in 1990 from the

Hawk’s Cay Resort and Marina in Duck Key,

Florida, Merlin sired four calves at The Mirage, of

whom one died in infancy; three remain there, along

with the other four dolphins who arrived with him.

A National Marine Fisheries Service task

force has voted 15-6 in favor of killing up to 40

California sea lions at the Ballard Locks in Seattle,

to protect threatened and endangered steelhead runs.

Protests are being coordinated by Mark Berman of

Earth Island Institute: 415-788-3666.

Indonesia on November 5 banned catch-

ing and selling the rare Napolean wrasse, a seven-

foot fish often caught through the use of poisons that

kill coral. Environment minister Sarwono

Kusumaatmadja said Indonesia would pursue a

CITES listing for the Napoleon wrasse next year.

A humpback whale freed on November

16 by British and Omani divers after spending five

days trapped in a fish net thanked them by leaping

“out of the water six or seven times in succession,

landing with thunderous splashes, as if to celebrate

its newfound freedom,” the team reported.

Suit filed to save sea turtles

December 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1994:

SAN FRANCISCO––Earth Island

Institute sea turtle restoration project director Todd

Steiner and EII itself together filed suit on October

31 against Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt for allegedly fail-

ing to enforce the 1978 Pelly Amendment to the

National Marine Fisheries Act, which requires the

Commerce and Interior departments to investigate

charges that other nations are violating treaties to

protect endangered species––and permits the impo-

sition of trade sanctions if the charges are sustained.

Steiner says Mexico has not adequately honored a

1990 pledge to halt the killing of sea turtles and

traffic in products made from their eggs and

remains. The terms allowed the sale of products

from turtles killed before the pledge was issued.

BOOKS: The Secret Oceans

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

The Secret Oceans, by Betty Ballantine. Bantam Books (1540 Broadway,

New York, NY 10036), 1994. $29.95 hardcover, illustrated.

February 15, 2000: a magical community of talking dolphins kidnaps undersea

explorers in a desperate attempt to teach humankind intermingled lessons in planetary survival

and compassion for other species. The plot is predictable, but the message bears repeating.

No less than 12 artists contributed to the stunning beauty of the book, making it visually

appealing to all ages. The text, however, would speak best to 10-to-16-year-olds, particularly

fans of Seaquest, for whom it would make a perfect holiday gift.

Zoos & Aquariums

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

Ivan, the gorilla kept for 30 years in solitary con-

finement at a now defunct shopping mall in Tacoma,

Washington, was moved on October 10 to Zoo Atlanta, where

he will share a $4.5 million facility with 20 other gorillas

including Willie B., a gorilla who spent 27 years in isolation

but has adapted well to life with a family group. Ivan will

spend 90 days in a separate suite, viewing the other gorillas

through a window, before being introduced in person to any.

The onset of winter threatened to kill a manatee

who somehow meandered into Chesapeake Bay, 1,000 miles

north of his usual habitat, but a 15-member team from Sea

World in Orlando, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the

National Aquarium, the Maryland Department of Natural

Resources, and the Save the Manatee Club on October 1 cap-

tured him and took him to the National Aquarium, pending

transfer to Sea World and eventual release.

Dirty pool (Part I of a two-part investigative series)

November 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:

ORLANDO, NEW YORK CITY,

MYSTIC––Activists don’t believe anything

they hear from the “aquaprison industry.”

Oceanarium people don’t trust activists to

know truth when they see it. And small won-

der on either side, given the pitch of the pro-

paganda for and against keeping marine mam-

mals in captivity.

This debate differs from the equally

bitter conflicts over hunting, trapping, meat-

eating, and the use of animals in biomedical

research. Knowingly or not, the antagonists

in the oceanarium debate express smilar

visions of what oceanariums should be––and

issue many of the same criticisms of what

they are. They agree that saving marine

mammals is among the urgent moral and eco-

logical priorities of our time. Their only sub-

stantive disagreements concern the morality

of capturing marine mammals from the wild,

a practice now largely but not totally history,

and the ethics of putting them on display.

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