[Fwd: [Chick-Alerts] NPR show discusses investigatvie report on marine mammals in captivity]

[Guest guest]

FYI

 

Eric

 

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NPR show discusses investigatvie report on marine mammals in

captivity

Sun, 17 Oct 2004 14:13:30 -0400

 

 

To:

 

 

 

I heard the following on the radio yesterday. Note that it includes

interviews with both a reporter and a “whale collector.”

 

From the “Living On Earth” show broadcast 10/15/04 on National Public

Radio:

 

“Flipper’s Follies” segment synopsis: Millions of visitors flock each

year to water parks to see showcase dolphins and whales flaunt their

aqua stuff. But visitors may not know what goes on underneath the

surface of these marine parks. Many of these animals live in unhealthy

and sometimes dangerous conditions, with little or no management or

oversight. Host Steve Curwood talks with senior writer Sally Kestin of

the Florida’s Sun-Sentinel, about the business of sea stars. We’ll be

joined later by Ted Griffin, one of the first killer whale collectors in

the business, whose main claim to fame is bringing in the most famous of

sea stars, Shamu.

 

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TRANSCRIPT:

 

CURWOOD: It’s Living on Earth. I’m Steve Curwood. Sea stars are the

dolphins, whales and sea lions that jump and juggle their way into the

hearts of audiences year after year. They bring in the big bucks for

water parks as marquee attractions, and millions of visitors flock to

places like Sea World to get a little splash of marine magic. But behind

the aquatic curtain, these creatures may have less than glamorous living

conditions – some even downright dangerous.

 

Sally Kestin has extensively investigated the lucrative marine park

business, and the treatment of its prized performers. She’s the senior

writer at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and has written a multi-part

series on abuses in the industry. Sally, welcome to Living on Earth.

 

KESTIN: Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here.

 

CURWOOD: Sally, I want to ask you, how did you get into the story about

the treatment of marine mammals in captivity?

 

KESTIN: Last summer, a local anti-captivity activist had called the

newspaper wanting us to take a look at a death of a young orphan

dolphin. This was a dolphin that had stranded on the beaches near Cape

Canaveral and had been named Rocketman appropriately by his rescuers.

The federal government had decided that Rocketman, it was only a few

weeks old at the time which is too young to be returned to the wild, so

they sent him, as they often do in those cases, to a marine park, and

they chose a facility in the Florida Keys. But he didn’t do well, he

died about a month later after the move from some sort of infection. So

we had the federal records on this dolphin and, in reviewing them, we

were intrigued by what we saw…. some of the reasons that the government

had turned down other Florida marine parks to take in Rocketman.

 

CURWOOD: For example?

 

KESTIN: One of them had a herpes outbreak among its dolphins. Another

one had some problems with a recent inspection. They had inexperienced

staff and some questionable veterinary care. Another one had a history

of losing dolphin calves, and the list just went on and on. And the

conditions that we were reading about there just didn’t seem to match

this idyllic picture you get when you go to a marine park. So we decided

to take a closer look.

 

CURWOOD: Now you’ve catalogued the causes of death for many marine

mammals kept in aquaria. I’m wondering if you could list some of these

and tell us just how common they might be?

 

KESTIN: We looked..of course, as one scientist for the industry told us,

all living things die, and we discovered that the National Marine

Fishery Service has been keeping an inventory of all marine mammals in

captivity for more than 30 years. So the government had collected all of

this information on births, and deaths, and moves, and why marine

mammals died, and how old they were, and we found about one in five of

the nearly 4,000 deaths in this federal inventory, one in five of those

animals had died from either human contact or possibly preventable causes.

 

The causes of death would be stress, ulcers, animals died from too much

chlorine in their tank, from jumping into an empty pool during a

cleaning. Lots of incidents of marine mammals swallowing keychains,

sunglasses, metal, things that people toss into the tanks not thinking

twice, and the dolphin eats it and dies.

 

CURWOOD: What about the laws protecting these animals and the

enforcement of them? How well does the government, the federal and state

governments, how well do they do in enforcing the laws that are on the

books to protect marine mammals in captivity?

 

KESTIN: Well, that’s one of the things that struck us when we first

started looking at this. There’s just been a gradual weakening of the

regulations. And back in 1994, the industry successfully lobbied

Congress to essentially weaken regulations. They used to have to submit

necropsy reports to the government when an animal dies, they no longer

have to do that. They used to have to get an export permit when they

wanted to trade or sell an animal out of the country, they no longer

have to do that. And they got inspections moved from the Marine Fishery

Service to the USDA, which really doesn’t have the expertise. So we

found that the inspections are cursory and minimal. When they do find

violations, there’s a tremendous amount of leeway given to marine parks.

 

CURWOOD: Are there any particular cases, Sally, that you can tell me

about that really struck you as egregious?

 

KESTIN: There was one case out in Hawaii that happened over the course

of the last couple of years. The inspector had gone out to a place

called Sea Life Park, and had noted that they did not have a local vet

nearby to attend to emergencies or even provide routine care. And the

inspector had cited them for this inadequate veterinary care, and gave

them a deadline to correct it. Over the next 15 months, the inspector

went back out four more times, and kept noting that they still had not

complied with this deadline, still didn’t have sufficient veterinary

care. She even wrote in her notes that she had discussed the gravity of

the situation with senior management at the park because they had an

older population of marine mammals, and some of them with some fairly

serious medical conditions.

 

And then, last fall, the inspector went back out because a pregnant

dolphin at the park had been in labor for three days, never completely

expelled her calf, and at no time during those three days of labor did

she receive any veterinary care. The dolphin continued to weaken and

eventually died, as did her calf. And so that sort of struck us as

here’s an example where they knew about a potentially serious violation,

and it ended up in resulting in the death of two animals.

 

CURWOOD: And what has happened to that park since then?

 

KESTIN: The USDA is investigating, and that’s all they’ll tell us, so I

don’t know if they have taken any action, it doesn’t appear that they

have yet. It did become obvious to us that when they do crack down on

these parks, it is a process that takes months, if not years.

 

CURWOOD: How do you think parks can improve their conditions and the

treatment of these animals? And I’m wondering if there’s a particular

park out there, or a number of parks that you think are doing it right?

 

KESTIN: The first part of your question on how they can improve, I think

there are certain things that they have learned and have gotten better

at. I don’t understand why in this day in age, after so many advances,

you would continue to see facilities that just can’t seem to get the

chlorine right, the chlorine balance in their water, and we certainly

found that. We found a dolphin at Clearwater Marine Aquarium in

Clearwater, Florida that had problems with water quality and chlorine

for a couple of years, and their dolphins were suffering eye irritations

and their skin was peeling.

 

There also doesn’t seem to be much of an excuse to allow people to have

access, that close of an access to the animals where they can lose

keychains and sunglasses into the water. It seems like the parks could

put some barriers between the visitors just to prevent those sorts of

things. So there are some basic things that I think could be done. Sea

World is certainly held up by the industry and by Sea World as sort of

the leader in the industry in terms of animal care and breeding, they’ve

had success at breeding, I think they’ve now bred close to 20 killer

whales since 1985 and more than 100 or so dolphins. So everyone seems to

turn to them for advice on and help in breeding.

 

CURWOOD: You say that marine mammals are big business. Who profits from

these sea stars, and what’s a killer whale worth today?

 

KESTIN: A killer whale is insured for up to $5 million dollars. There’s

a killer whale here at the Miami Seaquarium that has a life insurance

policy for a million dollars, and that’s on the low end because she’s

been alone and has no proven breeding record. So, younger killer whales

are worth up to $5.5 million dollars, we found. Bottlenose dolphins are

worth anywhere from $100,000 to $400,000. We’ve heard offers of $400,000

for a dolphin calf in Mexico. Sea World paid $130,000 a piece for

several dolphins from Marineland a couple of years ago. So the animals

have become extremely valuable, and you can certainly make a lot of

money in this business.

 

In the U.S., admission to marine parks now costs up to $130 per person.

And they promote these extras that you can swim with the dolphins, or

you can become a dolphin trainer for a day for $650; you can send

someone to dolphin therapy sessions for $2,000 a week. On the revenue

side, we calculated that a single dolphin in a swim with the dolphins

program brings in about a million dollars a year.

 

CURWOOD: Sally Kestin is the senior writer for the South Florida

Sun-Sentinel. Sally, thanks for taking this time with me today.

 

KESTIN: You’re welcome.

 

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CURWOOD: I want to turn now to Ted Griffin, who was one of the early

http://tinyurl.com/3pz7twho profited from the sea star business. He’s

the man who brought Shamu the killer whale to national attention, and

he’s founder of the Seattle Aquarium in Washington. Ted, welcome to

Living on Earth.

 

GRIFFIN: Well, thank you.

 

CURWOOD: So, how did you get into the business of whale and dolphin

collecting?

 

GRIFFIN: Well I started with a long history of skin diving and being in

the water and very familiar with boats. When I built the Seattle

Aquarium in 1962, during the Seattle World’s Fair, I had planned to get

a killer whale and I was going to capture one within a few weeks. Of

course, it was four years later before I actually got my whale. But I

used to go out routinely, chase around after them, try to jump out of

the boat and get a rope around ‘em, drop a net over ‘em – I did all

kinds of things. Most people thought I was crazy, but to me it was just

getting in the water with a whale.

 

CURWOOD: Your whale collecting, though, did get off to a pretty

high-profile start, because you’re the one, in fact, to thank for

bringing Shamu to international attention. Just how did you rope in this

– perhaps it’s the most famous killer whale in Sea World’s history?

 

GRIFFIN: Shamu came into Puget Sound in November with a pod of eight or

ten whales. And this was the fist time I’d ever attempted a capture. I

got in my little runabout and followed the whales, and I saw a fishing

boat in the channel and I stopped and I said “would you like to help me

catch a whale?” And the captain kind of laughed at me and said “nah” and

said “good luck, boys.” So I went on down the channel and another

fishing boat and I said “would you like to help me catch a whale?” And

he said “well, what do you guys pay?” And my partner Don Goldsberry and

I had a bunch of cash in our pockets, so we waved money at ‘em and they

smiled and they said “okay, we’ll go.”

 

So, next thing I know, the fishing boat that I talked to first was

following along behind us, and so we went over and said “well, we’ve

already hired this other boat.” And he said “well, we’ll just come

along.” So here we are in Henderson Bay, which is near Tacoma,

Washington, and the whales are kind of lollygaging around the shore. And

all of a sudden, Don Goldsberry’s on the lead boat and he says “run,

run!” So the engine starts up and the net flies off the stern. Well, the

whales see that and very quickly turn around and go back the other way.

But this other boat, he has come up behind the whales, and he starts

from the back end of the net and goes the other way. And pretty soon

I’ve got a three-quarter of a mile round circle around those whales. I

couldn’t believe it. That’s how we succeeded.

 

CURWOOD: Now I understand that Shamu’s mother died in this process?

 

GRIFFIN: She did. The way I initially captured whales was to follow the

pod and if the pod were submerged I couldn’t see them. So I went to the

Fish and Wildlife Service and borrowed a shoulder-firing harpoon rifle.

And with a long string attached I was able to attach a buoy to the end

of that, and by harpooning the shoulder of a whale I could then watch

the buoy. And when the buoy got into the water that I thought was

suitable for setting the nets, then we could set around the buoy and,

hopefully, catch the whales. That’s how it happened.

 

Unfortunately, Shamu’s mother was the one that I harpooned. I believe it

was the mother, I don’t know that for a fact. And the female, as I fired

from the helicopter, she rolled – which is quite unusual – and the

harpoon entered her lung and she died shortly thereafter.

 

CURWOOD: Oh my God. How’d you feel?

 

GRIFFIN: Terrible. I mean, it was the first whale I’d ever actually had

alongside the boat, and here it is dying. My partner and I are trying to

tie it up and suspend it above water and get ropes under the pectoral

fins. This was a procedure that they’d used for years to fire these

cylinders with information into the whales. And then when they actually

kill a whale and cut it up for blubber, the little cylinders tell where

the whale was initially spotted, and how big it was at the time, that

kind of information. So I had assumed because of that information that

this was not a serious problem. In any event, the whale died. And my

partner and I are just enormously upset about it, but there’s nothing we

can do.

 

CURWOOD: From your experience as a founder of an aquarium, as a former

whale collector, what’s your assessment of the quality of the marine

parks these days?

 

GRIFFIN: Well I’m not aware of all of the parks that have whales, but in

any given situation you will find people who are short of money, and

short of knowledge, and are not taking appropriate care of their

animals. I mean, that’s just the way it is. On other cases, you will

find marine parks that put an enormous amount of money into it and do

the very best they can.

 

Now, there are people who would object simply because the whales are in

captivity in a marine park, and that’s enough. They say that no matter

how good a care you take care of them it’s not swimming in the wild. So,

all I can do is stand on what I have done, and I would do it again. I

wanted to know the whale, I wanted to befriend the whale, I wanted one

in captivity so that I could have it as a companion, I wanted to train

whales to go out into the ocean and come back, I wanted to domesticate

the animal, and I still do.

 

CURWOOD: Ted Griffin is the founder of Seattle Aquarium and a former

whale collector. Ted, thanks for speaking with me today.

 

GRIFFIN: You bet. Thanks a lot for talking to me, Steve.

 

[MUSIC: David Grisman “Desert Dawg” CONNECTIONS 2 – A COMPILATION OF

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA MUSICIANS (Jackalope – 2004)]

 

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This text transcript, as well as MP3/Real Player audio versions, can be

found at: http://tinyurl.com/3pz7t

 

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Links for this story:

 

South Florida Sun-Sentinel series on the Marine Parks industry:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-marinestorygallery.storygallery

 

A five-part investigative report by the Sun-Sentinel. Includes links to

the following segments, as well as photos and interactive graphics:

 

PART 1: PARK LIFE. What Marine parks don't tell you: Many whale and

dolphin stars have died young.

 

PART 2: CAUSES OF DEATH. Marine mammals on display have died of uniquely

human and seemingly preventable causes, such as contaminated water.

 

PART 3: PARK BUSINESS. Everyone involved with marine mammals prospers,

from Third World fishermen who catch them to major aquatic parks.

 

PART 4: ANIMAL SUPPLY. Parks are running out of animals and may soon

return to the wild to refill their dwindling stock of crowd-pleasing stars.

 

PART 5: LIGHT OVERSIGHT. The federal government often is slow to enforce

laws intended to protect marine mammals.