Update #89 - We won't forget her
We won't forget her
By Susan Berta
Whidbey News Times - Saturday, July 14 2007
On the 37th anniversary of the Penn Cove orca
capture, August 8, 2007, Orca Network holds its
annual commemoration of all the Southern Resident
orcas taken during the capture era, and honors
Lolita, the only survivor, who lives alone at the
Miami Seaquarium where she was delivered 37 years ago.
Much has changed in the lives of the Southern
Resident orcas, or J, K and L pods. "Granny," one
of the elder females of J pod who is thought to
be over 90 years of age, lived in a time when
abundant chinook salmon runs provided plenty of
food, the waters were clean, and the habitat
undisturbed. But the impacts of an
ever-increasing human population has taken its toll on Granny and her family.
At one time humans feared the orcas, or "killer
whales," and they were commonly shot at or used
for military target practice. Then in the 1960s
and '70s, that fear changed to a realization that
orcas were not dangerous killers, but were
intelligent and trainable, and the marine park industry was born.
During this period, 45 Southern Resident orcas
were captured and delivered to marine parks, and
another dozen or more were killed during the
captures. Finally in 1976 a count was taken of
the remaining population, and it was discovered
that one third to one half had been removed, all
of them younger whales, the impacts of which are
still felt today on this fragile, small population.
With just 71 orcas remaining, the captures were
finally stopped, and the Southern Resident
population slowly climbed to nearly 100 by the mid 1990s.
But now the orcas faced declining salmon runs and
toxic pollution. The starving orcas relied on
their stored up blubber for energy, unfortunately
unleashing the toxins which had accumulated in
their blubber and fat tissues over the decades.
From 1995 to 2001, 20 percent of the Southern
Resident population died, with the population plunging to only 78 whales.
In 2005, the Southern Resident orcas were listed
as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
Their population has crept back up to around 87,
but remains very fragile. Large scale efforts are
now underway to save this population that has
suffered from captures, toxins, and salmon
depletion, and finally there is a chance that at
least some of the human impacts on the orcas can be positive impacts.
Please join us on Wednesday, Aug. 8, to learn
more about Lolita and her family, to hear stories
from those who were present during the Penn Cove
orca captures, and to raise awareness of Lolita's
lonely existence, and the struggles of her family to survive.
The event takes place at the historic Captain
Whidbey Inn, on the shores of Penn Cove at the
site of the 1970 orca capture, near Coupeville.
The evening, from 5 to 8 p.m., will include
special presentations and sharing of stories,
displays, waterside ceremony, a silent auction,
appetizers and wine. Cost is $20 per person, with
proceeds going to Orca Network educational programs and projects.
Springer's back so you better get this party started
Victoria Times Colonist - Friday, July 13, 2007
Five years ago, Springer, then a sickly orphan,
was rescued from Puget Sound and carried back to
Johnstone Strait, where she rejoined her family.
B.C.'s most famous killer whale has shown up in the nick of time.
Yesterday, the seven-year-old orca was near
Ripple Point in Johnstone Strait and hopes are
growing that she could appear around Telegraph
Cove, near Port McNeill, for her own party.
"Her timing is very exciting. Everyone is very
happy," said Paul Spong, director of OrcaLab, a
whale-research station on Hanson Island.
Five years ago, Springer, then a sickly orphan,
was rescued from Puget Sound and carried back to
Johnstone Strait, where she rejoined her family.
Nick Templeman of Discovery Marine Safaris Ltd.
of Campbell River, who saw the whale yesterday,
agreed Springer looks great. "She's out there rocking," he said.
Marilyn Joyce, marine-mammal co-ordinator for the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans, will be one
of the guests at the weekend reunion.
Although it's mostly a celebration, the event is
also a chance toIn the end, the success was
Springer's -- the operation revealed the
incredible bond and cultural links between
families of killer whales, Joyce said. (Our
emphasis, and a lesson for all about Lolita's prospects to rejoin her family.)
Seaquarium's
new dolphin program
CBS4.com
"The new attraction is part of the Seaquarium's
long term plan to shift its focus away from the
animal shows and allow a more interactive experience for visitors."
This expected news that the SQ has built a new
dolphin tank and is looking beyond animal shows
stirs mixed feelings. On one hand, it could allow
them to release Lolita to return to her home and
family (though that probably would require the SQ
to shut down altogether), but on the other hand,
confinement and domination of dolphins amounts to
more of the same: abuse of highly evolved, deeply
social mammals. It also shows that they have no
plans, and probably never did, to build a new
tank for Lolita, as numerous USDA regulators and others have believed.
The full story of dolphin swim programs can be found here:
What's
Wrong With Swimming With Dolphins?
World Society for the Protection of Animals
Love dolphins? Don't buy a ticket! Untold numbers
of dolphins die during the notoriously violent
wild captures. These captures are carried out in
secret - far from the public's eye - so obtaining
an accurate number of dolphins killed is nearly
impossible. What we do know is that of those
dolphins that survive the capture and are brought
into captivity, 53% will die within their first 3
months in a tank. Every seven years, half of all
captive dolphins die due to the violence of their
capture, intestinal disease, chlorine poisoning
and stress-related illness. To the captivity
industry, these numbers are accepted as standard
operating expenses, but if this information was
printed on SWTD brochures, it is unlikely that
any person who cares about dolphins would purchase a ticket.
If you have heard that dolphins can heal the sick, you should read this:
Dolphin-Assisted
Therapy: Flawed Data, Flawed Conclusions
Lori Marino, Ph.D and Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D.
"...the current evidence for the efficacy of DAT
can at best be described as thoroughly
unconvincing. Both practitioners of DAT and
parents who are considering DAT for their
children should be made aware that this treatment
has yet to be subjected to an adequate empirical test..."
Finally, if you're wondering if dolphins are really all that intelligent, see:
Cetaceans Have Complex Brains for Complex Cognition
Lori Marino, Ph.D, et al.
"We believe that the time is ripe to present an
integrated view of cetacean brains, behavior, and
evolution based on the wealth of accumulated and
recent data on these topics. Our conclusions
support the more generally accepted view that the
large brain of cetaceans evolved to support complex cognitive abilities."
Orcas are by far the largest members of the
dolphin family, with brains four times the size
of bottlenose dolphins, so just imagine Lolita's
memories and thoughts, almost 37 years after her capture.
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