ANOTHER WHALE FOR SALE

Last week, SeaWorld in San Diego applied to the US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for a permit to import “Imaq”, the Vancouver Aquarium’s male beluga whale. Imaq was captured near Churchill, Manitoba in 1990. The public has until April 8th to send comments to NMFS opposing SeaWorld's import permit application.

For decades the Vancouver Public Aquarium has laundered wild-caught whales into the US where restrictions stop SeaWorld from capturing wild marine mammals.

Examples include:

- On April 21, 2001, the aquarium shipped a female orca whale named “Bjossa” to SeaWorld, where she died 6 months later alone in a small reserve tank.

- In November 1997, the male orca “Finna” was sold but he died in Vancouver before he could be shipped away.

- In 1995, after successfully breeding a female beluga with a male called “Nanuq”, he was treated as an “excess” whale and warehoused in the aquarium’s tiny reserve tank for 2 1/2 years before he was sold to SeaWorld.

- Last year, the aquarium bred the same female beluga with Imaq and her calf is expected to be born in July. Imaq has now been warehoused in the reserve tank for 6 months, hidden from public view waiting to be shipped to SeaWorld if NMFS approves the import permit.

The Coalition For No Whales In Captivity urges NMFS not to grant SeaWorld a permit to import another whale from Vancouver. The aquarium should return “excess” whales to the wild and not sell them to SeaWorld.

The Coalition For No Whales In Captivity once again reminds the governors of the Vancouver Public Aquarium Association of the two separate reports (1992 & 1999) commissioned by Fisheries & Oceans Canada, which clearly state that the aquarium should stop breeding and importing whales and dolphins because facilities in Stanley Park do not meet minimum standards.

FROM: COALITION FOR NO WHALES IN CAPTIVITY Box 461-1755 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC V6G 3B7 TEL: (604) 736-9514 E-mail: <annelise@direct.ca>

---- ACTION ALERT # 1: WRITE TO NMFS

Oppose another wild-caught whale being laundered into the US by the Vancouver Aquarium.

PLEASE SNAIL-MAIL your letter to National Marine Fisheries Service before April 8, 2002.

Ann D. Terbush, Chief, Permits, Conservation and Education Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service 1315 East-West Highway, Room 13705, Silver Spring, MD 20910 - USA

You can fax your letter before April 8 provided your fax is confirmed by hard copy submitted by mail and postmarked no later than the closing date of the comment period. Please note that comments will not be accepted by e-mail. FAX (301) 713-0376

ANNELISE'S NOTE: Not to discourage any of you from writing a letter, but we know that nothing we say to NMFS will stop them from issuing SeaWorld's import permit for Imaq. However, we must maintain the pressure on the government and the dolphinariums. Every little bit counts, eventually. So please WRITE TO NMFS!!!

---- ACTION ALERT # 2: Write to the Vancouver Sun

March 14, 2002: Last night Vancouver TV news stations did a great job showing our side and bashing the Vancouver Aquarium. Today there is a news article in the Vancouver Sun (see below). Although we spent lots of time and effort yesterday providing the Sun reporter with tons of info, we are disappointed with the content of today's article.

Regardless, please help the whales by writing a letter to the editor opposing the aquarium's breeding program and whale-laundering business. Thanks! Vancouver Sun <sunletters@pacpress.southam.ca> -

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Vancouver Sun - March 14, 2002

AQUARIUM CONSIDERS EXPORT OF BELUGA TO SEA WORLD by Nicholas Reid

SeaWorld in San Diego is angling for another Vancouver whale. This time it's a male beluga named Imaq.

Last April, the Vancouver Aquarium's only remaining orca, Bjossa, was moved to SeaWorld where she survived 6 months. Now the marine park wants to add Imaq to its beluga breeding program.

It has applied to the US National Marine Fisheries Service for permission to import Imaq into the US later this year.

Vancouver Aquarium Vice-president of Operations Clint Wright says the aquarium won't decide until June whether to export Imaq on an indefinite breeding loan.

Aurora, another beluga in the aquarium's collection is expecting a calf in July, and aquarium officials want an escape route for Imaq, the calf's father, should he cause problems for Aurora or any of the other 4 females there. "At this point, we are just being careful," Wright said. "We want to have the option of moving Imaq if it becomes necessary."

Because of what Wright calls Imaq's "rambunctiousness", the aquarium has already had to move him out of his beluga display pool to an "off-exhibit pool" that is less than a quarter off the size and out of public view.

Aquarium opponents say the aquarium is nothing but a "puppy mill" for US marine parks.

"I believe that what the aquarium is doing is perpetuating the slave trade of these captive cetaceans." said Nikki Rotmeyer of the Coalition For No Whales In Captivity.