ALERT: Vancouver Aquarium really wants Puget Sound Orphan Orca

Please read the newsarticle below and send a letter to the Vancouver Sun <sunletters@pacpress.southam.ca> opposing the Vancouver Aquarium capturing the orphaned orca in Puget Sound, plus an e-mail message to National Marine Fisheries Service official Brian Gorman <brian.gorman@noaa.gov> supporting his reluctance to capture the whale.

Although the aquarium agreed to stop keeping captive orcas in Stanley Park in 2001, they have been pushing NMFS for months to get this little whale into a sea pen which would probably be build off Popham Island. This island was donated to the aquarium long-time ago but has not made them any money (something that is against their principles, of course). The island is only a short boat ride away from Stanley Park where the aquarium is located, and chances are the aquarium would start charging tourists to ferry them to the island to watch the orphan orca that they "rescued". What a fund-raiser!

Let's hope I'm wrong, but just in case, please contact NMFS to ask that the Vancouver Aquarium keep it's nets off this orphan orca.

Thanks,

Annelise Sorg, Director 
Coalition For No Whales In Captivity 
Box 461 - 1755 Robson Street 
Vancouver, BC Canada V6G 3B7 

Tel (604) 736-9514 
Fax (604) 264-0653 
E-mail <annelise@direct.ca> 
www.whaleprotection.org