POOL PLANS TO BE KEPT SECRET UNTIL BJOSSA GONE 

Aquarium will tell park board its plans on Thursday but the public won't find out the fate of the whale pool until later this month by Nicholas Read

The Vancouver Aquarium will reveal to the city's park board what it plans to do with Bjossa's pool at a closed breakfast meeting this Thursday. But the public won't find out about those plans until later this month, after Bjossa has left for SeaWorld San Diego. Thursday's meeting, which is for park commissioners only, was called after the the board filed a notice of motion requesting assurance from the aquarium that any new marine mammals imported into Stanley park will not result in any wild animals captured to replace them. After the meeting was called, board chairwoman Laura McDiarmid withdrew the notice, saying that it had served its purpose. "The aquarium heard that we are concerned and want to be informed of what they do." McDiarmid said Monday. This worries opponents of keeping whales in captivity. "I'm suspicious that the aquarium is being allowed to sidestep the public process and handle the issue of captive dolphins in Stanley Park behind closed doors," said Annelise Sorg of the Coalition For No Whales in Captivity. She is concerned that the aquarium plans to import more dolphins into the facility, and wants it to announce its plans publicly. The issue was supposed to have been discussed at a board meeting Monday night, but was deleted from the agenda after the aquarium's invitation was made. Aquarium director John Nightingale was out of the country Monday and not available for comment, but vice-president of operations Clint Wright said that on Thursday commissioners will be shown artists' renderings of what the whale pool will look like after it is renovated. He said the exhibit the aquarium plans for the pool will also be discussed, adding that "at this time there will be no net change in the animals on display." However, he wouldn't rule out the possibility of acquiring more animals in future. Nor would he promise that the animals wouldn't be captured from the wild. "At this time, we have no plans to bring in any animals from the wild. But I can't say that's for good." He said the aquarium will announce publicly its plans for the pool once Bjossa has left for SeaWorld San DIego. The whale's departure is scheduled for between April 21 and 28. McDiarmid wants assurance from the aquarium that no wild animals will be captured for display and that if Vancouver imports dolphins or porpoises from other aquariums, those facilities won't catch replacement animals in the wild. "We owe it to the animals to have at least that kind of security. We do not want to be responsible for yet another animal being captured from the wild." She said she would be concerned if the aquarium were planning to bring in any kind of wild mammal for display. "We don't want a zoo anymore." However, all the aquarium will promise is that it won't capture wild cetaceans (whales and dolphins). It says it is within its right to capture other animals, including other kinds of marine mammals. Sorg says the aquarium cannot make promises on behalf of other facilities because it doesn't have that kind of influence. "There is no possibility that the board or the aquarium van go to a dolphinarium in Mexico, in Israel, in the Philippines, anywhere in this world, and tell them not to capture any more animals. "It's way beyond their jurisdiction, and it's ridiculous to assume that the Vancouver Aquarium will be able to assure the board of such a commitment."

EDITORIAL 

Farewell, beloved mammal In our marvellously diverse metropolis, perhaps no single resident is as well known, or as generally beloved, as Bjossa. When the young adult orca leaves this month, bound for San Diego's Sea World, few of us will bid her farewell without a lump in our throat. Bjossa has lived at the Vancouver Aquarium since 1980 when, at the age of about three, she was captured from a pod of whales off Iceland. Since then, British Columbians have eagerly followed her trials and tribulations, from the heartbreaking deaths of her three calves and her friend Finna, to the unique friendship she has with aquarium official Clint Wright. We've watched with delight while she performed for the crowds in her tank (often spraying hapless humans with apparent glee), retrieving items and bringing them to people or generously showing us how graceful such a giant beast can be as it performed acrobatics as only an orca could. We've also quarrelled bitterly amongst ourselves over the ethics of keeping such magnificent animal captive at all. And soon now, we'll be saying, "Bye bye Bjossa." It will be a bittersweet parting. Bjossa is being moved to San Diego because it's deemed best that she live with other orcas, and our community is patently unwilling to subject another orca to captivity in Vancouver. On one hand, we at The Sun are glad that Bjossa will have companions in her new home. On the other, we humans will miss her, as may Whitewings, the Pacific white-sided dolphin who shares her pool. But pervading all our thoughts as we say goodbye is the sadness that Bjossa was captured at all. The time is long past when humans could justify, on educational, scientific or any other grounds, the imprisonment of a whale in an aquarium. In the wild, female orcas have been known to live to age 90. Bjossa, now in her mid-20s is a relative youngster - although she has already surpassed the 20-year life span common to killer whales kept in aquariums. While we regret that, unless circumstances radically change, Bjossa will live out the rest of her days in captivity, we do wish her a long and happy life among her own kind. We hope that San Diego residents will come to love her as well as she is loved in B.C. 

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