WHAT WE LEARNED FROM BJOSSA 

Bjossa, the killer whale who won so many hearts during her two decades at Vancouver Aquarium, died of a chronic lung infection on the long weekend. Her death came short months after her transfer to SeaWorld in San Diego where, her handlers thought, she'd be happier in the company of other captive orcas.

Bjossa was about 24, having survived a few years more than most killer whales do in captivity, though not nearly as long as she might have in the wild where some of her species reach the age of 90.

We were sad to see her go in April, though we could not dispute the decision to seek out a more comfortable home for her. And we weren't at all sad to see an end to the 30-year killer whale program at the aquarium, agreeing with the park board that it's inappropriate to take any more killer whales from the wild.

The killer whale program, like any other, must be judged in light of the times, and while we see it as wrong for the 21st century we acknowledge that it did have a value in its day. That value is education -- it helped sensitize today's generation to respect for other species.

So it seems only right to try to learn something from her death.

Two lessons are clear. The first, given that her lung infection didn't clear up and she didn't thrive as expected after the move to San Diego, is that we humans don't always know as much as we think we know when it comes to judging the needs of other species.

The second is that, if a single killer whale can engage as many people emotionally as Bjossa did, then her cousins in the wild also deserve our attention and respect. That's a hugely important point, given the species' ever-more tenuous existence off our coast. Marine scientist Andrew Trites said this spring the numbers in the Juan de Fuca Strait had dwindled from 98 to just 82.

Toxic chemicals, underwater noise pollution, vanishing food supplies, harassment from too many whale-watchers -- no end of theories try to explain what's happening. Most likely, several factors are at play.

What these theories have in common, however, is that all involve the hand of man. If Bjossa's death causes any, or many, of us to reflect on that fact, it will have served a purpose.

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