Vancouver Sun, Tuesday, August 12,
2003
Nicholas Read
Park board denounces aquarium's seal capture
For the second time in as many months, the Vancouver park board
and aquarium are at odds over the treatment of marine mammals at
the Stanley Park facility.
Board vice-chair Anita Romaniuk said Monday the aquarium should
have told the board about its decision to capture six Steller's
sea lion pups from the wild six weeks ago. As it was, she says,
the board heard about the capture through the media.
"People come to us to find out what's going on, and when we
don't know ourselves, it's awkward for us," a frustrated Romaniuk
said in a phone interview.
But aquarium president John Nightingale, who says the aquarium
is under no contractual obligation to tell the board about any plans
to bring new animals into the facility, says he didn't say anything
to the board about the sea lions because it didn't ask him about
them.
"We gave the board an orientation tour in March," Nightingale
said. "They had a full run-down on the [sea lion] research.
They asked us then to notify them about importing any whales or
dolphins, but they never said a word about sea lions, jellyfish
or herring. I don't know what to make of that."
The six sea lions are the latest of 22 animals to be captured by
the aquarium and members of the University of B.C.'s marine mammal
research unit since 1993 from the Scott Island group near the northern
tip of Vancouver Island.
Populations of Stellar sea lions are declining in the north Pacific,
and UBC researcher Andrew Trites says it's necessary to study them
in captivity to find out why.
Last month, board chair Heather Deal asked the aquarium to suspend
its search for new dolphins for its Wild Coast exhibit pending a
decision by the city's legal department on whether it is within
the board's power to ban the further importation of whales and dolphins
into the park. The aquarium refused.
Under the aquarium's current lease with the city, it is not allowed
to capture any whales or dolphins from the wild, and those that
come from other aquariums either must have been born in captivity
or captured before September 1996.
"[Capturing the sea lions] relates to what happened the last
time they brought a dolphin into the park [in 2001]," Romaniuk
said. "They did not tell the park board about it until the
dolphin was already here. We need more warning than that."
Romaniuk says aquarium staff should have known the board would
want to know about capturing the pups because of the controversy
that always surrounds capturing marine mammals from the wild.
"They're turning into a bit of a capturing service,"
she said. "I'd just like to know two things: one, could they
please tell us beforehand, so we know what's going on in Vancouver's
parks, and, two, could we get some idea of how much longer this
is going to go on? It's getting a bit much, I think."
Romaniuk says every time the aquarium receives new marine mammals,
the board gets calls and e-mails about it from the public.
The sea lions, which were about two weeks old when they were captured,
will be studied and then put on public display at the aquarium beginning
in September. Of the 22 animals obtained so far, 14 remain at the
aquarium, while the rest have been shipped to aquariums in Alaska,
Holland and Connecticut.
Trites said after the first capture of five pups in 1993, there
was talk of releasing the animals when they were no longer needed
for study, but it was never tried, he says, because of concerns
that the animals might not survive.
Also, he wanted to add to the relatively small number of Stellar
sea lions in captivity so they would be available for further research.
That troubled fellow researcher Peter Watts enough for him to leave
the project.
"When I first came on board, I was assured that we were going
to work with them to adulthood, and move them out to the west coast
of Vancouver Island and re-integrate them into the wild population,"
Watts, a marine mammal scientist, said in an interview from Toronto.
He also wonders about the necessity of bringing in new pups.
"What information are they getting from this new batch that
they couldn't have gotten from previous batches?"
Trites says more animals are needed because the more they're studied,
the more questions arise.
However, he says he understands why people object to live captures,
and hopes that after this year, no more new pups will be needed.
In the meantime, Romaniuk says, communication between the board
and the aquarium needs to be improved, and it's the aquarium's responsibility
to inform the board when it makes potentially controversial decisions.
"This is something the public has been concerned about, and
the aquarium is quite aware of that," she said.
She wants members of the aquarium to meet with the board next month
to discuss how to improve the situation.
Nightingale, who objected to "getting back-handed in the media,"
said he would be happy to talk to the board, but would keep certain
matters confidential if they threatened the safety of any animals
or aquarium staff.
By that, he means he doesn't want a repeat of "the circus"
that attended the move to SeaWorld in San Diego two years ago of
the aquarium's last killer whale, Bjossa.
"We'll tell them with the appropriate level of confidentiality,"
he said.
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MORE BAD NEWS:
One of the 6 sea lion pups has died at the Vancouver Aquarium.
Please help end the cruelty and write a letter to the editor, cc
the park board commissioner and send us a copy, too!
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