-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Letters needed for Van.Aquarium's beluga
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 10:46:59 -0700
From: Annelise Sorg <annelise@direct.ca>
To: Annelise Sorg <annelise@direct.ca>
GLOBE AND MAIL
Beluga prepares for move to San Diego
By WILLIAM MBAHO
Friday, July 15, 2005 Page S3
VANCOUVER -- Auntie Allua, as she is affectionately known by her caretakers, is off to SeaWorld in San Diego as soon as transportation can be organized for her 850-kilogram frame to get there.
The 21-year-old beluga whale is expected to be flown from Vancouver to San Diego in the next seven to 14 days, a Vancouver Aquarium official said yesterday.
"She's so big that we have to make special arrangements to get her to the airport, on a plane and then to SeaWorld," said John Nightingale, president of the Vancouver Aquarium.
He said the three-metre-long mammal, captured at Churchill, Man., in 1985, will leave on a breeding loan to SeaWorld San Diego.
The intention is to mate her and a 36-year-old beluga named Ferdinand, which SeaWorld San Diego acquired last year from the Duisberg Zoo in Germany, Mr. Nightingale said.
He said conditions for Allua's breeding loan include retaining ownership of the beluga and the right to recall her at any time.
"Allua's been here since 1985, and she hasn't gotten pregnant," Mr. Nightingale said. "It's in her best interests to have a calf of her own and in our interests to maintain our captive marine mammal population."
In addition to Allua, the Vancouver Aquarium has three female belugas and two male.
Mr. Nightingale said Allua had helped another of the aquarium's belugas, Aurora, nurse her calves Qila and Tuvaq.
"Our captive marine mammal population are dwindling," Mr. Nightingale said. "We want to continue to have them here for display, interpretation and education."
Annelise Sorg, director of the Vancouver-based Coalition for No Whales in Captivity, criticized Allua's move as unnecessary, unsurprising and part of a trade between the aquarium and SeaWorld.
"The Vancouver Aquarium is trading Allua for a Pacific white-sided dolphin," Ms. Sorg said yesterday. "The U.S. government recently received an application to export a dolphin from SeaWorld, and the aquarium here has one and would like more."
But Mr. Nightingale said no arrangement was made with SeaWorld San Diego to exchange Allua for another marine mammal.
Bjossa the killer whale was the most recent live marine mammal sent from the Vancouver Aquarium to SeaWorld San Diego and that was in 2001. He died from a chronic lung infection six months after his arrival.
Nanuq was the last beluga sent to the San Diego SeaWorld, in 1997, on a breeding loan from the Vancouver Aquarium. He lives at the San Antonio SeaWorld.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PROVINCE
Latest News
Beluga off to SeaWorld in San Diego
Vancouver Aquarium mainstay sent for breeding
Lora Grindlay
The Province
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Allua, one of the Vancouver Aquarium's beluga whales, is moving to a new home at SeaWorld San Diego this month.
"She'll be missed," said Brian Sheehan, the aquarium's curator of marine mammals. "She's got a great personality.
"What we want to do is give all the people that have got to know Allua time to come down and say goodbye to her."
The 21-year-old female is going to SeaWorld on an indefinite breeding loan.
It's hoped that Allua, who was captured in Churchill, Man., and brought to the aquarium in 1985, will get pregnant at her new home. She has shown little interest in the aquarium's male belugas.
"Sometimes different surroundings or different groupings of animals can result in mating," Sheehan said. "For whatever reason there hasn't been the interest between the males and Allua here at the aquarium."
Despite never having given birth, 900-kilogram Allua is known as a super mom.
She has been an enthusiastic helper with 17-year-old Aurora's calves. She was an attentive caregiver to Qila, born in 1995, and disciplined and even helped nurse two-year-old Tuvaq.
Sheehan said on moving day, which has not been determined, Allua will be coaxed into a sling and hoisted by crane into a water-filled crate fixed to a flatbed truck.
She will be driven to the airport and take the four-hour flight to San Diego on a specially chartered airplane.
Five belugas will remain after Allua leaves.
Annelise Sorg of the Coalition for No Whales in Captivity was not impressed.
"Is this what we want to continue doing -- breeding animals for entertainment?
Allua is "a great beluga," Sorg said.
"She doesn't fight with anybody. She's just a sweetheart of a beluga."
Nanuq, a beluga, was given to SeaWorld San Diego on a breeding loan in 1997.
He has not sired any calves and has since been moved to SeaWorld in San Antonio, Texas.
lgrindlay@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2005
--------------------------------------------
PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Province Editor
E-mail Address
provletters@png.canwest.com
Phone: 604-605-2029
Fax: 604-605-2099
The Globe and Mail Letters@GlobeAndMail.ca