Hollywood producer has assembled cast to lobby for Lolita.
Hollywood producer Raul Julia-Levy's current project involves an impressive cast ranging from Johnny Depp, Lindsay Lohan, and Harrison Ford to Elton John, 50 Cent, and Plácido Domingo. He's attracted high-powered producers including Cameron Crowe, Ed Elbert, and Ron Howard. It's a veritable A-list role call, and he's still recruiting.
But the brightest star in Julia-Levy's lineup -- and no doubt the biggest, at 7,000 pounds -- is Lolita, a 40-year-old killer whale living in a 20-foot-deep tank at the Miami Seaquarium.
Taken from her family while still a juvenile, Lolita has been performing for sunburnt tourists twice a day over the last 37 years. The tank she lives in is just four times her size at its widest; she'd have to circle it more than 600 times to travel the same distance her still-wild family members might in an average day. Her only companion -- another killer whale from her pod, or family group -- died 20-some years ago after repeatedly bashing his own head against the enclosure walls. In her native Pacific Northwest waters, whales like Lolita have lifespans similar to humans; in a tank, that life expectancy is cut in half.
"The conditions that she lives in are barbaric," Julia-Levy shouts to me over the phone, unable to contain his anger. He decided to get involved in the campaign to free Lolita last year, when he learned that it was in need of star power. But as spokesperson for the glittery troops he's amassed, Julia-Levy -- the son of actor Raul Julia -- emphasizes that he and the other Lolita-loving producers and celebrities are involved as regular citizens, not activists.
"We are people who have consciences," he says, "and everyone in this campaign from Hollywood has a mind of their own, and we believe that what we're doing is the right thing simply because animals should live in their normal habitat."
Their fight is not a new one. In fact, activists have been trying for years to convince the Seaquarium to retire Lolita -- at times, offering up to $1 million for her release. She made national television in 1995 when played a recording of her pod's vocalizations and viewers watched the whale cozy up to the speaker and listen. In 2003, a documentary about Lolita, Slave to Entertainment, hit film festivals across the country, garnering more attention for the cause. But only in the last few months has the campaign begun to gain momentum again, making news as more and more big names join up.
Julia-Levy's passion for this campaign was evident just a few moments into our conversation -- and his fervor shows no signs of waning. When asked what's next, he hinted at a plan "involving a 'big stick,'" but said he couldn't elaborate just yet. No doubt when he does, he'll have plenty of star power behind him.
How did you first hear about Lolita and get involved in the campaign?
I knew about Lolita for a long time, but it was probably about a year ago when I really got involved with the campaign. I was actually a little depressed because my little dog had just died -- he was 9 years old. It was a very tough time for me, and I was looking at pictures of my dog on the internet and then I came across ... [a video] of Lolita and the conditions of where she lives. And I got even more depressed.
Then I did a little bit of research on the situation and I contacted the Keiko Foundation, which is [under the umbrella of] the Earth Island Institute. They're the ones that have the vast experience relocating animals to their natural habitat -- like Keiko [the star of Free Willy] and Springer.
Who all is on board so far?
The latest one to join the campaign is Elton John. We have some of the most powerful producers on board: Jonathan Sanger, Ed Elbert, Richard Donner (who was behind the Keiko campaign and was extremely instrumental in the release of Keiko), David Permut, Steve Longi. We have a wide range of celebrities, too, including Johnny Depp, 50 Cent, [Hayden Panettiere, Lindsay Lohan, Plácido Domingo, Janet Jackson, Ringo Starr], Harrison Ford ... the list is pretty extensive.
We really just want to send the right message. We want people to educate themselves and to learn and know that it is not possible for an animal of that magnitude, that large, that in her normal habitat is used to traveling long distances -- at least 80 to 150 miles a day -- to be confined in a small, little tank, day after day, night after night for the past 30-something years. That's not normal. That animal needs to go back to her normal habitat.
What does it say about our culture that it wasn't until these famous faces got attached to the campaign that people started to pay attention?
Unfortunately, in our society nobody listens to your next-door neighbor when he raises his voice. ... When celebrities speak loud and stand up, it seems like everybody listens, it seems like everybody takes it more seriously, and I don't understand why normal people do not do the same thing ... This is work that we all have to do as citizens. We all have to raise our voices when something is not right. Why do we have to wait for celebrities to raise their voices first?
Is it the responsibility of celebrities then -- because they are influencing the public this way -- to research these organizations and get involved?
I think it's everybody's issue ... every citizen in this country has the same responsibility as any celebrity in Hollywood. Everybody should be responsible for taking care of our environment, our water, our animals. This responsibility belongs to everyone.
The bed we're gonna be sleeping in tomorrow, we're making it today.
What do you say to the argument that Lolita shouldn't be moved?
Those who oppose this are extremely arrogant. Who are they to say that animals cannot be relocated? If you put a person in a cage for 30 years and you ask him to choose -- "Do you want to get out of that cage or do you want to stay there?" -- what do you think he's going to say? He's gonna say he wants to get out of that cage. Unfortunately, animals cannot speak. That's why we need to speak for those animals who cannot speak for themselves.
For those who say, "Oh, the animal is happy here because we love him," it's completely erroneous. Animals need to be loved by humans -- but in their normal habitat. Meaning: Respected. We need to respect their habitat; we need to respect their privacy; and we need to respect their freedom.
I don't want to love animals in captivity; I want to let them go. And this animal surely deserves to go back to her family, to her normal habitat. This animal has paid the highest price of her life: Being confined to a cage for 37 years. I can tell you 100 percent that animal cannot wait for the day to come that she's going to be free.
Speaking of raising voices -- tell me about the benefit concert. Is that still in the works?
It's part of our plans to put on a benefit concert -- absolutely. We want to do it in Miami, a couple of blocks from the Seaquarium. We're planning a series of events.
But right now, our team is in the process of negotiations with the Seaquarium. We will try every single diplomatic road to resolve this situation properly for both parties. This has to be a winning situation for both parties.
I think [Seaquarium owner Arthur] Hertz should really think about this because he's got a whale that's not going to live more than five years in that tank. And he can come out of this one looking like a hero. It's up to him. But like I said, our team is putting together a diplomatic plan to negotiate the situation, make both parties win, and do the right thing.
So that's the first step ... and if that doesn't work?
Then the campaign goes to a whole new level ...
Source: MSNBC
maandag 14 april 2008
Killer whales blamed for decline of Scottish seals
Attacks by killer whales may be helping to drive the sudden and mysterious decline of seals around the northern coasts of Scotland, new research suggests.
British populations of harbour seals (also known as common seals) are falling steeply, with numbers in Orkney and Shetland dropping by 40 per cent in the five years to 2006.
So far, the declines are unexplained, but a new theory is that killer whales, or orcas, the bulky, black-and-white predators which are in fact the largest members of the dolphin family, have increased their taking of seals to such an extent that it may be causing populations to shrink.
The harbour seal is one of Britain's two native seal species, the other being the bigger grey seal. But while grey seal populations remain buoyant, harbour seal numbers are tumbling, especially in the Northern Isles, where nearly half of them live. Surveys in Orkney and Shetland in 2001 found 12,635 animals, but when the counts were repeated in 2006, they showed that numbers had plunged to 7,277.
Several possible causes have been put forward for the precipitate decline, including viral epidemics, shootings, drownings in illegally set nets and the disappearance of sandeels, the small fish that form an important component of the seals' diet. But research led by Andrew Foote from the University of Aberdeen presented at a conference of the European Cetacean Society has turned the spotlight on to killer whales, suggesting that they may be preying heavily on harbour seal pups at the pupping season in June and July (grey seals reproduce in the autumn).
Orcas are among the fiercest animals on Earth, but in contrast with sharks and terrestrial predators such as tigers and lions, there is no record of them ever attacking people. One of the most gripping pieces of natural history footage ever shot was the scene in David Attenborough's The Trials of Life where killer whales hurled themselves out of the sea and up on to a beach in Patagonia to catch unsuspecting sea lion pups.
The new study is based on analysing inshore sightings of killer whales around Scotland, and in Shetland especially. It showed a clear correspondence between the seal pupping season and peak orca sightings.
The researchers constructed a bio-energetic model of the killer whales to get an idea of how many seals might be consumed by the orcas sighted to meet their daily energy requirements. Over the decade from 1997 to 2006, this worked out at 1,648 harbour seals, if the killer whales were preying on all age and sex classes evenly, and 3,829 if they were specialising in naive pups. These figures, likely to be an underestimate, would be adequate to drive a population decline.
Recent declines of Steller sea lions in the Central Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific could have been caused by fewer than 40 killer whales, according to one estimate, and five killer whales alone could have caused a reduction in Alaskan sea otter numbers in the same area. In Hood Canal, a fjord off Puget Sound in Washington State, two incursions lasting 59 and 172 days by two killer whale pods, 17 whales in total, were estimated to have removed 1,800 seals. In the Southern Ocean, they may also be driving declines in elephant seals and minke whales.
But why would the predator-prey relationship get out of balance? Five years ago, American biologists put forward a theory that orcas were driving declines in several Pacific marine mammals, including harbour seals, fur seals, sea lions and sea otters, because of a phenomenon known as "feeding down the food web" – a 50-year chain reaction set off by commercial whaling. They suggested that killer whales which once preyed extensively on sperm, fin and sei whales, had switched to smaller prey when great whale populations were decimated by humans. The mass slaughter in the Pacific of more than 500,000 great whales between 1949 and 1969, they said, forced the orcas to switch to the smaller mammals, causing their numbers to plunge in turn.
However, this theory is not universally accepted and Mr Foote does not think it explains orca predation on seals in the Northern Isles. "It's more likely that the killer whales have moved into the area following the movements of fish stocks, such as mackerel, and have just found there are lots of seals there, and are staying around feeding on them," he said.
Killer whale facts
Killer whales or orcas are among the largest carnivores on Earth, with the males growing to more than 32ft long and attaining a weight of more than 11 tonnes (the females are smaller). The male's enormous dorsal fin can be six feet high. They are found all over the world, from pole to pole, especially in colder waters, and are at the top of the marine food chain. They hunt in packs or "pods", and will attack anything in the ocean, up to and including the blue whale, the world's largest animal – with the remarkable exception of people. They have never been targeted by commercial whaling ships, although many of the animals were captured when the fad for dolphinaria came along and kept for display in pools, where they can be trained to perform, like other members of the dolphin family to which they belong.
Source: The Independant
British populations of harbour seals (also known as common seals) are falling steeply, with numbers in Orkney and Shetland dropping by 40 per cent in the five years to 2006.
So far, the declines are unexplained, but a new theory is that killer whales, or orcas, the bulky, black-and-white predators which are in fact the largest members of the dolphin family, have increased their taking of seals to such an extent that it may be causing populations to shrink.
The harbour seal is one of Britain's two native seal species, the other being the bigger grey seal. But while grey seal populations remain buoyant, harbour seal numbers are tumbling, especially in the Northern Isles, where nearly half of them live. Surveys in Orkney and Shetland in 2001 found 12,635 animals, but when the counts were repeated in 2006, they showed that numbers had plunged to 7,277.
Several possible causes have been put forward for the precipitate decline, including viral epidemics, shootings, drownings in illegally set nets and the disappearance of sandeels, the small fish that form an important component of the seals' diet. But research led by Andrew Foote from the University of Aberdeen presented at a conference of the European Cetacean Society has turned the spotlight on to killer whales, suggesting that they may be preying heavily on harbour seal pups at the pupping season in June and July (grey seals reproduce in the autumn).
Orcas are among the fiercest animals on Earth, but in contrast with sharks and terrestrial predators such as tigers and lions, there is no record of them ever attacking people. One of the most gripping pieces of natural history footage ever shot was the scene in David Attenborough's The Trials of Life where killer whales hurled themselves out of the sea and up on to a beach in Patagonia to catch unsuspecting sea lion pups.
The new study is based on analysing inshore sightings of killer whales around Scotland, and in Shetland especially. It showed a clear correspondence between the seal pupping season and peak orca sightings.
The researchers constructed a bio-energetic model of the killer whales to get an idea of how many seals might be consumed by the orcas sighted to meet their daily energy requirements. Over the decade from 1997 to 2006, this worked out at 1,648 harbour seals, if the killer whales were preying on all age and sex classes evenly, and 3,829 if they were specialising in naive pups. These figures, likely to be an underestimate, would be adequate to drive a population decline.
Recent declines of Steller sea lions in the Central Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific could have been caused by fewer than 40 killer whales, according to one estimate, and five killer whales alone could have caused a reduction in Alaskan sea otter numbers in the same area. In Hood Canal, a fjord off Puget Sound in Washington State, two incursions lasting 59 and 172 days by two killer whale pods, 17 whales in total, were estimated to have removed 1,800 seals. In the Southern Ocean, they may also be driving declines in elephant seals and minke whales.
But why would the predator-prey relationship get out of balance? Five years ago, American biologists put forward a theory that orcas were driving declines in several Pacific marine mammals, including harbour seals, fur seals, sea lions and sea otters, because of a phenomenon known as "feeding down the food web" – a 50-year chain reaction set off by commercial whaling. They suggested that killer whales which once preyed extensively on sperm, fin and sei whales, had switched to smaller prey when great whale populations were decimated by humans. The mass slaughter in the Pacific of more than 500,000 great whales between 1949 and 1969, they said, forced the orcas to switch to the smaller mammals, causing their numbers to plunge in turn.
However, this theory is not universally accepted and Mr Foote does not think it explains orca predation on seals in the Northern Isles. "It's more likely that the killer whales have moved into the area following the movements of fish stocks, such as mackerel, and have just found there are lots of seals there, and are staying around feeding on them," he said.
Killer whale facts
Killer whales or orcas are among the largest carnivores on Earth, with the males growing to more than 32ft long and attaining a weight of more than 11 tonnes (the females are smaller). The male's enormous dorsal fin can be six feet high. They are found all over the world, from pole to pole, especially in colder waters, and are at the top of the marine food chain. They hunt in packs or "pods", and will attack anything in the ocean, up to and including the blue whale, the world's largest animal – with the remarkable exception of people. They have never been targeted by commercial whaling ships, although many of the animals were captured when the fad for dolphinaria came along and kept for display in pools, where they can be trained to perform, like other members of the dolphin family to which they belong.
Source: The Independant
maandag 7 april 2008
Whale risks rise in Robson Bight
Governments' poor performance in dealing with a truck full of diesel fuel on the bottom of Robson Bight raises concerns about proposals for more tanker traffic and offshore oil and gas development.
The federal and provincial governments have expressed support for both, although the Harper government has not lifted the offshore drilling moratorium in place since the early 1970s. Both governments promise tough environmental controls as part of any change.
Given their response since a barge sank last August in the Robson Bight ecological reserve off the Island's east coast, it's hard to take the promises seriously.
The barge's cargo included logging equipment and vehicles -- one a fuel truck holding 10,000 litres of diesel. There was immediate concern about the threat to northern killer whales and other marine life.
But agencies charged with protecting the coast responded slowly and ineffectually. Officials first said the barge sank outside the reserve, which was created because of the need to protect the endangered killer whales. That proved to be false.
Biologists and environmentalists urged immediate inspection of the wreckage to assess the damage and the risk of spills. The coast guard said that was unnecessary. The diesel tanker would have been crushed by the pressure and the oil released, it said. Using a submersible to inspect the wreckage could cost $300,000, the coast guard said.
After a two-month delay, frustrated whale-watching and environmental groups announced they would pay to have a submersible inspect the wreckage. That prompted the governments to agree to conduct an inspection -- which turned out to cost far less than the coast guard had claimed.
Almost six months after the sinking, the governments revealed that the photos showed the wreckage was sitting intact on the bottom. The diesel tanker was full of fuel. The hazard was real. That was seven weeks ago. The governments are still trying to figure out whether the wreckage can be raised, with no timeline for a decision.
Paul Spong of OrcaLab, a nearby research station, says the delay is putting the killer whales at risk. They will return for the summer in June. The diesel truck, which could begin leaking at any time, is a time bomb.
The governments might ultimately decide the risks of raising the wreckage are too great. But their sluggish, inept performance so far has undermined their credibility.
And it has certainly raised doubts about their ability to deliver the promised protection should offshore gas exploration or greater tanker traffic go ahead.
Source: Time Colonist
The federal and provincial governments have expressed support for both, although the Harper government has not lifted the offshore drilling moratorium in place since the early 1970s. Both governments promise tough environmental controls as part of any change.
Given their response since a barge sank last August in the Robson Bight ecological reserve off the Island's east coast, it's hard to take the promises seriously.
The barge's cargo included logging equipment and vehicles -- one a fuel truck holding 10,000 litres of diesel. There was immediate concern about the threat to northern killer whales and other marine life.
But agencies charged with protecting the coast responded slowly and ineffectually. Officials first said the barge sank outside the reserve, which was created because of the need to protect the endangered killer whales. That proved to be false.
Biologists and environmentalists urged immediate inspection of the wreckage to assess the damage and the risk of spills. The coast guard said that was unnecessary. The diesel tanker would have been crushed by the pressure and the oil released, it said. Using a submersible to inspect the wreckage could cost $300,000, the coast guard said.
After a two-month delay, frustrated whale-watching and environmental groups announced they would pay to have a submersible inspect the wreckage. That prompted the governments to agree to conduct an inspection -- which turned out to cost far less than the coast guard had claimed.
Almost six months after the sinking, the governments revealed that the photos showed the wreckage was sitting intact on the bottom. The diesel tanker was full of fuel. The hazard was real. That was seven weeks ago. The governments are still trying to figure out whether the wreckage can be raised, with no timeline for a decision.
Paul Spong of OrcaLab, a nearby research station, says the delay is putting the killer whales at risk. They will return for the summer in June. The diesel truck, which could begin leaking at any time, is a time bomb.
The governments might ultimately decide the risks of raising the wreckage are too great. But their sluggish, inept performance so far has undermined their credibility.
And it has certainly raised doubts about their ability to deliver the promised protection should offshore gas exploration or greater tanker traffic go ahead.
Source: Time Colonist
vrijdag 4 april 2008
Killer whale sighted off coast of Nova Scotia
Jamie Peterson will never forget the sight he saw in late March while aboard the Gladiator 3 fishing on the Scotian Shelf.
A killer whale spent two days cavorting about the long liner while Peterson and other crewmembers, Kelly Chase and Ricky
Carrigan, hauled up halibut.
“He was playing around the boat. He’d come up and slap his tail in the water,” said Peterson.
“We never had the camera ready and we were steaming away and he was behind the boat and he came right straight out of the water, flipped on his side and landed back in the water. It was quite a show actually. He was showing off for us.”
The vessel, which was skippered by Corey Atkinson out of East Pubnico in southwestern N.S. was about 140 miles off the coast.
Peterson, who took pictures and a video of the orca, said it was eating halibut off their line. He estimated the size of the loner at between 25 to 30 feet long.
These predatory mammals eat fish, marine birds and a large array of marine mammals, from seals and sea lions to dolphins and whales.
Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology for the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History says
this is within the zone where orcas can occur (from Florida to edge of ice in the Arctic).
“We hear of the occasional sighting, but haven't heard of any in the last couple of years. There have been sporadic reports throughout the North Atlantic including Northern Europe,” he said.
The museum has a tooth from an orca stranded on Sable Island in 1972, and a report of another stranded in the Minas Basin in 1950.
Hebda says the orca may have been in the area for food, but that normally they are encountered in family groups called pods, typically seen in the Pacific Northwest.
Kent Smedbol, a research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans also expressed surprise at the lone sighting and said that males are more likely to travel alone than females. The DFO has had sporadic sightings of killer whales from Scotia-Fundy waters.
“Most cetacean experts consider orcas to be only occasional visitors to the Maritimes; sightings are more frequent around Newfoundland and Labrador,” he said.
Tara Stevens is a Ph.D. student at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. For the past two years she has been working with the DFO studying killer whales, humpback whales, fin whales, and other species. She helped to form the Northwest Atlantic Killer Whale Photo-Identification Catalogue and various other works.
“Killer whales do occur throughout the western North Atlantic, including the Scotian Shelf. They are, however, relatively rare on the Scotian Shelf (SS), at least when compared to sightings elsewhere in the northwest Atlantic, such as the Newfoundland/Labrador region.
“They might be seen on the SS a couple times every few years, and that is based primarily on opportunistic, non-effort based data,” she said.
“As for the habits of this species in these waters, we are not quite sure. By that, I mean that we do not know if the sightings of killer whales on the SS are simply of animals passing by, such as from Newfoundland/Labrador/Arctic Canada to/from southern regions, or if there is a permanent population within a range defined as the Scotian Shelf, or if they are part of a larger population that extends to
Arctic Canada,” said Stevens.
Scientists, tour operators and Inuit fishermen who crossed Hudson Bay notified Canadian researchers in 2006 about killer whales observations.
Researchers could not determine where the killer whales seen in Hudson Bay were coming from, but they suspect their origin is in the northern Atlantic Ocean, near Iceland or Nova Scotia.
FYI....
Date Latitude Longitude Number of whales sighted
14-Sept-67 44'01.2" 62'36" 1
15-Oct-92 42'02" 62'47" 1
03-Nov-92 42'03" 61'47" 3
23-Aug-99 44'20.73" 66'26.4 9
01-OCT-01 41'45" 63'42" 10
26-APR-03 43'37.38" 57'46.7 3
Source:NovaNewsNow.com
donderdag 3 april 2008
J Pod returns to the west side of San Juan Island!
Friday Harbor, WA -- On April Fools Day, J Pod provided a pleasant surprise by returning to the waters of Haro Strait, off the west side of San Juan Island. The Center for Whale Research confirmed that all members of J Pod were present with the exception of J-43. Born to Samish (J-14) last fall, this new calf has not been seen this year and is now presumed dead.
Source: The Whale Museum
Source: The Whale Museum
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