Search For Mate For Killer Whale
Sparks Controversy

Monday, November 15, 2004
VALLEJO, CALIFORNIA – Wanted: single adult male companion for California girl. Must like seafood, water sports and hanging out close to home. Candidates lighter than 3 tons need not apply.

Operators of Six Flags Marine World can only wish they could hire a matchmaking service to find a mate for Shouka, the park's new killer whale who swims by herself in a series of concrete pools in and around Shouka Stadium, the aquarium she calls home.

Six Flags' attempt to unite Shouka with a lone male from Argentina has plunged the park into sensitive international relations and sticky environmental politics that center on mankind's treatment of killer whales, the top predator in the seas.

Park operators say the two captive whales would be best off if united to keep each other company and start a family of their own.

"Everyone needs somebody," said Joe Meck, the general manager of the Vallejo park. "It's logical to put two single whales together. Killer whales are very social, but some (animal) groups have fought this for selfish reasons."

A coalition of conservation groups from both countries, however, say nothing is romantic about the intended union of Shouka, of Vallejo, and Kshamenk, of Buenos Aires.

"It's wrong to say this a love story about two poor orcas. They would have never met in the wild," said Gabriela Bellazzi, head of Wild Earth Foundation in Patagonia, Argentina.

"The parks have created this story so they can illegally transport a whale for commercial purposes," she said.

Her group asserts that Kshamenk was illegally seized on a beach where he had flung himself in a hunt for seals.

He should have been towed out to sea instead of taken to the Mundo Marino marine park in Buenos Aires, his current home, she said.

Bellazzi said her group is prepared to sue the Argentine government if officials approve a pending application to export Kshamenk.

Meanwhile, the foundation's U.S. ally, the Earth Island Institute in San Francisco, is prepared to sue if the United States government approves Kshamenk's import, said Mark Berman, the group's associate director.

Conservationists contend both whales would live longer, better lives if placed in giant sea pens or freed into the oceans.

"In this day and age, we should not relegate dolphins and killer whales to life in a pool swimming in circles and performing stupid circus tricks," Berman said.

Six Flags and the Argentine park have contended that the animal groups have mischaracterized Kshamenk's rescue and distorted the quality of life of captive whales in general.

The fishermen who rescued Kshamenk signed statements saying the whale was in severe distress, said Paul Garcia, a Six Flags spokesman.

According to marine parks, captive killer whales are ambassadors for nature.

The whales, also called orcas, stoke public interest in protecting ocean creatures and environments, the industry says.

"Shouka has a good life here," Meck said of the Six Flags park, which closed for the season in October and reopens in spring. "A lot of people have learned from her. Seeing a killer whale in person is not the same as seeing one on television or a computer."

In the 1960s and `70s, marine parks used to fish orcas out of the wild, but that is no longer considered acceptable in this country, park operators say.

Many nations have restricted capture and display of killer whales. About 50 live in parks worldwide.

A 1972 U.S. law bars display of orcas unless the National Marine Fisheries Service grants an exemption for educational and conservation purposes.

Half of the orcas captive in the United States were, like Shouka, born in parks.

Now 11 years old, Shouka was born in a park on the French island of Antibes where she lived with her parents, who were of Icelandic descent.

As Shouka approached sexual maturity four years ago, her keepers shipped her off to a Cleveland park to prevent her from inbreeding with her father or other relatives.

Six Flags later acquired the Cleveland park but sold it this year to a buyer who didn't want the animals.

As a result, Shouka was sent to the Vallejo park, which has been without a killer whale since 2000 when the last of its two whales died.

Even before selling the Cleveland park, Six Flags tried to import Kshamenk, a solo whale since his mate Belen died in captivity in 2000. She had delivered a stillborn calf the previous year.

The National Marine Fisheries Service in 2002 approved Kshamenk's import, but the Argentine government denied his export.

The Buenos Aires park has submitted a new export application for a new destination: Vallejo.

Belazzi of the Wild Earth Foundation said she worries a new government in Argentina may approve the application despite a 1996 law that forbids export of indigenous animals.

"The whale belongs to the Argentine people, not a private company," Bellazzi said in a telephone interview.

Six Flags officials say they do not believe exporting the rescued whale conflicts with Argentine law.

Conservationists with Earth Island and the Humane Society of the United States contend both whales should be placed in large coastal sea pens to test whether they could be readied for release to the wild.

If unprepared for the wild, the whales could live out their lives in the pens, the groups say.

"Shouka could provide an opportunity to explore the possibilities for killer whales," said Paul Spong, a biologist with OrcaLab, a British Columbia research group.

Shouka could be more like a free whale and possibly communicate with whales swimming by, he said.

Conservationists suggest they try to raise money for whale relocations, like the $20 million campaign to free Keiko, the orca featured in the film "Free Willy."

Keiko died of natural causes in the wild last year, still needing food handouts and without joining a whale pod.

Animal groups say Keiko was a successful beginning in the effort to learn about returning captive whales to the wild.

Six Flags officials, pointing to Keiko's failure to survive on her own, said releasing Shouka to the wild would be absurd.

"She was born in a marine park, and she hasn't know anything else her whole life," said David Peranteau, a whale trainer at Six Flags.

Operators of the Vallejo park said that if Kshamenk can't come to Vallejo, the park will consider artificial insemination to make Shouka a mom.

Peranteau said, "We think she would make a good mother."