Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 29, 1993 TAG: 9311290077
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Daily News
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A boat from the John G. Shedd Aquarium transported the live dolphins to San Diego where they will be given two to six months to become acclimated to captivity before they are flown to Chicago for exhibit in a 3 million-gallon oceanarium.
Shedd officials were surprised by the quickness with which they captured the dolphins. They had expected the capture to take days, and possibly weeks, because they can't try to net a dolphin unless it rides the wake of the capture boat.
The aquarium had a federal permit to capture the dolphins, and released two other male dolphins before deciding to keep one male and two female dolphins.
Still, word of Saturday's capture angered Peter Wallerstein, president of a Malibu, Calif.-based group called the Whale Rescue Team.
Wallerstein was part of a flotilla of boats carrying about a dozen animal preservationists who fanned out into the ocean Thursday in an attempt to foil the captures. Some activists also took to the air looking for the capture boat, he said.
Wallerstein said the animal preservationists did not even see the dolphins being captured, let alone have a chance to block the capture boat.
Wallerstein called the capture a "crime against nature," saying federal research has found that dolphins die an average of 4.8 years after capture from health problems, including ulcers.
However, aquarium spokeswoman Martha Benaroya said the federal research figures include all dolphins ever captured and said improved dolphin husbandry techniques in recent years mean that only 5 percent of all dolphins in captivity die each year.
by CNB