Feds deny bid by SeaWorld and other aquariums to import wild-caught beluga whales

[Baitball Blogger]

The federal government on Tuesday rejected a bid by a consortium of U.S. marine-park and aquarium owners — including SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. — to import 18 beluga whales that had been captured from the wild.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service said it would not grant an import permit for the whales, which were taken from the Sea of Okhotsk off the eastern coast of Russia, because it could not say whether the move would harm the wild population from which they were captured. That is the standard required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The agency said that granting the import permit would likely spur further captures from the wild. It also said that it had determined five of the 18 whales were approximately one-and-a-half-years old when caught and thus potentially still nursing and not yet independent of their mothers.

It was the first time in more than 20 years that any U.S. facility had attempted to import a marine mammal that had been taken from the wild specifically for public display. SeaWorld and other aquarium owners, wary of negative publicity and consumer backlash, have for many years opted instead to take in rescued animals deemed unfit for release, imported ones already held in overseas aquariums or breed from their existing captive populations.


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-government-denies-beluga-whale-import-20130806,0,2082247.story

[dipsydoodle]

1. Good.

.

[Bette Noir]

2. Ah. So that's why I've only ever seen them in Canada. I approve.

[Triana]

3. GOOD! Leave the poor whales at home where they belong . . .

. . .in the ocean and free.

Every living thing was NOT put here for humans to profit from or use/destroy. Other living things have the right to exist happily and safely besides just damn humans. Fucking predators.