Animal Ambassadors

Day two, after arriving in Vancouver and I'm on a small craft in search of killer whales in the Strait of Georgia. The weather was incredibly calm, resulting in the smooth seas that allow for easy spotting. Despite this and reports of earlier whale sightings, it still took us 45 minutes to find them. And then, there they were. A single dark figure, slicing stealthily through the water somehow instantly dissolved the chill from the cold air and the the tired eyes from nearly an hour of intense scanning. Shortly after, we were alongside a group of about six orcas: four females, one male on his way to maturity, and (to our delight) a calf. 

The calf was fast when surfacing, giving us very brief glimpses, but enough to reveal a remnant yellowish tint to the white patterns of its skin. The group was traveling leisurely, but in no apparent direction. Although we respected their distance, they didn't necessarily respect ours and several times appeared unexpectedly underneath or on any given side of the boat. It was exhilarating to hear the power in their exhales and humbling to witness the awareness in their eyes with the occasional sideways spy hop when the whales surfaced to breathe. 

At one point, another group unexpectedly joined the one we'd been observing and we were surrounded by at least a dozen whales for a few minutes. There was silence from the boat and silence from the water as the whales then separated just as quickly as they'd come together. To witness these animals in the wild and forested scenery of Beautiful British Colombia for the first time was truly special and so incredibly different from the way I'd encountered them in captivity. I fell in love all over again, but this time, I also came away with deep respect. On the way back to the harbor, I told the Naturalist onboard how grateful I was, not only for the experience, but for the footage I would now be able to share with others to hopefully instill the same love and respect for these unique animals. 

I also mentioned that I'd planned to visit the Vancouver Aquarium the next day and asked if she'd recommend it. "Of course I would," she said, "I work there." What are the odds? Her passion for the wildlife in the waters of BC became even more apparent the following day when I met her at the aquarium entrance for a VIP tour. Not only does the facility have many colorful fish and invertebrates on display, it is also home to an assortment of marine mammals. I was particularly fascinated by their pairs of Pacific White-Sided Dolphins (which I have never had the opportunity to observe in the wild) and their Harbor Porpoises (which at less then two meters in length, rarely allow anything more than brief glimpses of their tiny dorsal fins). 

She may have lost parts of her pectoral fins from entanglement in fishing gear,
but she kept a whole lot of her agility!

All four of these whales had been rescued and rehabilitated by the aquarium, but could not be re-released into the wild. It was obvious that my new friend and fellow Naturalist would have wanted nothing more than to see them roaming through the waters extending from the coastline where we'd seen the orcas the day before, but was happy that they were getting the best life possible while also serving an important purpose. I stood in front of the harbor porpoises and watched a couple of young girls excitedly rattle off facts that they'd just learned about the animals from another staff member. I suppressed a laugh as one of the porpoises responded to the girls, whose faces were now glued to the viewing glass, by quickly surfacing and swimming in a fast circle, then returning to face them and stare back just as intently. Meanwhile, the other porpoise was on the other side of the tank, seemingly much more interested in an object on the bottom than the girls. 

It was then that I was reminded of something I'd learned many times throughout my studies ... just as we cannot generalize about the individual animals (particularly intelligent ones), we can't generalize about their circumstances. Not all captive situations are the same. In the case of  these four whales, with little chance of survival in the wild, a positive alternative has been to serve as ambassadors to their species and to allow for research, with the ultimate goal of inspiring the understanding and love that forms the foundation of a conservation ethic in humans. However, today we know that many of these amazing animals do provide the incredibly special opportunity to be witnessed in the wild. 

These issues are not always black and white, they are more often grey and it is our responsibility, then, to hold aquariums, marine parks, research facilities, and even ecotourism companies accountable for their ethics and mission, and to distinguish what is carried out for the sake of education and research from what is purely entertaining and profitable.