So had to go to the research and there’s actually surveys that are done by the federal government that identify approximate numbers of animals in a given population. So we said, okay, we’re going to collect off the Southern California bite, B-I-G-H-T, and it’s a huge area off the coast… Read More
Sure, sure. The collection, when I became Marine Mammal curator, the collection was pretty well set. Bill Breaker, the director, had basically overseen that prior to my coming on board and said, Pacific White sided dolphins, beluga whales, sea otters, harbor Seals, California sea lions. We also were head put… Read More
One of the first pushbacks was by activists saying, well, what does that mean?… Read More
And were you running the, or were you running this operation?… Read More
How long had you started thinking about this, that kind of stuff?… Read More
What was it taking with manpower from the Shedd to acquire it?… Read More
That’s a hot one. The, we had conducted the dolphin collection in two parts. We had a permit to take eight animals. The first venture was 1989, I believe. Anyway, we collected five animals. We had ’em in a, an offsite facility so they could acclimate, you know, to our… Read More
Even though it’s a permitted activity by the National Marine Fishery Service or by US Fish and Wildlife Service, there’s a lot of consideration as far as how many you can take and from what environment you can take them. So What were the steps though that to, to get… Read More
You know, if this, like, this happens in the wild, you just don’t see it in the wild. The second collection was tremendously more controversial because there was a much more unified front of the animal activists trying to stop us and other facilities from acquiring animals from the wild. Read More
The other thing about, you know, the, the breeding programs is working cooperatively and there’s a very sophisticated animal record keeping system in a ZA such that we monitor and we actually try to identify pairings of animals that are not closely related. There’s, there’s a lot of scrutiny paid… Read More
Can you go into a little detail though about the white sided dolphin issue and how you were involved and what was going on?… Read More
So sometimes putting an animal in a specific habitat is not in their best interest because of pollution or somehow it’s been altered. So there’s, there’s a lot of considerations that have to be considered when looking at a national scope or international. So You had talked about activism. Read More
Boy, you know, the thing that jumps to mind, it’s going to seem kind of unusual, but to run an aquarium is very expensive. There’s number one, the variety in the number of exhibits. But the bottom line is you have life support that is critical to these animals. Certainly… Read More
Well, okay, there’s still a lot of animals, but at least you’ve narrowed the scope. She aquarium’s tagline at one time was the world’s aquarium, which some of us in the, in the husbandry area thought, who, kind of a bold statement, you know, we don’t have all the world’s… Read More
The big thing with the habitats is that generally they’re being degraded. We have climate change, we’re raising the temperature of the oceans. I would never dream that’s possible, but animals respond to that. Animals may migrate, animals may not tolerate that. A big thing that Shedds involved with our… Read More
What would you say is the largest professional problem facing US aquariums today, and what can be done to correct the problem?… Read More
So the, the curator would be more directly involved with that type of activity. Read More
I mean, it’s been going on for decades now, but how can we contribute?… Read More
And, and the thing with fishes is to try to minimize how much we’re taking from the wild. Again, there’s some pushback, for instance, in Hawaii collecting of some reef animals or is prohibited. So there are some animals that were favorites of an aquarium that, a variety of aquariums. Read More
How can we help affect collecting from the wild?… Read More