Free Lolita

You can read about whale captures and what happened to the pods in this area in the "Sound of Broken Promises" series. Many of the stories center around the whale named Granny, or J-2. She is a close relative of J-1, the most photographed whale in this area. Photos put her in the nets at the scene of the capture, but she was too old to take. However, many captors claim that she threatened to bite them as they neared the calves. She is the matriarch of J Pod and so her defensive behavior comes as no surprise. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/brokenpromises/288237_granny311.asp

I’ve almost been on the island for a week and I’ve learned the following valuable lessons:

• Don’t take cell phone reception for granted… constantly roaming really stinks.
• Water is a valuable resource and even more valuable on an island surrounded by salt water.
• The Internet is the best invention of all time (besides the printing press) and if you go for extended periods without it, it makes you go insane.
• Don’t park close to the main street. In small communities, where there’s basically no crime, tickets are given out like candy at a parade.
• If you’ve installed an alarm in your car, don’t show it off. Some people don’t know what it is and it attracts unnecessary attention.
• Some places in the world people don’t lock their homes. Weird.
• Wet seasons mean one thing: ants. Buy traps ASAP.
• Always box up leftovers… you never know when you’ll have the time or the desire to go grocery shopping.
• Sometimes we damage nature so much that when we try to fix it, we make it even worse. It's better to spend the money upfront to prevent disaster than it is to spend more money trying to recover from it.
• More Lessons from the Harbor to come…
  

This week was spent getting to know my new roomie, Mike. He’s going to be a captain for San Juan Safaris over the summer and his companionship is welcome. Living alone in a place with no Internet is extremely boring. The island itself is great, and there’s a lot to do… in the summer time. This time of year is still slow on the island because it relies on seasonal visitors and doesn’t become a happening place until mid-May. Mike seems pretty cool and has worked on the islands before as a captain for the BeamReach program that selects college students from around the country to monitor the orcas. He’s pretty familiar with the island and how to get around, so hopefully he can teach me how to recognize where I am on the water. There are so many islands around here that it’s difficult to recognize where you are at on the water.

I’m starting to miss home a little bit. I wouldn’t say I’m homesick, but I miss the people a lot. I watched American Idol last night and it was weird not to have my mom and dad to critique the performances with me. I talk to my family and Travis everyday. I miss Trav a lot too, especially right now because he gives really good back rubs and my back has been sore lately. My house is heated by a gas stove and it sometimes gets cold in the evening, so it’d be nice to have someone to cuddle with.

Yesterday, while I was at work, my boss Bill ran into the office and told me to come outside because a little river otter (below) was hunting in the muck around the harbor. It was about the size of a cat and was twirling around in the shallows searching for mollusks and small fish. I’m a bit starved for company since Mike left for a few days so I seriously considered taking the otter home with me. (I don’t know how my landlords or their dog, Moirah, would appreciate that though, so I left the little critter be.) Later that day I researched local wildlife so I could prepare for the tour we’re giving to Austrian travel agents tomorrow afternoon. In the process, I looked up info on otters and found they are a part of the weasel family. This brought my thoughts back home because dad refers to Lance as a little weasel.

I came across some unfortunate information in my research regarding orca captures in the Puget Sound area. Many people ask about whale captures on the tours and I want to know as much as I can so I can field their questions. I found that a member of L-Pod, specifically the L-12 subpod, Lolita, is the only living Southern Resident in captivity. Many whales died during the capture process and those that lived had a short lifespan in amusement parks. Now, since live captures were made illegal, amusement parks have a captive breeding program. However, Lolita, of the Miami Seaquarium came directly from our Southern Resident community and a current documentary, “Lolita Slave to Entertainment: She’s Dying to Amuse You,” has made headlines with its powerful examination of a whale who still recognizes her family. You can look at the documentary trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkloiwCLBmc. Lolita is in her thirties, one of the oldest whales in captivity, and still identifies the calls of her family and sings them back to a tape recorder when they are played. She was purchased by the aquarium to be a companion for Hugo, an adolescent male orca. Hugo also came from the Southern Resident community. The two whales were separated at night, to make sure they wouldn’t fight, and would call back and forth to each other all night long. Hugo eventually died of a brain aneurysm from bashing his head against the tank in attempt to get to Lolita. Although it was amusement parks that inspired my interest in marine life, there is a dark side to the practices. Many parks make efforts to keep their animals comfortable, but the large tanks pale in comparison to the 90+ miles that wild orcas travel in a day. The stories of the whales being chased into bays, drowning in their captors’ nets, and fighting desperately to protect their young made it difficult for me to bite back tears. I hope the stories of the plight of these whales will inspire people to take responsibility for their actions and make them take an active role in caring for their environment. I believe God gave us the important task of being stewards of his creation and it’s up to us to make the difference. The picture above was taken by a whale activist in the 70s of multiple members of J, K, and L Pods as they fought the nets of their captors. Many of the whales that fought back drowned in the harbor. Their bodies were cut open at night and rocks were put in them to make them sink to the bottom of the strait. Their bodies were "mysteriously" recovered weeks later when they were too decomposed to have the rocks and anchors hold them down.

For those of you who are wondering, I am not becoming a “tree hugger.” However, there’s nothing wrong with lending a hand to nature. Sometimes it takes an emotional eye opening experience to realize that doing nothing is just as damaging as partaking in the action yourself. I believe the quote is, "The only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing." Will you do something?