[HN Gopher] The Belugas Have Landed
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The Belugas Have Landed
Author : Hooke
Score : 31 points
Date : 2021-05-20 01:43 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.hakaimagazine.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.hakaimagazine.com)
| jeswin wrote:
| > The whales are all doing well, and are eating, interacting with
| each other, swimming normally, playing with their enrichment
| toys, and soliciting attention from the trainers
|
| Sorry, that's not normalcy. Locking a whale in a pool for life is
| cruel.
| [deleted]
| hulitu wrote:
| "This is it. This is the countdown to extinction." Megadeth
| dragosmocrii wrote:
| It's a matter of demand and offer. If people were not going to
| zoos and aquariums there would be no incentive to operate for
| those type of businesses.
| yboris wrote:
| This is a moral issue, not one to be settled by looking at
| what people are willing to spend money on.
|
| Just because people enjoy foie gras doesn't mean it's morally
| permissible to force-feed-to-death sentient beings.
| canadianfella wrote:
| I thought this was about whales?
| torh wrote:
| Aside from the actual content: before being able to read a single
| word, two different pop-up boxes appear telling me there is more
| content to read and that I should subscribe for more. Does this
| really work? Do they get increast readership by doing this?
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| Install uBlock Origin.
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| No, most people are turned away. But they're not measured. What
| is measured by some marketing expert is that he gets a nonzero
| number of sign-ups tracked by this box the more often he shows
| it. That readership and revenue is directly attributed to him,
| conversely, readership for interesting articles and unobtrusive
| presentation is hard to quantify.
| melomal wrote:
| No, it rarely works but FOMO is the worst with marketing
| people. Have been doing it 10 years now and I still refused to
| accept pop-ups as anything useful.
| flave wrote:
| >NOAA's approval outlined a number of key restrictions to what
| Mystic Aquarium can do with the whales, including barring them
| from breeding...
|
| I don't understand this restriction. Honestly the entire
| endeavour of taking n animal and reducing its movement by a two
| or three orders of magnitude looks extremely cruel on its own
| face.
|
| But, if you're going to do it then why aren't they allowed to
| breed in captivity?
| tremon wrote:
| It may be about lineage. Rules governing breeding programs in
| zoo's have strict requirements to prevent inbreeding:
|
| > all five of the transported whales' mothers are from this
| stock, although it's unclear where their fathers came from.
|
| Lack of documented heritage would be a red flag for any
| official breeding program.
| beerandt wrote:
| No- it's about federal power.
|
| The department making the rules likely wouldn't have any
| federal jurisdiction over any offspring, as they'd be
| privately owned, and would not be "imported wildlife." They
| do, however, have (an absurd & abusive amount of) power over
| the initial import permits.
|
| At least that's the "loophole" that has allowed all other
| marine mammal exhibits to remain open, even after their
| capture has been illegal for decades.
| notatoad wrote:
| Beluga whales are not a threatened species, captive breeding
| programs are not necessary to maintain the population.
|
| If the goal is to reduce the overall number of cetaceans in
| captivity, breeding more of them directly goes against that.
| pridkett wrote:
| I'm an avid diver, resident of CT, and have a higher tier
| membership with Mystic Aquarium. This has been a very big deal
| around the state - with efforts from the congressmen and senators
| to lobby the federal government. Multiple emails went out on a
| frequent basis to the aquarium members to lobby for the permit
| for Mystic Aquarium. In February they launched an fundraising
| campaign with a $500k matching grant to care for the belugas. In
| December their year-end giving appeal was "Act Now to Help Bring
| Five Belugas to Mystic".
|
| And then, nothing.
|
| I find an article about it on Hacker News of all places.
|
| I get that there was some sensitivity about it given the lawsuits
| they had to fend off, but while we got an email about changes to
| the dinosaur exhibit this week, they didn't even mention the
| belugas.
|
| Maybe SpaceX has spoiled me by setting a standard for showing off
| their work.
| tremon wrote:
| Could have been the same reason: if they had announced the
| incoming belugas, they could have been intercepted in-flight by
| the same people behind the lawsuits?
| i_haz_rabies wrote:
| Marineland is a disgraceful blight on Niagara and the province of
| Ontario in general. It should have been shut down decades ago.
| koheripbal wrote:
| This comment adds nothing to the conversation. It's just 100%
| vitriol.
| i_haz_rabies wrote:
| Okay.
|
| Marineland has been the subject of many, many scandals and
| investigations (non-exhaustive, see Wikipedia for sources and
| a complete list): - illegally capturing dolphins - 15
| premature orca deaths - 5 premature beluga deaths - the owner
| shot a fawn in the throat and let it bleed out - the park has
| mass graves for its animals on its property - the park has
| been investigated several times for its water quality,
| including after the death of a seal and injury of several
| others on loan from the Vancouver Aquarium
|
| Anecdotally, from my last visit to Marineland (before I was
| aware of just how disgusting the park is) - the bears almost
| universally have patches of missing fur - the whales have
| almost no room to swim
|
| I feel nothing but 100% vitriol towards Marineland. It's one
| giant animal abuse system, and this has been well documented
| by Ontario newspapers. The owner, John Holer, is an awful
| person who profits from the suffering of intelligent animals
| and I would like nothing better than to see him lose his
| fortune and spend time behind bars.
|
| Thank you for prompting me to be more complete in my
| criticism of Marineland. Marineland is a disgraceful blight
| on Niagara and the province of Ontario in general. It should
| have been shut down decades ago.
| jyriand wrote:
| For some reason I was expecting to read how belugas were
| catapulted over borders.
| a-ve wrote:
| In any case they could've used a trebuchet, the superior siege
| engine.
| ctf1er wrote:
| > More than two years after the initial request was made, five
| beluga whales have left their overcrowded home at Marineland, an
| amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and arrived at Mystic
| Aquarium in Connecticut. The move came about a month after
| Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) quietly approved the
| controversial permit for the whales' export.
|
| so was it just a sale?
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(page generated 2021-05-21 23:03 UTC)