SeaWorld says it no longer wants any of the captured beluga whales at the center of a legal controversy.
The Georgia Aquarium is trying to overturn a federal decision denying its request to import the 18 Russian whales captured several years ago. SeaWorld would have received some of them under a breeding loan.
But this week, the company said on its AskSeaWorld website it won’t accept any belugas from the Georgia Aquarium’s permit application.
The decision “reflects an evolution in SeaWorld’s position since this project began more than eight years ago,” the company said on its website. The statement added that its decision “does not in any way reflect judgment on those facilities leading or participating in this beluga whale conservation effort.”
Last year, SeaWorld joined a pledge not to collect cetaceans captured from the wild after Feb. 14, 2014. “We felt the best way to reaffirm that commitment was to remove ourselves from the list of institutions listed on Georgia Aquarium’s beluga import permit application,” SeaWorld spokeswoman Becca Bides said in an email.
The announcement represents “a huge shift,” said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Animal Welfare Institute and a SeaWorld critic.
The Georgia Aquarium filed a federal lawsuit in 2013 trying to overturn the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service’s denial of an import permit. That case is pending.
“I think SeaWorld decided that their partnership with the Georgia Aquarium would only attract more protests and controversy to their parks,” said Nick Atwood, campaigns coordinator for the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, in an email. “That’s the last thing SeaWorld needs right now.”
SeaWorld recently launched a marketing campaign to dampen controversy over its killer whales. The campaign included ads saying the company has not captured orcas from the wild in 35 years. But critics have been quick to pounce on SeaWorld’s attempts to import the belugas.
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