[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 86 (Thursday, June 19, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H4072]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        DEATH OF TWO ORCA WHALES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington [Mr. Metcalf] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. METCALF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my deep concern 
over the capture of orca whales off the coast of Taiji, Japan. I 
brought this matter to the attention of the House in February, when 
five orca whales were netted and separated from their whale family, 
called a pod. Since that date, two of these orca whales have died, both 
within the past week.
  As Members know, the orca whales are small whales, 20, 25 feet long, 
and we have them around the Puget Sound area and of course in the north 
Pacific.
  The capture of these orcas was allowed under a permit to gather them 
for research purposes. However, the whales turned up at a marine 
amusement park. Clearly, the use of whales for business and 
entertainment purposes blatantly violates the condition of the permit.
  The village near where these whales were captured has a history of 
annually slaughtering whales. Since the February capture, there have 
been no sightings of orca whales off the coast of Taiji. It is my 
understanding that orca pods appear very infrequently in Japanese 
waters. Therefore, almost nothing is known about those orca populations 
living off Japan.
  I strongly condemn the permanent removal of a family group from an 
already uncertain ecosystem, where they are definitely not in good 
supply.
  On June 14, the youngest of the captured orcas died, with a female to 
follow on the morning of June 17. She was pregnant at the time of her 
capture, and reportedly had a miscarriage in April. She refused to eat 
during the entire 4 months in captivity, and had become so weak that 
she could no longer float by herself. At the time of her death, she was 
held up by a canvas sling in order to breathe.
  The Japanese consulate in Seattle yesterday confirmed the death of 
both orcas. However, the amusement park has neither confirmed nor 
denied their deaths, nor has the park reported on the three whales 
still alive. Japanese conservation groups are calling on international 
animal protection groups to pressure the Japanese Government to return 
the three remaining Taiji orcas to the wild before they, too, die.
  The International Whaling Commission is a world body which governs 
the harvest of whales worldwide, and has continually asked Japan to end 
the hunting of whales in the southern Antarctic Whale Sanctuary and 
other Pacific locations.
  While the Japanese whale merchants claim they are conducting 
research, most of the whales end up on a menu or as an entertainment 
item. I think this practice is unacceptable. I think that the 
commercial whaling in the world, we are not ready to go back to real 
commercial whaling. I think we should do everything we can to urge the 
Government of Japan to release those whales as soon as possible before 
they, too, die.

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