Talk:Springer (orca)/Archive 1

Cut from article

I'm starting to cut or refactor some recent additions that make the article read like a press release for a fundraiser. Wikipedia is a reference work and it should focus on facts. It should be precise about what has been observed, e.g. "Springer was sighted in 2009 and appeared to be fully grown and healthy" rather than "Springer is now fully grown." I am also concerned that recent additions have probably not, in my opinion, been in the spirit of the Wikipedia:Conflict of interest guidelines. Please do not attempt to use Wikipedia to promote an organization you are affiliated with. If your organization aims to educate the public about whales, use Wikipedia to educate the public about whales, not to educate the public about your organization.

Here is some content I have removed or condensed:

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Sound would be the key to indentifying this strange visitor.

In February, the Seattle-based volunteer conservation group Orca Conservancy[1], whose Board Member Kelley Balcomb-Bartok was first on the scene and a key player in the highly publicized rescue of a stranded transient orca in January 2002 on Washington's Dungeness Spit, moved quickly to marshall a response to Springer. The organization captured a remarkable photograph of the orca spyhopping in Puget Sound, revealing the whale's unique eye patch, a possible source of identification. It also asked Seattle marine acoustics specialist Joe Olson from the Puget Sound Chapter of American Cetacean Society to record Springer's calls in Puget Sound. Orca Conservancy then sent this photo and these recordings to Helena Symonds of OrcaLab[2], and with the assistance of Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada biologist Dr. John Ford it was

One local group, Project SeaWolf, started regular observation of the calf and documented a number of whale-boat interactions (mostly its own boat) while Springer foraged in Seattle-area waters.

"It's going to be heart-breaking if we see the worst thing happen, which is to see her die," Donna Sandstrom of Orca Alliance explained on KING 5 News (NBC Seattle), "but we would rather bear that heartbreak than to know she's enduring it alone in a concrete tank." Sandstrom continued to appear on regional television newscasts pleading with National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to "let nature take its course."

In these first critical weeks of the Springer debate, the Seattle-based non-profit organization Orca Conservancy stood alone in calling upon authorities to act immediately to rescue Springer and return her to her family in Johnstone Strait. The group had just been a part of a highly-publicized rescue of a full-grown male transient orca that stranded a month earlier at Dungeness, Washington. Orca Conservancy's Kelley Balcomb-Bartok (son of famed orca research pioneer Ken Balcomb) was the first researcher on the scene, and a member of the boat team that ultimately dragged the whale to safety. It was an extraordinary international effort that both inspired and informed the response to Springer.

As reported on KING 5 News

As the debate continued, NMFS reached out to the public to keep its distance from Springer. The Service officially authorized an on-the-water monitoring project involving three non-profit organizations -- Orca Conservancy, the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, Washington [3], and Project SeaWolf, which at that point had logged more time on the water with Springer than any group, tracking her movements, alerting ferry captains of her presence, keeping curious boaters away, and shooting and distributing to the media footage of the orca rubbing against boats.

"Having NMFS committing to do the monitoring program, which is the first thing we called for, this is only positive," said Fred Felleman, a Board Member of the Orca Conservancy. "That was specifically the first part of our plan: Get baseline data before you go and schlep the animal around."

But groups like Orca Conservancy argued that if human contact was kept at a minimum, Springer stood a better chance at rejoining her wild group.

As time went on and the orca's prognosis worsened, and with each newscast "Top Story" seemingly about this mysterious orca found podless in Seattle, the public began to clammor for action. More and more people wanted direct intervention on behalf of Springer. They wanted her returned to her family in Canada. Public opinion was also strongly against removing her to a concrete tank.

from the U.S., Canada, the Vancouver Aquarium and other non-governmental organizations such as Orca Conservancy, OrcaLab and the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation/Earth Island Institute pooled their resources and expertise and

But equally important were the efforts to move the public for support. Eloquent voices surfaced, led by famed orca research pioneer Dr. Paul Spong of OrcaLab. His facility on Hanson Island, BC (the site of the Springer reintroduction) is considered a model for non-invasive orca research, and perhaps the best place in the world to listen in on whales. OrcaLab's four decades of acoustics studies on this population were the central science in reconnecting Springer.

"We don’t want this animal to begin to get accustomed to human contact," explained Orca Conservancy President Michael Harris on CNN, "or else it’s going to make it a very bad candidate for getting it back into the wild population."

on ABC World News Tonight,

Orca wrangler Jeff Foster and his team went to work.

"lassooed on live TV," (NBC Nightly News)

Springer is now in her seventh year back in Johnstone Strait, BC, fully grown and healthy, completely repatriated with her extended family. In three or four more years, she will be old enough to have calves.

"This is a great experiment that is a success. We are very happy," said Orca Conservancy's Michael Harris on KOMO 4 News. "What a test for a small orca like that who's spent so much time in a ferry lane in urban Puget Sound, swimming about a mile a day, to keep up with her family traveling 75 miles a day in the big ocean. She's with her family now, she's fat, she's happy. We've been holding our breath for a long, long time and this is great news." KING 5 News summed the Springer Project up as "a daring, dangerous and highly publicized effort, and now it appears it worked."

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Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 18:46, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Back-story that needs to be condensed

I've cut the following passage, which is worth summarizing in a paragraph or two. Wikipedia is for a general audience and this stuff is way too much detail about background politics.

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The Orca Conservancy initially proposed a "Namu Shuttle," a scientifically peer-reviewed proposal to lure Springer into a hydrodynamic floating seapen and tow it north—a plan employed successfully in 1965 by Ted Griffin to translocate Namu, the first-ever captive orca in the U.S. Another option was presented to NMFS by Orca Conservancy to transport the orca aboard a high-speed hovercraft the Canadian Consulate in Seattle had pledged from the Canadian Coast Guard. The overriding component of all these rescue options put forth by Orca Conservancy -- now in partnership with the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation/Earth Island Institute (FWKF/EII) -- was to minimize human contact and keep the whale in the water as much as possible, provide medical treatment and draw blood samples in situ, expedite medical tests and clearances with Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada and target a translocation and reintroduction in Johnstone Strait in July, when Springer's family historically returns to its summer habitat.

On March 13, KOMO 4 News (ABC Seattle) reported that a "groundbreaking coalition" had emerged, that Orca Conservancy, FWKF/EII and Vancouver Aquarium had tentatively agreed to combine their plans—the only ones submitted to NMFS that called for rehabilitation in a seapen and an expedited translocation and repatriation to her natal pod. The organizations reportedly had agreed to pool its resources on behalf of Springer, including a pledge FWKF/EII secured from a private donor to fund the entire project. Shortly after the announcement of this rare pledge of cooperation between anti-captivity organizations and a captive-display facility, NMFS announced its decision -- it would intervene to save Springer, and would go with the combined seapen rehabilitation/translocation/reintroduction action plan presented by Orca Conservancy, FWKF/EII and Vancouver Aquarium.

Shortly after the NMFS announcement and without explanation, Vancouver Aquarium abruptly backed out of the agreement with Orca Conservancy and FWKF/EII. But the plan to rescue and repatriate Springer would still go forward -- but now, because the Aquarium was no longer working with FWKF/EII, the private backer withdrew the offer. The effort was again without funding. NMFS made it clear that they could not shoulder the costs of the project alone. Unless a new source was located immediately, all bets were off. A deadline was given. At that critical time, Orca Conservancy presented an idea to NMFS —- the Springer project could be funded by the newly established and little-known John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program,[4] taking advantage of language that Orca Conservancy's Board Member Fred Felleman, MSc. helped write into the Grant with Washington's Congressional delegation in 2000 that provided "priority consideration for gray whale and orca strandings in the Pacific Northwest." Springer of course was not a stranded orca, but if she were deemed by NMFS as a "pending stranding," the agency could possibly source the Prescott money. NMFS agreed to try.

It applied for two $100,000 USD grants, with a requirement that both be triggered by 1/3 matching contributions, or a total of $66,666 USD. NMFS invited five non-profit organizations to form the "Orphaned Orca Fund" (OOF) to raise the matching funds for the Prescott grants. Against the dissenting votes of Orca Alliance and People for Puget Sound, Orca Conservancy passed a Motion to invite FWKF/Earth Island Institute and Friends of the San Juans to join OOF. The new coalition immediately passed a Motion that stated that "no funds raised by OOF can be used to remove A73 to a marine facility." Shortly thereafter, Project SeaWolf officially resigned from OOF. Its representative explained that the resignation was in part because of its objection to the Motion passed concerning the removal of Springer to a marine facility.

Despite not working with OOF, Project SeaWolf continued assisting the Springer project in material ways, particularly when the critical time came to rescue and repatriate the orca. The group secured perhaps the most important donation during the project—the high-speed 144-foot catamaran that ultimately took Springer home. One of the first boats Springer had in Seattle lined up the big boat when it counted. No non-government organization on either side of the border was more engaged operationally than Project SeaWolf (later, Global Research & Rescue) and "the Bobs," Bob Wood and Bob McLaughlin.

The public response to helping Springer was far and wide. The saga of this little orca had now captured the imagination of the world. In a matter of weeks, OOF successfully raised the matching funds triggering the Prescott grants. There was now approximately $266,666 USD in cash and in-kind services and equipment available to the project, by most accounts more than enough to get Springer home. During one OOF meeting in June, Orca Conservancy —- on behalf of Dr. Paul Spong and OrcaLab on Hanson Island, BC -— put forth a Motion to use OOF funds to contract commercial fishermen from the Namgis First Nation of Johnstone Strait, BC, to catch and provide wild salmon for Springer while she was in her seapen in Dongchong Bay, also on Hanson Island, the repatriation site and ancestral territory of the Namgis. If OOF approved the money, Dr. Spong would help arrange an out-of-season fishing permit from DFO, and Namgis Chief Bill Cranmer would put together a boat and crew. Sandstrom and Orca Alliance strongly objected to the idea, as did a representative from NMFS who was present at the meeting. Both urged the use of farmed Atlantic salmon offered by a local aquaculture company. The First Nations in the region are adamantly opposed to fish farms in their waters. It was also argued that OOF's By Laws prohibited the coalition from direct expenditures such as this, but upon review it was determined that it had no such restriction.

The NMFS representative then demanded that OOF provide a metal detector at the seapen site to screen the wild salmon for fish hooks which might pose a danger to Springer. The representative assented on the personal assurance that OOF would be at the site when the salmon came in, physically inspecting the mouth of each one of the fish for hooks prior to their placement into the seapen. The Motion passed and the Namgis were contracted. The First Nations were now appropriately participating in the historic return of a wayward kukawin, or orca, to their ancestral waters. And a potential conflict unfolding before the eyes of the world media was averted. No farmed Atlantic salmon would be brought into Namgis territory.

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Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 19:37, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

More back-story

More stuff I cut on proposals that didn't go anywhere. Might be worth a very brief mention:

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Meanwhile, the Oregon Coast Aquarium (OCA) in Newport, Oregon, home of Keiko the orca prior to his translocation to Iceland, offered its facilities to rehabilitate Springer for a period of up to one year, after which a scientific panel would then recommend whether or not she was fit for a trip back to Johnstone Strait, BC. But media reports soon revealed that OCA was deeply in debt and bound to an agreement made with the Free Willy-Keiko Foundation (FWKF) that Keiko's former tank, built by FWKF, could never again house a wild killer whale. Furthermore, a gathering scientific consensus was that a rehabilitation in a concrete tank would further acclimate the orca to humans and likely result in permanent captivity. OCA withdrew its offer, leaving NMFS with only proposals on the table from Orca Conservancy/FWKF, Vancouver Aquarium and Six Flags in California.

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Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 21:14, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Luna

More stuff I cut, as it does not help the reader understand the Springer story and has major neutrality problems, implying that Parfit was to blame for Luna's death:

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(A similar idea would later be proposed to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada in 2005 by Canadian filmmaker Mike Parfit, with the support of Garrett, as a response to the displaced solitary social orca, Luna, alone in Nootka Sound, BC. When the filmmaker's proposal got no official response from the federal authorities, "Parfit more or less initiated it himself," according to OPERATION ORCA: Springer, Luna and the Struggle to Save West Coast Killer Whales, continuing to provide "structured play" to the orca, despite dire warnings from experts on both sides of the border that these interactions might lead to a dangerous encounter one day between the whale and a boat. In March 2006, Luna approached a familiar seagoing tug, attempted to elicit attention from its crew, and was sucked into its propellers and killed.)

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Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 21:10, 26 December 2009 (UTC)