Federal Judge Voids Sea World’s Permit to Capture Whales

A U.S. District Court judge in Anchorage, supporting a lawsuit brought by a coalition of environmentalists, has voided a federal permit authorizing Sea World of San Diego to capture 100 killer whales along Alaska’s coast, it was announced Monday.

Judge James A. von der Heydt ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service erred in issuing Sea World a five-year whale capture permit in November, 1983, because officials of the aquatic park did not properly submit an environmental impact study beforehand.

The purpose of such a study would be to gauge the impact that capture activities would have on the close-knit killer whale families --called pods--that inhabit Alaskan coastal waters.

Von Der Heydt’s written decision, signed Wednesday but released on Monday, effectively prevents Sea World from taking from the wild any killer whales, which are the park’s mascot and represent its most popular animal attraction. Three killer whales, each captured years ago in Icelandic waters, are kept by Sea World in San Diego.

Although Sea World has held a federal capture permit for more than a year, its biologists have yet to attempt any whale roundups in Alaska--the only place that the federal government has deemed suitable for such activities. Widespread opposition among Alaskan officials and the public deterred Sea World from attempting captures there in 1984.

Sea World officials last week said they were awaiting Von Der Heydt’s ruling before deciding whether to attempt captures this year. On Monday, Sea World spokeswoman Jackie Hill declined to comment on the court’s decision, but it is expected that it will be appealed.

Sea World has estimated the capture project will cost $1.25 million. Anticipating the arrival of new killer whales, the company in 1983 began building a $15-million, 5-million-gallon water tank in Florida.

That tank, it appears, may remain vacant indefinitely.

“Sea World can’t do anything now; they are enjoined from taking whales, and we’re real pleased about that,” said Suzanne LaPierre, an attorney in Juneau for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, which brought suit to stop the captures.

Also included as plaintiffs in the Legal Defense Fund’s lawsuit were the environmental group Greenpeace, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and a handful of Alaskan charter boat operators fearful that capture efforts would at the least “spook” the elusive, highly intelligent whales.

Environmentalists as well as Alaskan leaders hailed Monday’s announcement as a victory for animal rights and the rights of Alaskans in managing their state’s natural resources. Many Alaskans have argued that they were given inadequate say before Sea World was granted the capture permit.

“There has been strong public reaction here against the capture, but the major reaction has been to the way the permitting process was carried out,” said Paul Simpson, a Juneau doctor who heads an anti-Sea World organization, Organized Resistance to Capture in Alaska.

“Most people here would agree with me that the right thing has happened . . . . Hopefully, this will be the end of the thing,” Simpson said.

Alaska Gov. Bill Sheffield said he, too, was gratified by Von Der Heydt’s decision.

“I’m very pleased that the court has seen the merits of our arguments,” Sheffield said. “We assume that we would be part of the permit process should Sea World decide to reapply for federal permission.”

Sheffield last year formally asked that U.S. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige withdraw Sea World’s capture permit. However, Baldrige, who oversees the fisheries service, rejected the request.

Under the plan approved by the fisheries service, Sea World would be allowed to briefly detain 90 whales. The black and white animals would be corralled in the wild and subjected to scientific study before being released. Studies would include blood sampling and weight and length analysis. In a few cases, one tooth would be removed from specified whales.

In addition, 10 other killer whales would be captured permanently to be displayed, bred and trained to perform at Sea World’s parks in San Diego, Ohio and Florida.

Some Alaska residents, including Indian tribes, branded the plan cruel and commercially exploitive. One of those tribes, the Tlingit Indians, regards the killer whale as a sacred symbol of its cultural past.

Facing public opposition, Sea World did not attempt any killer whale captures in July. Instead, officials promised to conduct more demographic research on the killer whale pods in southeast Alaska, in Prince William Sound and around Kodiak Island, where captures would be attempted.

Between April and September of last year, Sea World biologists did a photographic study of killer whales in those three areas, estimating a minimum total population of 356 to 372 animals. The results of the photographic study, described in a 59-page “preliminary” report on Sea World’s killer whale research, were submitted to the fisheries service in December.

On Monday, Alan Reichman, Greenpeace wildlife coordinator for the Northwest, said his organization fears that Sea World may use the preliminary report as its environmental impact statement, which was at the heart of the federal court’s rejection of the permit.

“We don’t think such a shallow piece of