Aquariums Back Off Whale Shows : Wildlife: Water circuses made the orca popular. But biologists see trouble in capturing or breeding more of them.

A killer whale leaps high out of the water and comes down with a splash big enough to soak a toddler in the fifth row of the Vancouver Aquarium’s outdoor viewing gallery.

“It’s good luck to be splashed,” said the toddler’s mother, trying to wipe the tearful little face.

At the souvenir shop, a woman pushing a baby stroller examines a plush toy. The cleaning directions on it read: “Killer whale. Machine wash, warm water and mild soap. Tumble dry.”

Nearby, a narrator asks 35 kindergartners at a puppet show if they know what mammal is white underneath and black on top, has a blowhole, flippers and lots of teeth.

The children yell back: “Killer whale!”

These scenes from a day in the life of the Vancouver Aquarium reflect the marketing success of the killer whale, also known as orca. It’s a mix of entertainment, education and commercialism.

“Before they appeared in aquariums, they were feared and they were shot routinely on the coast,” said John Ford, marine mammal scientist at the aquarium.

“We’ve seen a remarkable change in attitudes, and that’s because people have seen killer whales in aquariums to cause an emotional bond.”

Over the years, the public has learned that killer whales at sea are speedy, sociable creatures who swim together for generations with their pods, or families.

Yet, in educating people about the free-roaming ocean mammals, orca exhibits in aquariums have become victims of their own success.

Canada’s three aquariums have no plan to capture new killer whales to replace ones that die, so the future of the exhibits is in doubt, especially considering the risks of breeding programs.

Vancouver is toning down the business of showing off orcas. Marineland, at Niagara Falls in Ontario, features shows much tamer than those presented south of the border, where trainers may ride atop the whales.

Victoria’s aquarium has announced that it will close its orca display within a year by selling killer whales to Sea World in the United States, which has four locations.

The Vancouver Aquarium, a nonprofit society that displayed its first orca 25 years ago, has a much higher educational component than privately run operations.

It decided last year to cut out the theatrics.

No orca shoots out of the water to nudge a pink ball. No orca leaps through hoops. But flippers and tails still slap the water, and jumps through the air remain as part of exercise sessions.

The aquarium focused on education rather than scripted shows partly in response to public pressure, said Bruce Obee, a Vancouver Island resident who wrote a book on coastal wildlife.

“We’ve already reached the point of no more killer whale captures,” Obee said. “And jumping through flaming hoops is a thing of the past.”

“Animal-rights” activists have focused on the deaths of three orcas in three years at the Vancouver Aquarium, which attracts nearly a million visitors annually.

A whale calf born in November, 1988, lived just 22 days. In February, 1991, a 25-year-old whale named Hyak died of a lung infection. A whale born in October, 1991, lived for 97 days.

At his lab in northeast Vancouver Island, Paul Spong tracks orcas in the wild using underwater microphones.

The survival rate of killer whales born in the wild is about 50%--about the same rate as that of calves born in captivity in North America so far, said Spong, a behavioral scientist.

Of the five whales born in captivity in Canada since 1988, three survive (two were born this year in Victoria; another was born in 1989 in Niagara Falls).

“Just because you can breed or may keep an animal alive doesn’t justify captivity,” Spong said.

Of the whales captured in the wild that are now grown, there are two in Vancouver, two in Victoria and four in Niagara Falls.

Peter Hamilton, executive director of Lifeforce, an animal rights group, said orcas in “aquarium prisons” are abnormal. He pointed to physical adaptations such as dorsal fins bent to one side from swimming in circles.

Wild whales’ dorsals are upright.

Janet Atkinson-Grosjean, general manager of the Vancouver Aquarium said it would be irresponsible to free captive whales unaccustomed to life in the open sea.

“It would be the utmost cruelty to attempt to release them,” she said.

It’s a view shared by Dave Duffus, a University of Victoria geography professor with a doctorate in whale management.

“You can’t just drop them in and wave goodby,” he said.

In January, Sealand of the Pacific, in Victoria, flew an adult male whale to Sea World in Florida. The sale price reportedly was $1.2 million.

Marineland in Niagara Falls is preparing to export a male whale to the United States, where aquariums are trying to improve their captive breeding programs.

Despite the odds against survival, Spong is worried such breeding will create a category of disturbed orcas.

He recalled the bizarre drowning of a 20-year-old trainer at Victoria’s Sealand in February, 1991.

An investigation revealed that the trainer, a competition swimmer, fell into the orca pool. Three killer whales then tossed her around, but the seemingly playful scene got out of hand.

“Captivity may well have produced a bizarre behavior. Mentally, the orcas are disturbed, profoundly disturbed. I don’t recognize them as being normal orcas.”