Grumble and Grouch

A Whale of a Tale

I try to be a sensitive loving person. I really do. I think I hit my limit though. Here it is: whales. My limit to loving the world and nurturing it in all its beauty makes an absolute halt at whales. Not that I can't admit that whales are beautiful creatures. They are. They do that leaping thing from the water, which is really impressive, since I weigh about 1% of what they do and can't lift my body weight out of the water at all (I climb the stairs...something whales don't do very well) let alone do so gracefully.

I discovered this blind spot in myself some years ago when two sperm whales got themselves trapped by ice when they failed to migrate before winter struck. They were discovered piping their distress just north of Bethel, Alaska by natives of the area. It became a huge circus to save the whales. I worked in Anchorage at the time in professional media supplies, so I got to meet all kinds of reporters on their way up north. It was difficult to conceal my contempt. Save the whales, indeed! The whole idea behind 'saving the whales' is to save endangered species! Sperm whales are not endangered. And how are you saving the environment by assisting stupid whales back into the gene pool?? The media loved it though.

Now, today, I'm confronted with my peculiar prejudice again. Keiko the whale, being lovingly (and no doubt expensively) nurtured in Newport, Oregon after his horrific treatment following his role as Willy in the Free Willy movies, is being transported by UPS and the US Air Force to Iceland in the hopes that he can be released to the wild. Good God, WHY?? UPS is no doubt doing it so they can renew their claim that they ship just about anything. (Can you imagine what the DOT restrictions are on shipping live whales?) Where is am totally baffled is why in Ned would the US Air Force consider shipping an orca to Iceland a 'training exercise'?? This must be a method of warfare I've never heard of. (C17 'fighter' pilot: "Yes sir, we're right on top of Bagdad, locked on target. Release whale? YES SIR!"). Somehow, I don't think it will be very popular with the animal activists, though it sounds pretty good to me.

Perhaps it is the fact that I have this blind spot toward whales, but what exactly is the point in taking a whale that will most likely not ever be able to live in the wild and shipping it to far off lands so that it can get used to the water temperature? Why not just sell the whale to Sealand (whoops... I think I mean SeaWorld...) and be done with it? Then all the money that has been sucked up with whale 'sitting could go to useful things like food and housing for homeless people who don't *want* to be in the wild anymore.