Whether or not the Shedd Aquarium`s giant Oceanarium ever becomes a whirlpool of beluga whale passion or just a sedate backwater for a couple of luckless, lovelorn animals is now in the hands of the federal court.
And for now, not even the lawyers know if the Shedd`s two adolescent female belugas will have a chance at romance and family, or live out their lives in an underwater sorority of two.
Late last year, the Shedd was granted a permit by the U.S. Commerce Department to go to Canada and collect two male and two female belugas from western Hudson Bay. The four would join the two females at the Oceanarium, all six of them forming the nucleus of a captive beluga breeding program.
Monday, however, eight animal rights groups jointly filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeking to nullify the permit on legal technicalities.
Shedd officials charge the legal action is a ”nuisance suit” without legal merit, a delaying tactic the plaintiffs hope the courts will not act on until after the Shedd`s two-year permit runs out.
Donna Hart, spokesperson for the animal rights organizations filing the suit, said Tuesday all eight groups are opposed to the Shedd keeping belugas at all. If that means Twuiji and Immiayuk, the 5-year-old females in the Oceanarium, will never be allowed to mate with males, so be it, Hart said.
In the still highly experimental world of captive beluga mating programs, the timing of finding potential mates for Twuiji and Immiayuk may well be critical for the two to ever mate successfully.
The two were captured in Canada`s Churchill River in 1989 and were brought to the Shedd a year ago when the Oceanarium building was completed and opened to the public.
”Technically,” says the Shedd`s Ken Ramirez, the belugas` chief handler, ”they`re sexually mature, but socially they`re immature. Part of the reason we would like to get them together with some young males that are about the same age is so that they can still grow up together.”
Beluga life is rife with social hierarchies and complex social interactions, according to marine mammal experts. Like human beings, when and how female and male belugas get to know each other plays a big part in whether or not they will mate.
While physically a female beluga can begin to reproduce by about age five, says Dr. Jay Sweeney, a marine mammal veterinarian, most do not become sexually active and give birth until age 10 or 12. Male belugas, he says, do not begin to produce sperm until they are about 10, and are considerably older, at least in the wild, before females seek them out for mating.
Shedd officials say they fear too long a delay in getting potential mates for Twuiji and Immiayuk. If they had to introduce them to males several years younger than them a few years from now, the older females might establish such a powerful dominance over the younger males that they possibly would never be sexually attracted.
”If we got some males this year,” says Ken Ramirez, ”it might take up to five years for the whales to become sexually compatible and start mating.” Beluga whales have only been kept in captivity for about 30 years. Scientists watching them in captivity say they only now are beginning to learn husbandry techniques that help captive belugas to breed successfully.
Though there are about 60 belugas now living in captivity around the world, until last year there had been no successful captive beluga births. The few experiences with captive matings had resulted either in stillborn calves or calves that died soon after birth.
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”You look around the oceanarium world and wonder why there hasn`t been more reproductive experience,” says Jay Sweeney. ”For the most part, it simply means up until now we haven`t had many males in captivity old enough to reproduce.”
Last August, however, the marine mammal world was elated with two births in the New York Aquarium, longtime home of two male and three female adult belugas.
On Aug. 7, Natasha, a 10-year-old beluga, gave birth to a strapping, 200- pound baby boy. A week later, Kathy, a 20-year-old female in the same aquarium, gave birth to another boy beluga. The father apparently was the New York Aquarium`s dominant, 21-year-old male beluga, Newfy.
”The calves are doing wonderfully well,” says Kevin Walsh, director of marine mammals at the New York Aquarium.
Walsh says he believes the Shedd`s long-planned breeding program should become one of the most successful in the marine world if it is given the chance.
”The social groupings are very important,” he says. ”There have to be at least two males, it seems, for the social dynamics to work.”
The experts agree that the Shedd`s giant whale pools would soon become gargantuan, watery passion pits if it is allowed to bring animals in to start its breeding program.
”They (belugas) are not shy about what they do in public,” Sweeney says. ”Females let the males know they are interested in courtship by rubbing up against them and other displays. Copulation is rather fast and physical, with a lot of vigorous twisting around.”
”Males and females don`t mix most of the time,” says Walsh, who for the last 20 years has been tending to New York`s captive belugas.
”The males stick together, as do the females, pretty much ignoring the opposite sex. But at mating time, the females present and posture for the males, constantly rubbing up against them.
”This process goes on for days. They only occasionally take a break to eat or have a cigarette or whatever. When mating is finished, they go back to ignoring each other. When the calves are born, the males take no interest in them.”
Whether Twuiji and Immiayuk ever get to practice such coquettish wiles on male belugas at the Shedd is the crux of the legal dispute.
Ramirez says the only way scientists can gather critical data on reproductive behavior of belugas is by studying them in captivity. Such knowledge might go a long way in saving endangered wild beluga populations, he says, such as St. Lawrence Seaway belugas, which are nearing extinction primarily due to man-made pollution.
Donna Hart, spokesperson for the animal rights groups opposing the Shedd`s capture of more belugas, disagrees. She says it is wrong for the Shedd or any aquarium to keep whales in captivity, taking the position that if that means Twuiji and Immiayuk never rub up against a male in their lives, well, that`s life.
”If you consider the success (of captive beluga breeding) is nil, it wouldn`t matter, anyway,” Hart said, noting there is no guarantee the New York births will lead to continued breeding. ”We can`t prove there wouldn`t be any (future breeding success), and the Shedd can`t prove that there would. It leaves us with a deep, philosophical gulf between us.
”I suppose if the Shedd was really concerned about (mating its two females), it might spend some money and try and re-introduce them to the wild.”