AR-News: (US) Congressional bill would cut gov't oversight of marine parks

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Source:  Sun-Sentinel

Congressional bill would cut government oversight of marine parks

By Sally Kestin 
Senior Writer 
Posted June 7 2004 

Marine parks would face less government oversight under a proposal that park, 
aquarium and zoo officials are pushing and key Republicans in Congress are 
supporting.

The government would no longer track dolphins, whales, sea lions and seals 
traded or sold overseas under the proposal, which opponents fear could lead to 
the outright elimination of a federal inventory of marine mammals that has 
existed for more than 30 years.

"They're whittling away at our oversight, at [federal] oversight, at the 
public oversight and really trying to control what, when and how they provide 
information,'' said Courtney Vail, U.S. representative of the nonprofit Whale and 
Dolphin Conservation Society based in England.

In a five-part series, "Marine Attractions: Below the Surface," the South 
Florida Sun-Sentinel reported last month that the marine park industry had 
successfully lobbied over the past decade to weaken regulations, and that the 
federal government had failed to fully enforce oversight responsibilities that 
remained.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in charge of enforcing marine mammal care 
regulations, inspected some facilities once in three years, and, even after 
documenting repeated violations that endangered animals, failed to fine or 
penalize. It has taken the agency a decade to update rules on the housing and care 
of marine mammals, the Sun-Sentinel found.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has kept an inventory of births, deaths 
and moves of marine animals under human care but relies on the parks to 
report information. The newspaper found animals the government was unaware of or 
had vanished from the records. In hundreds of cases, the inventory doesn't say 
why animals died or lists the cause of death as old age, euthanasia or pending, 
even in cases of deaths as far back as 1982.

Lobby for change

Rather than strengthening oversight, Congress appears headed in the opposite 
direction.

A bill the House Committee on Resources passed last fall and an amendment 
introduced in April would cut back on the parks' reporting responsibilities and 
could take away the public's ability to find out what happens to their sea 
stars, deemed a "public trust resource'' by the Fisheries Service.

"This is a step toward totally privatizing these animals in a commercial 
setting,'' Vail said.

Whether the proposal will become law is unclear. Democrats oppose the 
changes, part of a larger bill they say would harm marine mammals in the wild, and 
the Senate has yet to take up the issue, making passage this year unlikely.

Portions of the bill came directly from a proposal by an industry trade 
group, the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums. Alliance officials did 
not respond to requests for comment.

Some of the industry's biggest players, including Marine Animal Productions, 
a Mississippi company that leases and moves sea animals all over the world, 
and Anheuser-Busch, Inc., parent company of SeaWorld, lobbied for the changes.

"Every year, SeaWorld treats millions of visitors to educational and 
entertaining experiences with marine mammals,'' Richard Keating, vice president and 
senior government affairs officer of Anheuser-Busch, wrote last fall to 
Congressional leaders. Just to exchange animals for breeding, marine parks face "a 
daunting regulatory regime that can, at times, be impossible to navigate.''

In easing that regulatory burden, Congress is stripping away the parks' 
accountability, opponents say.

The Fisheries Service's inventory is the only official record of how marine 
mammals have fared in captivity. Maintained since 1972, it now has information 
on more than 7,000 animals in U.S. parks and those sent to foreign facilities, 
detailing how often they're moved, how long they live and why they die.

The Sun-Sentinel examined the deaths of more than 3,850 animals since the 
government began keeping records and found that one-quarter died in their first 
year and half were dead by the age of 7. The industry's life expectancy 
projections range from 14 years for seals and sea lions to 20 for bottlenose 
dolphins.

Hundreds of animals died from human hazards or seemingly preventable causes 
including contaminated water, ingesting coins and plastic balls and chlorine 
poisoning, the newspaper found.

Repeated promises

Such information could become unavailable.

The House bill would eliminate tracking of marine mammals sold or traded 
overseas, and U.S. parks would only have to report births, deaths and transfers of 
their animals annually rather than when they occur. Congress could ultimately 
do away with the inventory altogether.

An amendment Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, the Republican chairman of the Fisheries 
Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans Subcommittee, proposed in April calls for a 
study of the inventory, including "the need for [it].''

"That's the first step toward saying it's not needed,'' said Naomi Rose, a 
marine mammal scientist with the Humane Society of the United States.

Gilchrest could not be reached for comment, despite repeated promises from 
his staff that he wanted to talk about the bill.

The measure also would make it easier for parks to sell or loan their animals 
to foreign facilities for breeding. The USDA now relies on assurances from 
the foreign government in a "letter of comity'' that the facility meets U.S. 
standards. That letter would no longer be required.

The proposed changes are part of a pattern of decreasing government oversight 
of the now $1 billion a year marine park industry.

In 1994, parks lobbied successfully for Congress to eliminate a requirement 
that they submit death reports, called necropsies, to the government when a 
marine mammal dies. Parks no longer needed permits to move their animals out of 
the country and succeeded in having full oversight responsibility of their sea 
stars transferred from the Fisheries Service to the USDA.

"They went in and got essentially everything they wanted,'' said Michael 
Gosliner, general counsel for the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, which Congress 
set up to oversee marine animal protection.

Respect ocean life

Animal welfare groups have since lobbied for more regulation, including 
expanding parks' reporting requirements to include necropsies, animal injuries and 
disease transmission. They want to remove inspection oversight from the USDA, 
which is burdened with other tasks unrelated to marine mammals.

And when animals are sent to other countries, advocates say, the government 
should again require an export permit and inspect the foreign facility to 
ensure it meets U.S. standards.

None of their proposals has made it into legislation.

Parks "have a lot of influence,'' Vail said. "They now have the right to do 
what they will with these animals without anyone knowing.''

Rep. Frank Pallone, ranking Democrat on the Fisheries Subcommittee, declined 
to comment. After being shown the Sun-Sentinel research on marine facilities 
in April, Pallone said that Congress had done a poor job overseeing marine 
parks and that stronger regulation was needed. The Democrats, still negotiating 
with Republicans on the committee, would not discuss the bill. While they want 
to keep the inventory, they are focusing more on protecting marine mammals in 
the wild, staff members say.

In the halls of the Capitol, marine parks tout the good work they do rescuing 
and rehabilitating beached animals and inspiring visitors to respect ocean 
life, a view many in Congress share.

"These public display facilities are the only place for many Americans to 
view marine mammals and learn about the conservation needs of these animals,'' 
says a committee report on the bill passed last November. "The committee 
believes the interactions provided at these facilities generate the general public's 
good will toward marine mammals and develops their support for conservation 
and management measures for these and many other ocean creatures.''

The House proposal also includes changes to the Marine Mammal Protection Act 
affecting thousands of sea animals in the wild.

The law now prohibits harassment of marine mammals, which includes research 
and the use of sonar by the military, if it has "the potential'' to harm or 
disturb animals in their natural habitat. Gilchrest's amendment would redefine 
harassment as "likely'' causing harm, a change animal welfare advocates and 
Democrats say could lead to injury and death for more marine mammals.

Dolphins and whales, which depend on sound to communicate, have suffered 
shattered eardrums and even death after sonar exercises at sea.

The amendment also weakens a "zero rate mortality goal'' to reduce deaths of 
marine mammals by commercial fishermen. Deaths have declined dramatically but 
annually, thousands of dolphins and whales still die entangled in nets and 
gear.

SEE THE MULTIMEDIA

"MARINE ATTRACTIONS" SERIES ONLINE AT

SUN-SENTINEL.COM


 




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