51 



Senator Kerry. Dr. Grandy, I see you are sort of leafing through 

 things. I take it you wanted to respond. 



Dr. Grandy. Well, I only wanted to respond to a couple of things 

 myself, and I wanted to ask Dr. Rose to respond to a couple of the 

 specific assertions on killer whales. 



It is clear that — first of all, ! want to tell you where we got our 

 figures. They came from the marine mammal inventory reports 

 prepared by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which includes 

 statistics on the length of time that animals lived in captivity prior 

 to their death after they were put in. 



You take an animal like the pilot whale. Starting year in cap- 

 tivity was 1965. There have been 38 in captivity since that time — 

 35 are dead, and the average length of life in captivity between — 

 the time they got them and the time they died — was 3 years. 



Senator Kerry. Three. 



Dr. Grandy. 3. Now, I am not going to tell you what the maxi- 

 mum lifespan is for a pilot whale, because I do not know. The lit- 

 erature suggests that average spans are 25 to 35 years. Is that 

 going to be true for every whale? Of course not, and I am not sug- 

 gesting that it is. 



Senator Kerry. But 35 out of 38 with an average of 3 is a pretty 

 dramatic comparison to 25 to 30 years; is it not? 



Dr. McBain. It is very dramatic. 



Senator Kerry. Is that the first time you have heard that? 



Dr. McBain. I am not totally familiar with the numbers here, 

 and I will tell you why. 



Most of the pilot whale collections, as far as I know, were done 

 in the sixties and seventies, and there is no question that there has 

 been a significant learning curve since that time. 



In fact, as far as I know, in North America there are only two 

 pilot whales living in oceanariums at this time, one of which was 

 collected in 1963. 



Senator Kerry. Do you have data on any of the other species? 



Dr. Grandy. Yes, sir. I have it for each species. It is all in this 

 book. 



Senator Kerry. What does it show? 



Dr. Grandy. Well, take the killer whale, for example — 62 have 

 been captive, brought into captivity since 1967, 30 are dead, an 

 overall mortality rate of 48 percent. The average number of years 

 to death — that is, held in captivity before they died — is between 6 

 and 7. 



Senator Kerry. Is there any way to tell what the ages were 

 when they came into captivity? 



Dr. Grandy. Not exactly. Let me ask Dr. Rose to respond to that. 



Dr. Rose. As far as I know, most animals in recent years cer- 

 tainly were caught as juveniles, and the reasoning for that is sim- 

 ply that younger animals are more adaptable. 



I mean, as Dr. McBain said, there has been a learning curve. 

 They used to bring in adults, and they just did not survive, so they 

 started taking juveniles who by appearance are younger, 5 or 

 yoimger, and they seem to adapt better. They are easier to trans- 

 port and handle in the initial process, because they get to be quite 

 large as adults. 



