/ / ■ ~ 52 



Senator Kerry. How many whales are in captivity in America 

 now? 



Dr. McBain. Killer whales in North America, in the United 

 States, 21. In the world, my understanding is the number is 47 

 right now. 



Senator Kerry. Now, most of these killer whales are providing 

 entertainment; are they not? 



Dr. McBain. Not solely, and my experience certainly is at Sea 

 World, and our intent with these animals, is to provide education 

 in an entertaining format. There is no question that the entertain- 

 ing format is important to the presentation. 



Senator Kerry. What would you say are the strong point 



Dr. McBain. I was going to say, the other things that also occur 

 and people frequently are not familiar with are the research as- 

 pects. There are many aspects of natural history and biology that 

 cannot be studied in the wild. Many of these, the one that has been 

 most notable and the one most people know about, are the repro- 

 ductive biology projects and the research that has been done at Sea 

 World as well as other oceanariums. 



Much of that work has now resulted in successful reproduction. 

 We now have — at Sea World, 9 out of 18 killer whales were bom 

 in oceanarium environments. 



Senator Kerry. Nine out of 18. I thought we had 21. 



Dr. McBain. At Sea World, just at Sea World alone. So, it is — 

 in North America, or in the tjnited States, 9 out of 21 were born 

 in oceanariums. 



Senator Kerry. Now, share with me, what is the need for having 

 21 versus 2 or 3 or 5? 



Dr. McBain. At this stage, if we are to have populations in 

 oceanariums that have the ability to have genetic diversity to be 

 able to maintain those populations you cannot do it with two or 

 three. Two or three will not provide the genetic diversity that you 

 are suggesting, and when we are talking about Sea World we are 

 actually talking about four different parks. This is not just one lo- 

 cation. 



So, genetic diversity is an essential to have successful reproduc- 

 tion. You have to have breeding age animals, and when you do, you 

 also have young animals, and then we have older animals. We have 

 one older animal that appears to be beyond reproductive age, and 

 so there is going to be 



Senator Kerry. So, the rationale for breeding diversity is 



Dr. McBain. Well, in the case of killer whales, in the United 

 States no one has collected a killer whale in the United States in 

 the last decade, and that is partially a result of successful repro- 

 duction. 



Senator Kerry. Within the unnatural habitat. 



Dr. McBain. I would prefer to call it a different habitat. 



Senator Kerry. Well, it seems to me if you are breeding an ani- 

 mal that is born into something other than its habitat, you are no 

 longer learning about it in its true context. 



Dr. McBain. These animals live in sea water. 



Senator Kerry. I understand that they live in sea water. 



Dr. McBain. They also live in 



