Tillikum & SeaWorld's Orcas Part I

It has been a couple of days since the unfortunate incident occurred involving Tillikum the male orca and veteran senior SWF trainer Dawn. I have mix feelings about the way this incident was covered.

First, I want to say a few things about Tillikum. 3 young whales named Haida, Knootka, & Tillikum were captured from Iceland and sent to Sealand (in Victoria, British Columbia). They replaced whales from Canadian waters that died. This facility was awful, and the way the whales were treated was even worse. SeaWorld (SW) uses operant conditioning (positive reinforcement) to train ALL of their animals. At SW the animal eats regardless of whether it obeys the trainer. However at Sealand, the Orcas were mistreated, and the fish were withheld if they disobeyed orders. The trainers at Sealand never got in the water with their animals. In 1991 a trainer named Keltie Byrne fell into the water, and she did not have a chance. The second death associated with Tillikum happened in 1999. This individual decided that he wanted to swim with the whales. After the park closed, this individual hid in the bushes, snuck into the stadium and jumped in with Tillikum. I am certain this guy died due to hypothermia, because the water is in the 50's (I have been in with no wet suit). Also I remember reading that this individual had drugs in his system.

Haida and Tillikum at SeaLand where they were mistreated.

The most predictable aspect to all of this, is the fact that every time a whale dies at one of the 3 SeaWorld parks or a trainer suffers as much as a hang nail the animal right activists come out of the woodwork on cue. Anyway these people are so naive that they DEMAND SeaWorld release ALL of their orcas back into the wild. To hell with the animal's well being and the fact that SeaWorld supports and employs many talented people (more on that later).

Releasing Orcas back into the wild is flawed for many reasons. First lets look at the fact that most of SeaWorld's Orcas were born in captivity. The only whales SW has that were born in the wild are: Corky, Kasatka, Ulises, Katina, & Tillikum. The first 3 orcas reside at SWC in San Diego, and the latter 2 reside at SWF in Orlando. In San Antonio, all the orcas were born in captivity, and have never seen the wild. In 1993, I got to see a whale named Keet who was the first Grandbaby Shamu, whose mother is Kalina (first whale born in captivity), and whose grandmother is Katina. In fact, I last saw Keet back in July. It is also worth noting, that an animal who is not comfortable in captivity will not eat, and sure as not reproduce.

If you look at all the orcas that have resided at SeaWorld, you will see that they don't all come from the same place. The first group of whales came from the Southern Pods in the waters of Washington State. Next the whales came from the Northern pods in British Columbia. These two groups of whales only eat fish and are very sociable. However the final group of Pacific Northwest Whales were the Transients who most people associate with Orcas because they eat other marine mammals. Eventually, North America was off limits due to public opposition, and legislation like the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972. SeaWorld was a victim of it's own success, because the whales demonstrated to the public that they were not "killers" but were actually quite docile where a human could be in the water with them. Before SeaWorld came along orcas and other whales were viewed as competitors to fish and a nuisance. (The US Navy would even gun down these whales. Up in the Dominion of Canada the Royal Canadian Air Force would be flying up in the air and kill the Beluga whales just for the sake of target practice.)

The final group of whales were Icelandic, and these whales have a reputation for being more aggressive. There are a few documented examples of this aggression; which is like a clash of cultures that speak different languages.

In the 1980's, SW decided to start a captive breeding program. 3 things are needed to succeed in the whales reproducing. (1) You need a mature male orca that has reached adulthood and can breed (2) you need females that are old enough to have a calf, & (3) you need larger facilities that can accommodate a nursing mother, the calf, and the rest of the pod. In the mid 1980's, SWF constructed a new facility for their orcas followed by SWC. (The previous orca facilities now house dolphins) With Orcas, the female matures at an earlier age than the male. This is important, because in the mid 80's when SeaWorld started their captive breeding program, their mature males were from the Pacific Northwest, and the females were Icelandic- Resulting in whales born with ancestry deriving from Orcas who would never come into contact with each other. So, where would we release these miscegenated orcas?

Another issue of releasing these animals back to the wild is their lack of socail skills, and possible health issues. At SeaWorld, these animals bond with their fellow orcas, as well as the trainers. Through operant conditioning trainers build close relationships with these animals, leading to some of the whales having their favorite trainers! (Just like we have favorite teachers)

Some of the whales at SW have teeth that are worn down- left untreated the teeth could become infected. The teeth are treated everyday with hydrogen peroxide.

Remember Keiko aka Free Willy? Keiko lived in Mexico in horrible conditions. Americans donated money to rescue Keiko. Keiko was relocated to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, where a tank was built just for his need. Keiko made tremendous progress immediately! The Free Willy Foundation decided to send him to Iceland, and reintroduce him to the wild in a pen. When the foundation ran out of money in 2002, the "free" Keiko. However, after 2 weeks Keiko is found in the company of humans, and lost weight (does not know how to catch food). The Humane Society takes over, and Keiko eventually dies from an infection. To conclude, Keiko was unable to catch live fish, and socialize- join a pod of wild orcas.

To be continued...............

Good Luck Endeavour

After nearly a month of trying, Endeavour finally lifted off last night. I want to wish the crew and everybody at Nasa good luck on this flight and for the crew's safe return in two weeks.

Pete Conrad: Rocket Man

Rocket Man is a biography about astronaut and Apollo 12 Moon-walker Pete Conrad. This book was written by his widow Nancy Conrad and Howard A. Klausner.

I was attracted to this book, because Pete Conrad was an astronaut during the Golden Age of Space Flight. All I can say, is that this book did not disappoint. It was well written and lacked the acronyms and other technical jargon that can make books like this hard to understand.

There were many aspects to this book that I found very fascinating.

When Conrad was a kid, he suffered from Dyslexia, and at the time he was growing up, not much was known about Dyslexia, and people thought you were either stupid or slow if you had it. In other words, no accommodations were made. Therefore, Pete Conrad struggled with Dyslexia, and had to overcome it himself. He was kicked out of a private school in philadelphia (because of grades) and his mom found one that would better accommodate him.

Eventually Conrad would thrive at this new private school, and he would be accepted into the Naval Academy and become an aviator and a real good pilot.

Another thing that I found interesting and amusing, was that Conrad could have been accepted into the Mercury Program. He decided to quit the program for various reasons, and when he did have enough, he threw an enema bag on the generals desk, and went back to his job as a test pilot flying the F-4 Phantom.

Pete Conrad was eventually named to the second group of astronauts, and had a successful career at NASA. After NASA, the book talks about his career at McDac (McDonnell Douglas), and starting a space exploration company in the years before his death. While at McDac he was a DC-10 salesman, and more importantly he investigated American Airlines Flight 191, and came to the conclusion (Fork lift maintenance (a big no no)) before the FAA.

Conclusion: I recommend this book

Publisher: New American Library (Penguin Group, USA)

Published: May, 2005 (Hardcover)

New Class of Astronauts

I was on twitter the other day (I subscribe to various NASA updates) and I found out that Nasa announced a 2009 class of astronauts. An MSNBC article mentions that this new class will never fly on the space shuttle. Right now NASA has plenty of astronauts, and too few missions remaining. The reason I decided to mention this, is because the Space Shuttle program (Discovery, Atlantis, & Endeavour) will be retired in 2010. After the shuttle NASA will be paying the Russians $51 million for a ride on the Soyuz space craft to reach the ISS. Right now there is an ever expanding gap before NASA can send astronauts back into space. The Ares program has been called into question, and Mr. Obama has ordered commission to review the Ares program and the Orion Capsule that make up Constellation which will send astronauts to the ISS, the Moon and then to Mars.

With all that said, there will not be any space flights by NASA for a while. Now that these individuals have been accepted, it will take two years of training for them to become a full fledged astronaut. That is alot of money that NASA will invest in these people who may or may not make into space. As somebody typing on a keyboard, logic tells me, that it would be much wiser to use that money on the Constellation Program.

Bob Lilly: A Cowboy's Life

A Cowboy's Life is the autobiography of Bob Lilly. Collaborating with Mr. Lilly in writing this autobiography is Kristene Setting Clark.

Before I review the book, I want to mention that Bob Lilly was one of the greatest Defensive tackles in the NFL. More significantly, he was the foundation of the "Doomsday Defense" and the Cowboys franchise. For more information about Mr. Lilly, the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Dallas Cowboys have pages devoted to this legendary athlete.

To start things off, this was a quick read and a disappointment. When I purchased this book, I thought that this would be a memoir about Bob Lilly. There are only a few pages devoted to Lilly's childhood, time at Texas Christian University, and personal life. To put things into prespective, I did not know that he was married, until he was talking about being inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1980.

This book had so much potential, because the things that were disclosed in the book were very fascinating and should have been expanded. Some topics briefly mentioned were childhood, having to leave Texas (to Oregon), working a summer job in the oil field, TCU, and family life.

The only thing in this book that is revealing, is when Bob Lilly talks about the injuries he sustained in his NFL career, and the medical treatment for those ailments.

Most of the book is devoted to the history of the Dallas Cowboys, and there were times when I thought that this was a biography of Tom Landry, Don Meredith, or somebody else with the Cowboys. There is a sizeable chapter in this book devoted that lists off numerous players he played with.

The weakest part of this book is not the aforesaid substance but the way it was composed. There is not really a sequential order or smoothness. It just seemed that it was just pasted together hastily. The thing that drove me crazy, was repetition of previous things that were described. This happened when players were described and talking about the most memorable games of Bob Lilly's career.

Conclusion: I do not recommend this book

Publisher: Triumph Books

Published: 2008 (Hardcover)

Walter Cunningham: The All-American Boys

The All-American Boys is a memoir written by Walter Cunningham about his time at NASA during the "golden age of space flight." This, book came out in 2003 after the Columbia tragedy and is a revised edition of his 1977 book. Before going any farther, I must say that if somebody wants to know about the history of NASA (at its best) as well as the inner workings of this government agency, and personalities of the original astronauts then you should read this book. Best of all, this book is easy to read and understand because it does not rely heavily on acronyms as other military, aviation, and space exploration books do.

In this book, Cunningham discusses a wide range of issues during his NASA career. The Apollo 1 accident and his Apollo 7 flight that undoubtedly convinced the NASA powers that be not to give anyone on that crew any future missions. One of the best chapters in this book, is called "Astropolitics," because it talks about flight assignments. Primarily it talks about a pecking order in NASA where the Mercury astronauts primarily Deke Slayton and Alan Shepard called the shots. When talking about the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Cunningham gave great insight about the Russian Space program and how primative their technology was, and that the Soviets deemphasized the individual cosmonaut and instead relied more on the ground operations in Moscow. It was a collective society afterall! After Cunningham is bumped from his Spacelab assignment by Pete Conrad he realizes that he won't go back into space again and soon resigns from NASA.

Originally this book was released in 1977, since that time Cunningham has observed NASA as a civilian and shares his views about NASA up to the Columbia accident. I was interestead about when he talked about the Freedom Space Station morphing into the International Space Station. Primarily it is Bill Clinton and his administration partnering with the Russians first on Mir and then The ISS. Let me conclude by saying that Cunningham talked about Join ventures here in Texas where the weaker person ends up in a better position (Russians), while the stronger party gains nothing (NASA, money and technology transferred to Russia).

Conclusion: I recommend this book

Publisher: IBooks inc.

published: July 2003 (hardcover edition)

Riding With Reagan

Riding with Reagan is a book that was written in 2005 by former Secret Service Agent John Barietta (with Rochelle Scweizer). John Barietta was not any Agent, he happened to share something in common with President Reagan and that was horseback riding. For the President this was more than a hobby, and he would ride whenever he had the opportunity. Whether it be at the ranch, with the Queen of England, or at Camp David; it did not matter.

With that said, this book rarely if ever mentions politics, and to be quite frank, more time is spent talking about President Reagan's horse El Alamein!

In this book the author gives a useful amount of biographical information about himself along with his career in the Secret Service. He also talks how he protected Reagan and how the Ranch was secured during and even after Reagan's presidency. One of the most interesting facts that was disclosed, was the fact that whenever Reagan visited Rancho del Cielo, Soviet submarines would be parked off the coast of Santa Barbara.

Another thing I must say, is that I have learned more about horseback riding and caring for horses by reading this book than anything else I have ever come across. An example is equestrian Riding or western riding and how both of these differ.

The saddest part of this book, was the ending because it not only talks about President Reagans diagnosis with alzheimers, but the author also talks about his own retirement from the Secret Service.

Tom Jones: Sky Walking

Sky Walking is a biography written by former NASA astronaut Tom Jones. In Sky Walking, Jones first provides in great detail applying and becoming an astronaut, and then his career at NASA. Most of the book is spent going into great detail about the shuttle missions Jones took part in. STS-59 and STS-68 were both missions where astronauts scanned the earth and provided in depth photos of the earth. STS-80 concerned experiments with satellites and a botched space walk Jones was involved in because he could not open up the hatch. To his relief the ground crew could not. STS-98 consisted of Jones and Robert Curbeam going on a few space walks to install the Destiny module to the fledgling Space Station. There is an imax movie that features this particular space mission.

Other interesting things that Jones discusses is astronaut John Young, Russia's involvement in the ISS, The Culumbia accident, family life, meeting George W. Bush in the Oval Office (with blue flight suits) and life in Houston.

The only difficulty I had with this book was when he described the ISS (assembling it). I wish there was some type of diagram that was included in the book, just as there was a key of the various acronyms that were used.

Guenter Wendt: The Unbroken Chain

The Unbroken Chain is the memoir of Guenter Wendt that was first published in 2001 by Apogee Books. Guenter Wendt was the "Pad Leader" who was in charge of the white-room, and was the last man who saw the astronauts before they blasted off into space. The reason I decided to read this book, was because of the unique aspects Guenter had that even your typical astronauts don't have. He worked at NASA from the beginnings of Mercury all the way to the Shuttle Program.

This book has countless stories of the astronauts as well as the pranks they would play on each-other. The most infamous of those pranks, was when Alan Shepherd gave Guenter a helment that said "Col. Guenter Klink" with swastikas on both sides. In his book he talks about NASA being angry at him, when it was all Shepherd's doing.

Another great asset, is the many photos that are provided in this book. If you are not familiar with some of the rockets and other things pertaining to NASA, the photos are a big help.

One of things that I will take away from reading this book is the fact a lesson anybody can apply in their own lives. If you want to succeed you have to make yourself be an important an integral part of the team. As aforementioned Guenter had friendships with many of the astronauts, and after he left NASA (post Gemini), and the astronauts did not want him to leave, and tried to get the New contractor to hire him. After the Apollo I tragedy, Deke Slayton and other influential astronauts succeeded in "persuading" North American Aviation" to give him back his old job.

The only disappointment I had with this book, was that there was no mention of his childhood or life in Germany. He did mention that he was a pilot during the Second World War. It is somewhat understandable because talking about Germany then is still controversial 60+ years later. Everything else he writes about makes up for that omission in spades.

I now conclude this post by saying that I recommend this book, especially if you are interested in NASA and people in general.