Whale rescue program would be ill-advised
Letter to the Editor
The Maui News
April 16, 2002
It is sometimes amusing to read about the efforts of man to change the natural process of nature and disrupt the normal process of the ocean's ecosystem. Who are we to second-guess the ultimate balance of nature by interfering with the proposal to create a baby whale rescue program?
Louis Herman of the Marine Mammal Laboratory stated in The Sunday Advertiser article that "it was just wrenching" to watch the abandoned calf searching for a surrogate mother to suckle it. What makes these scientists want to play God with nature's normal process?
To witness an event of this nature is very sad, and as humans our natural instinct is to save and preserve and nurture, but we must realize that we should not interfere with the natural balance of nature.
Maybe the mother whale knew the baby whale had an ailment and could not survive the rigors of traveling thousands of miles on their migrations and that some inner instinct took over and her decision of not suckling her baby was made.
It is also a natural phenomenon for tiger sharks to be present waiting for their disdained duty to eliminate anything that is sick, injured, dying and dead from the ocean. In fact, they evolved 400 million years ago for this distinct purpose of keeping the ocean clean. Whales and dolphins don't belong in captivity even with the good intentions of returning them back to the ocean.
To build a facility on Maui for the purpose of "saving" stranded sea animals, especially if it has never been done with humpback whales, is ill-advised.
Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr.
Pukalani, Maui
