2 whales for Shedd are flown to Tacoma // Belugas will stay there for 10 months

SEATTLE Two 900-pound beluga whales from Manitoba, destined forthe Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, landed at SeattleTacoma InternationalAirport Thursday for a 10-month layover at Tacoma's aquarium.

The whales, both pale gray, 8 1/2-foot-long adolescent females,will join three white belugas at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquariumuntil Shedd's new Oceanarium opens in fall of 1990, aquariumofficials said.

The whales were flown in fleece-lined crates. They were coveredwith lanolin and continually "misted" during the flight to keep themfrom drying out, said Shedd spokeswoman Michele Gaspar.

Both arrived in good condition amid sharp criticism from animalrights groups that tried but failed to get a court order blocking thewhale shipment.

Chicago schoolchildren will be asked to name the whales in acontest, Gaspar said. No date has been set for the contest, but thenames will be chosen well before the whales make their Chicago debutat the $43 million Oceanarium's opening, she said.

The whales will be part of a display that aims to re-create thecoastline of southeast Alaska. It will include dolphins and seaotters that were rehabilitated after being covered with oil from theExxon Valdez spill.

To Mitchell Fox of the Progressive Animal Welfare Society, thecapture of the marine mammals is a travesty. The organization wentto U.S. District Court in Seattle seeking a court order to stop themove, but the aquariums acted before a hearing was scheduled.

"They won that one," said Fox. "We think that was one moresleazy insult in an affair that has happened without the correctamount of public input and consideration of our environmental laws."

Fox said PAWS, based in Lynnwood, Wash., and the InternationalWildlife Organization will press their lawsuit to have the whalesreturned to Canada.

He said the capture last week at Churchill, Manitoba, disruptedbreeding grounds. The aquariums' educational goals aren't worth thewear and tear on the animals, he said. He described the capture as awater rodeo in which whales are herded by motor boats into shallowwater and exhausted until they can be hauled into a sling.

Byron Olson, director of administration for Tacoma'sMetropolitan Park District, which oversees the zoo and aquarium, saidall government permits were in order.

He said the whales were moved because they were ready to traveland the action didn't have anything to do with the lawsuit by theanimal welfare group, whose opinions were considered but deemedunpersuasive.

Leon Pitt contributed to this story.