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American Morning

Celebrating 10 Years of the Oceanarium at Shedd Aquarium

Aired May 24, 2001 - 10:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There is something fishy about this next story. The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Oceanarium. Lots of critters excited about that, including our own critter, Keith Oppenheim, who's joining us live now from Chicago -- Keith, good morning.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm honored to be called a critter by you, Daryn. But before I introduce you to some of the beautiful beluga whales here first I'm just going to set the stage with a number of live cams that we have that are both underwater as well as above the surface.

The wide view you're seeing right now is of a portion of the Oceanarium, which, as you mentioned, is celebrating its 10th year. And this is the marine mammals side of the Shedd Aquarium and there you're going to see my -- she's sort of become my girlfriend this afternoon. That's Kayavak, who is one of the young cows here. And as the animal training staff use their whistles and call the other two beluga whales over here, it's a 19-year-old mother named Mauyak and also Qannik is the other calf here, we can talk a little bit about animal training.

Now, first of all, the dolphins are not the only ones who are -- excuse me, I mean the beluga whales are not the only ones who are trained here. There are also otters, seals, dolphins and birds, penguins, and training is just a huge focus of what takes place here at the Shedd. There is a lot of training which is mixing visual and auditory cues that makes life for these animals better in terms of keeping them mentally and physically active.

If you go to a dolphin show, for example, you might think it's all about entertainment. Really, a lot of what the training is oriented towards is veterinary care. That applies to penguins, as well. And if you can get the animal into a more cooperative position, that can make medical checks a lot easier and it can help us out to learn more about these animals.

Learning is a huge focus of what takes place here at the Shedd. Thirty thousand school kids every year will take a class here and another 40,000 get classes through outreach programs. And the idea, Daryn, is to help people make that connection between the aquatic world and humans, to get a better sense of the integration of animal life. Ken Ramirez is the guy who is crouching next to me with Kayavak and Ken, can you just demonstrate a little bit how training is very helpful for a veterinary check?

KEN RAMIREZ, DIRECTOR OF TRAINING: Sure. One of the things we do is we build a good relationship with the animals and because they get to know us and trust us, they let us touch all different parts of their body like this. For example, one of the best ways to really monitor the health of a whale would be to take a blood sample. Well, they don't have arms, so we take a blood sample from their tail.

OPPENHEIM: This is called the fluke?

RAMIREZ: Yes, that's right. You're touching it exactly the way the veterinarian would. And by making this into a game, the whale just realizes she's having fun. She thinks she's having her tail tickled while we know what we're doing is teaching her a very important behavior to help us take a blood sample if we ever need to monitor her health.

OPPENHEIM: Well, Daryn, while I tickle the talk of a whale, I'll mention that an adult beluga whale will eat, on average, about 40 to 80 pounds of top quality seafood every day.

KAGAN: Oh, my goodness.

OPPENHEIM: So they don't eat bad around here.

KAGAN: That makes for a pretty expensive date, I would say, Keith.

OPPENHEIM: Yeah, you got that.

KAGAN: Keith, what about the critics of situations like this, programs, the people who say that these kind of animals belong in the wild and not in captivity?

OPPENHEIM: Well, one of the advantages of captivity is that they live a longer life here. And I'm going to actually ask Ken that question because -- Daryn was asking whether or not there are critics who say that these animals would be better off in the wild than here in a tank.

RAMIREZ: I think there often are critics, but it's often important to realize that in an organization like this what we're able to do is expose millions of people to these animals and inspire people to care about their conservation and protecting them in the wild and that's what the aquarium is all about.

OPPENHEIM: Right. And I should just mention that these are not endangered animals, although it could certainly be that if there was too much hunting of them that that could be the case. Back to you.

KAGAN: Can't argue they are pretty darned cute. Keith Oppenheim at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Thank you very much.

OPPENHEIM: Sure.

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