Celebrities join fight to free whales and dolphins from marine parks

Sally Kestin, Sun Sentinel 17 Apr 10;

A group of Hollywood celebrities is lining up in defense of another kind of star: whale, dolphin and marine mammal performers in marine parks and aquariums.

Producer Raul Julia-Levy, son of the late Broadway and Hollywood actor Raul Julia, has campaigned to free Lolita, the Miami Seaquarium's lone killer whale, and now wants to broaden his message.

"Animals this large don't deserve to be in captivity,'' Julia-Levy said in an interview this week. "They're extremely intelligent. Keeping these animals in those little tanks is not right.''

Julia-Levy said he's recruited A-list stars to the cause: actors Johnny Depp and Wesley Snipes, singer Elton John and rapper RZA.

"Whether it's man, animal, bird or fish, nothing wants to be held captive,'' RZA told the Sun Sentinel. "There's no spirit on earth that enjoys that.''

RZA and Julia-Levy have little faith in a Congressional hearing scheduled for April 27 on marine mammals in captivity. The hearing will focus on the education and conservation efforts of marine parks.

"I think it's baloney,'' Julia-Levy said. "It's not going to help the animals.''

The Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums, a trade organization, contends the attractions educate the public about oceans and sea life. Their marine animals "live long, happy lives,'' free from the stress of predators and life in the wild, according to the Alliance's website.

Julia-Levy believes the motive of the attractions is less pure. "They do this for the hundreds of millions of dollars they get every year,'' he said.

He is working on a new television series, "Species in Captivity,'' narrated by Snipes and directed by RZA, a protégé of acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino. The first episodes will focus on killer whales and dolphins and how marine parks "cash in on these animals,'' Julia-Levy said.

He has tried to persuade the Seaquarium to return Lolita to the waters off Washington state, where she was captured 40 years ago. The Seaquarium has said Lolita could not survive in the wild.

U.S. marine parks stopped capturing marine mammals more than 15 years ago and now rely on breeding. The animals' natural instincts remain, as demonstrated by the recent death of a SeaWorld trainer by a killer whale, said RZA, a Grammy-winning music producer, actor and director whose real name is Robert Fitzgerald Diggs.

""You have to have a strong will to bite the hand that feeds you,'' he said. "The will to swim and explore the depths of the ocean is going to come back to them. We should let these animals go, yo.''