Skana and the Hippie
On september 21, 1967, Vancouver columnist Himie Koshevoy of the Province newspaper witnessed an unexpected Cold War encounter. Soviet minister of fisheries Alexander Ishkov had come to see the Vancouver Aquarium, and Murray Newman invited the reporter along. Ishkov had visited in 1956, when construction of the aquarium was still underway, and he was so impressed that he carried a copy of its plans back to Moscow. Eleven years later, he had returned for a grand tour, and Newman was happy to oblige. He showed his Soviet guest around the exhibits, proudly noting that each year forty thousand schoolchildren visited the aquarium, “gaining knowledge of their coastal environment.” Like most visitors that year, Ishkov was especially eager to see Skana, Vancouver’s captive killer whale. According to Koshevoy, what ensued between communist fishing minister and US-caught orca amounted to “a Little Yalta.” With “squeals of delight,” Skana showed off her acrobatic feats, earning a handful of herring for each one. Although Ishkov may not have grasped the significance of Skana “profiting through her labors,” Koshevoy quipped, the Soviet official clearly enjoyed the performance. When his hosts suggested Ishkov try feeding Skana himself, however, he hesitated. “You could almost see the thoughts racing,” mused Koshevoy. “Was she a potential aggressor? Could he deter an attack? The first-strike ability was clearly on the whale’s side.” Finally, coaxed by trainer Terry McLeod, Ishkov made his démarche, and Skana accepted. As Ishkov smiled and rubbed the whale’s head, it was clear the crisis had passed. The interspecies summit closed, Koshevoy noted, with “mutual expressions of goodwill on all sides.” It was a waggish depiction of the visit, to be sure. Although the Soviet official didn’t want to look skittish in front of his North American hosts, the Cold War was likely far from his mind as he dropped herring into Skana’s maw. Ishkov shared Newman’s interest in fish and marine mammals, and he had recently outlawed the killing of small cetaceans in Soviet waters. Yet he was undeniably part of the political world, and he represented a Soviet empire that was asserting its interests around the globe.