Georgia Straight September 11, 2003

Group Opposes Seal Hospital

By Charlie Smith

The Coalition for No Whales in Captivity has written to Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell and the rest of council objecting to a plan to move a marine-mammal rescue centre to the foot of Main Street. Coalition spokesperson Annelise Sorg told the Georgia Straight that Vancouver city council should hold a public process to hear how citizens feel about placing a seal hospital very close to the Helijet and SeaBus terminals.

"If your puppy dog was sick, would you want him to be placed in a hospital that is in a noisy, polluted area?" Sorg said.

On August 28, MP Stephen Owen, minister of Western Economic Diversification Canada, announced a federal contribution of $405,832 to the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre. According to a joint news release issued by the two organizations, the money would enable the aquarium to buy new marine and veterinary equipment, including a new rescue-and-research vessel.

"The support from Western Economic Diversification Canada means a larger facility that will be able to care for additional animals, such as whales and dolphins who may be in need of help," aquarium board chair Jim Kershaw said in the news release.

Aquarium spokesperson Angela Nielsen told the Straight that the 44-year-old marine-mammal centre is now at the Rogers Sugar site on Port of Vancouver land on the city's East Side. "They need that land back," she said. "The port has generously provided us with a new place for marine-mammal rescue."

Sorg said her group is "concerned" that the aquarium might build whale and dolphin pools.

"The concept of capturing 'rescued' whales and placing them in captivity in downtown Vancouver seems ridiculous to us, and unnecessary," she said.

In 1998, the Vancouver Port Authority and the city approved a "charter" agreeing to work together on a range of issues, including enhancement of the marine environment. The charter states that both parties would ensure "effective public consultation on significant decisions relating to Port and adjacent City lands".

Anne McMullin, the port authority's director of communications, told the Straight that the aquarium has been granted a five-year lease for the nominal fee of $1. "The city staff have been kept up-to-date on what we're doing," she said. "It went through our project-approval process. We have jurisdiction on the property."

When asked if this meets the charter's test of being a "significant" decision requiring public consultation, McMullin replied: "No, it's a temporary location, a temporary situation."

McMullin said the aquarium has permission to build two "small" tanks above ground. "From my understanding, what I know of it, it's for harbour seals," she said.

McMullin added that the joint federal-provincial Burrard Environmental Review Committee reviewed the aquarium's plans. She said she didn't know the names of city officials who have reviewed the plans; the city did not respond to the Straight's questions by deadline concerning development permits and public processes.

Mayor Campbell refused to tell the Straight if he will seek public input on the aquarium's plans. "I have nothing to do with the aquarium," Campbell said at a September 9 news conference. "You have to talk to people at the park board."

Coalition of Progressive Electors Coun. Tim Louis, a former park commissioner, told the Straight that the port has agreed to be governed by the city's process, even though federal land is not technically under municipal jurisdiction.

"Given that if it is on port land it would not appear to be a park-board issue, it would be between the port, the aquarium, and the city," Louis said. "Whales and dolphins do not belong in captivity. Far too often, aquariums around the world use this notion of 'rescuing' not to rescue but to capture--not to rehabilitate but to imprison."

Louis added that if the city receives a proposal from the aquarium and the port authority, he thinks it should be turned over to the public for feedback. "I suspect very strongly the public would speak overwhelmingly opposed," he said.

Sorg said the federal government should have donated money to the Island Wildlife Natural Care Centre on Salt Spring Island, which, unlike the aquarium's rescue centre, remains open throughout the year.\par

"We are very disappointed to see the aquarium get a business grant of $400,000 for seal rescue when it should have gone to the Salt Spring Island facility," Sorg said.

Jeff Lederman, founder and director of the Island Wildlife Natural Care Centre, told the Straight that his facility handled 70 seals and 500 other animals last year.

"We rescue and rehabilitate all of the indigenous wildlife, but we specialize in seals and harbour seal pups," Lederman said.