Your Vancouver Province
Aquarium eyes taking in more dolphins, whales
No need to release formerly injured animals
Elaine O'Connor, The Province
Published: Thursday, June 21, 2007
The Vancouver Parks Board will vote on a contentious bylaw amendment Monday that could allow the Vancouver Aquarium to keep more dolphins and whales in captivity.
Under the current bylaw, enacted in 1996 over concerns about unregulated capture of dolphins near Japan, the aquarium is barred from bringing in any cetaceans captured after 1996.
The amendment would permit the aquarium to bring in any baleen whale, narwhal, dolphin, porpoise, killer whale or beluga whale "that has been injured or is otherwise in distress, and in need of assistance to survive or rehabilitation, whether or not the intention is to release it back into its natural wild habitat."
The original bylaw also permitted injured animals to be taken in but did not specify whether they had to be released after treatment.
Animal activists are outraged.
They think the change would make it easier for the aquarium to keep the animals and note that a steady supply is crucial to its success, with its $80-million expansion that includes larger dolphin and beluga pools.
"This is cruelty," said Rob Light of No Whales in Captivity. "It's not educational."
Vancouver Aquarium president John Nightingale said the aquarium has public support for bringing in cetaceans and aims to bring in more.
"We've always said that an ideal group of dolphins is seven or eight," Nightingale said. "That's the number you want."
He cited polls that show about 75 per cent of respondents agree that "the aquarium should be allowed to bring a new whale or dolphin into its facility, if it was injured or otherwise in distress at any time in the past and requires permanent human care to survive, with no intention of releasing it back into the wild."
Nightingale said that the amendment is just a clarification for the board. He said that in some cases a rehabilitated animal can't be safely released even after they recover. Wording in the earlier bylaw did not make this clear.