Your Vancouver Sun

Park board clears way for more mammals at the aquarium
Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, June 27, 2007

VANCOUVER - When the Vancouver Aquarium acquired a pair of Pacific white-sided dolphins in 2005, there was no real thought of either being returned to the wild.

At 18, Helen had lost portions of her front flippers after becoming entangled with a fishing net off Japan. Hana, then 11, was severely emaciated from a similar experience with a net.

The two had undergone initial rehabilitation at the Enoshima Aquarium in Japan, then were flown to the Stanley Park aquarium to continue the process. Because of their injuries, the dolphins were both deemed "not releasable" before they ever arrived in B.C.

That status didn't faze John Nightingale, president of the Vancouver Aquarium.

Though a park bylaw had been in place since 1996 restricting the aquarium's acquisition of dolphins and whales, there were exceptions for cetaceans in need of rehabilitation.

Nightingale -- along with some Vancouver park board commissioners of the day -- interpreted the exception to include cetaceans such as Hana and Helen, whom the scientists say would die without continuing human care.

Others on the park board, however, opposed that interpretation, re-igniting a debate around animals in captivity.

Some commissioners, backed by animal rights advocates, said the aquarium's interpretation was contrary to the spirit of the 1996 bylaw. They argued the law was intended to lead to the phasing out of whales and dolphins in captivity.

"The original exception was something like, if you need to bring them in -- if they are

injured or in need of rehabilitation -- you must also have a plan to release them," Spencer Herbert, a park board commissioner, said in an interview Tuesday. But, he said, "that's never happened."

On Monday, the park board voted to clarify the bylaw's meaning. In a 5-2 vote, it approved changing the wording of the 1996 bylaw to match the aquarium's interpretation -- that is, to allow the facility to bring in "any animal that has been injured or otherwise in distress, and in need of assistance to survive or rehabilitation, whether or not the intention is to release it back to the wild."

Tuesday, Commissioner Korina Houghton described the vote as not much more than a housekeeping issue, and in keeping with results of a public consultation last year that asked people about their feelings on keeping marine mammals in captivity.

"The intent of the bylaw has not changed. The wording has been cleared up. It's now more clear to anyone who reads it," she said.

Again, not everyone agrees.

Herbert, who joined commissioner Loretta Woodcock in opposing the new wording, said it is too broad and makes it easier than ever for the aquarium to acquire cetaceans, so long as they are deemed "in distress" or "injured."

"Japan continues to do the dolphin-drive fisheries which injure many, many dolphins and [some fishermen] do that in a way to make money," Herbert said. "That is the problem with the way the bylaw is worded now -- anything goes."

Nightingale said the aquarium will continue to do the work it does -- including rehabilitating injured marine mammals. Some will be able to be returned to the wild, he said. Some will not. "Anyone who has ever taken part in rehabilitation work knows that sometimes it doesn't work," he said Tuesday in an interview.
Nightingale said the aquarium has no plans to acquire any killer whales. "You never say never, but I cannot imagine any circumstance that would cause a killer whale to come into the Vancouver Aquarium," he said.

Nightingale said he'd like the aquarium to have up to seven dolphins, but would rather see them born at the aquarium than coming from outside sources. Earlier this year, the aquarium confirmed Hana, one of four dolphins at the facility, had a miscarriage. Last year, she gave birth to a stillborn calf.