It is a huge mistake to allow expansion of the Vancouver Aquarium. Let's
not deceive ourselves: the consistent high mortality rate in captivity
means more belugas will be harvested from the wild. These "new" dolphins
and whales will be taken from endangered populations of whales, and this
immoral harvest goes against the purported conservation goals of the
aquarium.

Let's face it. The Vancouver Aquarium is proposing this expansion fiasco
to increase profit. What about education? The only thing the public is
learning about whales and dolphins in a place like this is what they look
like, that they breathe and swim, and that humans have utter control over
them. Normal behaviors in the wild are gone in the monotonous and
stressful captive environment: highly vocal, complex social beings, with
long-distance migration patterns are reduced to silent circling in shallow
concrete tanks, being hand-fed dead fish. I have visited the Vancouver
Aquarium and would give them a failing grade for their whale and dolphin
displays' conditions.

In order to disguise the common early deaths of
beluga whales in captivity, the Vancouver Aquarium tells the public during
its beluga shows that belugas live about 20 years in the wild. Basic laws
of environmental science and scientific data refute this ridiculous claim.

The larger the animals, the longer lived they are. They are larger than
humans and have been found to be living at 50+ or more in the wild.

Have you noticed that the belugas in the Aquarium are not singing? Beluga
whales are the "Canaries of the Sea!" Let's face the facts: the belugas
in the Vancouver Aquarium are the depressed, silent and short-lived
sacrificial lambs brought into these unnatural chlorinated environments to
enrich a handful of proprietors and to entertain the apathetic human
species. Isn't it time we treated these highly evolved and intelligent
species with the respect they deserve and stop these ridiculous
aqua-circus displays? Will Vancouver say "no" to this expansion, and
uphold the humane ethics of environmental science? After so many
unsuccessful decades in captivity the plight of these marine mammals in
shallow tanks is no longer impossible to ignore.

Taffy Lee Williams
New York Whale and Dolphin Action League
PO Box 273
Tuckahoe, NY 10707 USA
914-793-9186
407-404-2046 cell
www.ny4whales.org