End Vancouver Aquarium’s Cetacean Captivity!
End Vancouver Aquarium’s Cetacean Captivity!
The recent deaths of two beluga whales at Vancouver Aquarium sparked new efforts to end the captivity of whales and dolphins within the city of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. The Vancouver Parks Board commissioners will vote on this issue as soon as January 23. It's time to end Vancouver Aquarium’s cetacean captivity now!
In November 2016, twenty-nine-year-old Aurora, and her twenty-one-year-old daughter Qila, died from unknown causes only nine days apart. After inaccurately inferring that anti-captivity activists may have been behind their deaths, the aquarium now speculates that it was an unknown virus or bacteria.
Amid a drama-filled history of past efforts undermined by the Vancouver Aquarium, the seven elected commissioners of the Parks Board will soon consider a motion that, if done in the right way, would stop cetaceans from being returned to captivity there. The current motion will decide whether a city-wide direct vote—a plebiscite—will be held in November 2018 to end cetacean captivity. Additionally, it requests Vancouver Aquarium to withhold, voluntarily, from importing five beluga whales who are currently on breeding loans at facilities in the United States, including SeaWorld. Over the past sixteen years, every captive beluga birth and death in the U.S. has been directly tied to these five whales, making this vote extremely important.
In 2016, the Vancouver Aquarium was featured on In Defense of Animals' Ten Worst Tanks for Dolphins and Whales list, earning the #9 spot for its abysmal track record of keeping cetaceans alive. Since 2005, three beluga whales have died within three years of being born there, not including Aurora and Qila.