Vancouver Aquarium announces the pregnancy of its dolphin 'Hana'

Dear Sir,

We recently heard that the dolphin 'Hana' which was newly acquired by Vancouver Aquarium is pregnant. As Captivity Officer for the Marine Connection, a marine mammal welfare charity based in the UK I felt compelled to write in.

Hana the dolphin arrived at Vancouver Aquarium in October 2005, six months ago. After the trauma of being tangled in fishing nets and taken to an alien and lifeless captive environment, Japan's Enoshima Aquarium and Canada's Vancouver Aquarium thought she needed a little further stress and made the decision that she should endure the extensive flight from Japan to Canada. The fact that there were major indications she was pregnant before she left for Canada, and that this is only just being confirmed six months on, displays impressive inefficiency, a lack of thought for the animal involved and too much focus on the profit of this exchange.

There have been celebrations that Vancouver Aquarium is to have their 'first' newborn dolphin at their facility. However, people are forgetting that Vancouver Aquarium has indeed witnessed the birth of three baby 'dolphins' at the facility - three orcas (members of the dolphin family). Three beluga whales have also been born here. Perhaps the reason the Aquarium likes to forget this is that today only one of these six animals survives.

Even if this newest arrival survives at Vancouver Aquarium, it will still have the urge to swim for hundreds of miles, dive hundreds of feet and hunt live prey using its extraordinary echolocation skills. Unfortunately what it will arrive into will be a lifeless tank which couldn't hope to replicate the space it needs which is without currents or live fish and a life of relying on and performing for human beings.

Regrettably, this new calf will become yet another caricature of a wild dolphin displayed for the entertainment and profit of humans.

Andrina Murrell
Marine Connection