No public vote on Vancouver Aquarium expansion

Marine Connection letter to the Editor - 31st May 2006

Dear Sir,

I am surprised and dismayed at the recent decisions to rescind the rulings surrounding Vancouver Aquarium, their expansion and the phasing out of keeping whales and dolphins in captivity. As Captivity Officer for the Marine Connection, a marine mammal welfare charity in the UK, I felt compelled to respond.

The decisions made to ensure public accountability with regards to the expansion of the Aquarium and destruction of Stanley Park helped gain Vancouver international recognition as a forward-thinking, responsible and ethical city. Overturning these decisions is unacceptable; the Aquarium is no longer accountable to the public.

Aquariums are not about conservation or education, they are about profit. Conservation and education can be, and has been, successfully implemented in the wild. Keeping marine mammals in lifeless tanks devoid of currents which are a tiny fraction of the space they would travel in the wild is a total contradiction to both education and conservation. Captive animals are caricatures, shadows of their wild counterparts which have no need for their natural abilities and dependent on humans to live; surely this is in fact mis-education.

The Vancouver Parks Board has made a convenient decision which will profit only themselves and the Aquarium owners. The residents of the City of Vancouver should be outraged; their voice has been taken away by just four people, to the severe detriment of the City's Stanley Park and to any future animals confined in the Aquarium.

Andrina Murrell
Marine Connection