Beluga whales find home on Canada’s East Coast

Ottawa’s ban on the captivity of marine mammals has given a boost to a tiny village on Canada’s East Coast.

The news that tiny Port Hilford, N.S., about a 20-minute drive from Sherbrooke, was chosen as the host site for a new beluga whale sanctuary was greeted with joy last week, and rightfully so.

Two sites in the east – both in Nova Scotia – were under consideration, as were sites in British Columbia and Washington State.

But Port Hilford had everything the proponents were looking for: It was open to the ocean but sheltered from storms; it had a large enough area for the whales but could be cordoned off easily; there was room onshore for buildings and infrastructure.

Most importantly, it had buy-in from the local community.

People nearby were excited by the potential for hosting a sanctuary, said Charles Vinick, executive director of the Whale Sanctuary Project.

“You couldn’t ask for a more welcoming and eager community than the people of the Sherbrooke area,” he said in a release.

The sanctuary will be a kind of retirement home for five to eight belugas, the gregarious, medium-sized white whales commonly held in captivity at amusement parks.

In Canada, 55 or so belugas are held in captivity, and having been born in these parks, they cannot be released into the wild because they wouldn’t be able to feed themselves.

The new federal law prohibits capturing and breeding these animals, but zoos and marine parks holding orcas and belugas were grandfathered.

The sanctuary, which will be financed by donations and will cost about $20 million, will have staff to care for and feed the belugas, and will provide an enclosure of about 40 hectares, or

300 times the size of the largest amusement park tank. It’s hoped it will begin receiving whales late next year.

A similar sanctuary with two resident belugas is already operating in Iceland.

Visitors will have a viewing platform and an interpretive centre, but proponents say their priority will be caring for the whales. Nevertheless, it will draw people to a corner of the province that has trouble attracting tourists.

Sherbrooke, home to Sherbrooke Village (a period-themed tourist village) and set on the beautiful St. Marys River, gains an attraction it can be proud of and the Maritimes get one of the world’s first ocean-based whale sanctuaries. The belugas get a new home. Everyone wins.