False killer whale dies at Vancouver Aquarium
Only one cetacean remains in Vancouver Aquarium’s tanks after a false killer whale died Friday.
Chester, rescued as a calf after being found stranded at Chesterman Beach in Tofino in 2014, was about 3½ when he died, aquarium CEO John Nightingale said in a statement.
“The odds were stacked against him from the beginning,” Nightingale said. “He had less than a 10-per-cent chance of survival, but our marine mammal rescue team transported him back to the rescue centre, where dedicated staff and volunteers cared for him 24 hours a day for months.”
Chester appeared “in his usual good spirits” until Wednesday afternoon, Nightingale said. Despite intensive care in recent days, he did not survive.
“We know that stranded animals, possibly because of injuries sustained during stranding, do have incidences of renal failure later on. That is something we’ll be looking at during the necropsy,” said head veterinarian Dr. Martin Haulena.
Nightingale said Chester was about one month old when he was found, still nursing but with no sign of his mother. He had lacerations and wounds on his body, and was too young to know how to forage for food and avoid predators.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada ruled Chester was unreleasable and he was moved to the aquarium.
“At this difficult time, we are taking comfort in the fact that we gave Chester a second chance at life and the memories of watching him grow and mature,” Nightingale said.
Chester is one of five cetaceans to die at the aquarium since August last year.
Peter Hamilton of ecology organization Lifeforce said he wasn’t surprised to hear Friday that another cetacean had died at the aquarium.
Hamilton said he believes that despite the aquarium’s efforts to frame Chester’s life as having been saved when he was rescued, the whale had actually lived a “horrible life” inside a “barren cement prison.”
“We hope that they will finally realize that it’s a barbaric practice to keep cetaceans in captivity, and that they will stop any legal challenges to overturn the ban on cetaceans, that they will not build more pools — which will mean more dolphins — and will use humane, modern technology for education,” Hamilton said.