PARK BOARD IS MEDDLING

While the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation admirably resisted the cannabis cabal and denied a permit for a 4/20 “smoke-in” at Sunset Beach, it has regrettably succumbed to pressure from animal rights zealots in its misguided decision to ban cetaceans at the Vancouver Aquarium.

The board voted last week to draft a new bylaw to prohibit cetacean captivity in city parks — the aquarium in Stanley Park being the only venue fitting that criteria — and has fast-tracked the process to have it in place as early as May 15.

The decision appears to have no basis in science, but was, in part, a response to the mysterious deaths of two belugas at the aquarium last year and the heightened agitprop that followed. Belugas Aurora and her calf, Qila, died within days of one another, likely due to an unknown virus or toxin, the latter possibly the result of a malicious act.

The park board vote puts into limbo the aquarium’s $100-million expansion plan and its own phased approach to end cetacean captivity by 2029. It also may jeopardize the aquarium’s major source of revenue — the nearly two million visitors it attracts every year. TripAdvisor ranks the aquarium No. 6 in its list of 354 things to do in Vancouver. (Stanley Park, by the way, is No. 1.)

The park board has a history of antagonism toward the aquarium. In 2014, commissioners spoke out against keeping whales and dolphins in captivity and recruited Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and primatologist Jane Goodall to do the same. It then commissioned a report from Joseph Gaydos, a U.S. wildlife veterinarian and chief scientist of the SeaDoc Society, hoping to build evidence to support its attacks. Instead, Gaydos had nothing but praise for the aquarium, finding that its “active research department … seems to make good use of studying captive cetaceans, not only for being able to provide better care and understanding of captive animals but to a greater extent.”

Indeed, the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, as it is more formally known, is Canada’s, and one of the world’s, leading marine research, education and conservation organizations. A list of publications and peer-reviewed papers produced by scientists associated with the aquarium can be found on its website. (vanaqua.org/act/research/publications)

Given its importance to global marine research and to regional and provincial tourism, the operation of the Vancouver Aquarium should not be subject to the whims of City of Vancouver politicians.

It is time to find another governance model for this vital institution and free it from the noise of municipal politics.