‘Odds were stacked against’ Chester
Just one cetacean remains at Aquarium after rescued false killer whale’s death
Only one cetacean remains in the Vancouver Aquarium’s tanks after a false killer whale died Friday morning.
Chester, rescued as a calf after being found stranded at Chesterman beach in Tofino in 2014, was roughly three-and-a-half years old 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” earlier this week, but his behaviour changed by Wednesday afternoon, Nightingale said. Despite intensive care in recent days, he did not survive.
Head veterinarian Martin Haulena conducted a post-mortem exam Friday to investigate the cause of death.
“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,” Haulena said.
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 deemed Chester 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.
Last June, Daisy, a harbour porpoise rescued in 2008, died. Preliminary autopsy results indicated she had pulmonary disease.
In November 2016, belugas Aurora, 30, and her calf Qila, 21, died nine days apart. The Aquarium said an investigation revealed both belugas had been killed by a mysterious toxic substance, passed to them by food, water or human interference.
In August 2016, Jack, a harbour porpoise that lived at the Aquarium since 2011, died.
Last May, the Vancouver park board voted to ban the importation or display of cetaceans in city parks, including Stanley Park, where the Aquarium is located. A month later, the Aquarium filed a legal challenge against the ban in B.C. Supreme Court, asking for a judicial review of the park board’s bylaw amendment.
Peter Hamilton of ecology organization Lifeforce 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.”
The Aquarium has been prohibited by the park board from catching cetaceans for display since 1996.