With no awareness they are dead anyway.

I used to be a family member and my children love it at the aquarium but it never felt right when I would watch the cetacean shows put on for our entertainment. I used to be fooled by their statements that it's educational. A lot of it is, however the shows put on for our entertainment with the belugas, whales, and sea lions doing tricks for food is disgusting. Our family finally came to our senses and we will never set foot back there until all cetaceans are phased out never to return. A true rescue, rehabilitation and release program can occur off site without the public watching them do tricks. There is absolutely no reason we need captive cetaceans in this day and age and I think it's vile that they promote those programs to kids. My child's school decided not to attend based on the release of Blackfish. Children know what is right and wrong and we as the parents need to teach them if they don't. Why because we can, do we feel we need to hold captive these amazingly intelligent creatures. They belong in the wild and that is where my children will be educated about them, not doing circles in a bathtub. When I found out how many cetaceans have died at out aquarium I couldn't believe it! And in this day and age they want to house more and breed more! The only reason to breed them is for greed.

The Vancouver Aquarium has a very high opinion of itself, somehow believing it's own marketing, that it is simply providing 'homes' for marine mammals that cannot be rehabilitated and reintroduced into the wild. I'm all for marine mammal rescue and I applaud their efforts in this regard. However, their captive breeding program gives them away. There is no scientific value in the captive breeding of marine mammals, except to create profit for marine parks. How many more baby belugas need to be born into their tiny pool, just so that they can die only months later?

My children have never been to an aquarium, yet they love whales and dolphins and all sea creatures. Living in the UK we don't have as much wild variety as the USA, you are surrounded by opportunities to visit the cetaceans in their own environment yet you have more Aquariums than any country other than Japan. We go and see the porpoises every year when they come in with their young, we go on seal watching trips, we watch everything on TV related to the ocean. They know how I feel about captivity and can decide for themselves whether they want to go, I don't dictate but because I have a different opinion, they ASK questions, they don't just accept things and they hate cruelty of any description. My teenage son asks me to turn off Taiji, Seaworld clips etc when I am watching them on youtube as they make him angry. My youngest daughter just in her teens asks questions like 'do dolphins like it when you swim with them mum?', 'when do they let them go back home mum?' as she thought it was like a job not a life sentence! I see regularly Seaworld saying if people couldn't see them in tanks they wouldn't appreciate them or learn to love them, well we haven't had a captive here since 1990's and UK people still love them, still fight for them, still want to see them, but we get off our backsides and go and see them in the ocean where they are meant to be. There is no better feeling than a wild creature coming to look at you because it chose to, rather than it was made to. Children who visit Aquariums will never experience that, thousands of miles of ocean and that creature came to see your boat and show itself to you. So for the US marine parks to say if you can't see them in a tank you miss out is rubbish, their visitors need to wake up as they are going to say anything to get their money as it is their business. I wonder how many marine park visitors have made the comparison and been out on the boats and seen orca and dolphins in the wild as when you see them the difference in their behaviour and appearance is immediately apparent. I wonder too if marine park advocates have ever told their children about Taiji, orca captures, where Beluga's come from etc, so they can decide for themselves what they feel or whether they just let them carry on thinking it is OK to accept it without asking questions because it really isn't.

Thank you to Travis Lupick for keeping the public informed on Vancouver aquarium's plans and to the Humane Society for expressing their disappointment. I hope there are more news outlets that heighten the awareness to the public & people ban together to not support this expansion. In this day and age we should all realize cetaceans do not belong in tiny tanks for people's amazement. The capture of dolphins is barbaric and it supports the killing of thousands of dolphins. Breeding has not been successful & is a very sad situation for all the cetaceans. I agree with some of the comments above, I too many years ago took my children to a marine park and felt very bad about the small tanks and demeaning performances they - dolphins, whales, seals were forced to do. I have read 60% of food is withheld to make them perform - they are starving so they have to do tricks for food - dead, frozen, often medicated food. We need to teach our children to respect nature and all animals living in it.We must preserve our oceans and the sea life in it- taking injured mammals, rehabilitating them and then holding them captive to do a life of slavery is just preying on the weak and its very sad & disturbing. These mammals should be release back into the ocean. Vancouver aquarium has 2 belugas "on loan" from Sea World as they try to breed more for their "new tanks". The stress and life threating transport these mammals go through when flying them all around the country is inhumane in itself & just shows what these aquariums are all about $$$. Anybody who expresses these concerns are "extremists" per CEO of Vancouver Aquarium - John Nightingale. This is the same arrogant language that Sea World, Marine Land -Niagara Fall (who severally abuses,exploits and neglects animals & cetaceans)-its all aquarium mumbo brainwash jumbo speak.- To me its an insult to any intelligent being who has eyes of their own who can see these large mammals often longer then the tank is deep, swimming in small circles, short life spans, no authentic pods with them -no ocean where they belong...its pretty clear to me and these aquariums CEO's and employees think were are going to buy their stories. Well if they haven't realized it by now hopefully they do soon, the world is changing and these park are no longer acceptable. Here is a petition about the expansion please have a read:http://www.change.org/petit

If you would like to read,sign or share here is the link to petition on Vancouver aquarium expansion: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-vancouver-park-board-please-call-a-p...