Janos Maté: Will a new park board allow captive-bred whales at the Vancouver Aquarium?

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      The following is a letter that was sent to Vancouver park board candidates by WhaleFriends founding member Janos Maté.

      Dear Park Board Candidate,

      Should you succeed in being elected as a Park Board Commissioner, you will have to deal with the issue of whale and dolphin captivity in the Vancouver Aquarium.

      A key question that you will have to repeatedly face is whether or not you accept the fact that whales and dolphins are sentient social beings that, like humans, suffer greatly in captivity. They suffer from the very condition of their confinement. And they suffer whether they were captured from the wild or bred for a lifetime of captivity.

      Should you get elected you will be personally responsible for guiding public policies regarding the present and future activities of the Vancouver Aquarium. Will you allow the Aquarium to proceed with its plans to expand its captive cetacean population by importing and breeding more whales and dolphins? Or will you help the Aquarium evolve toward a more humane and sustainable business plan by guiding it towards an eventual phase out of its captive cetacean display program?

      The current Park Board has correctly decided to ban the breeding of cetaceans in the Vancouver Aquarium. This is a step in the right direction. But if breeding cetaceans in the Vancouver Aquarium is unjustified, then breeding them anywhere else is equally unjustified. The next step is to ban the importation of any whales and dolphins that were bred in captivity or captured from the wild.

      This issue concerns many thousands of citizens of Vancouver. According to the latest polls, the majority of Vancouverites would like to see a phase-out of cetacean captivity in Stanley Park.

      What are your thoughts on this issue? What does your heart and mind tell you? Do you support the phasing-out of whale and dolphin captivity in the Vancouver Aquarium?Your reply will be greatly appreciated and shared with our network.

      Thank you for your reply and for your participation in our democratic process.

      Janos Maté
      WhaleFriends

      Comments

      11 Comments

      Amy

      Oct 28, 2014 at 1:02pm

      The question on that poll should have been worded differently. I would agree that most of us would rather not see animals in cages/tanks. But if they got there because of an injury that won't allow them to survive in the wild, why not take them in, give them the best life to our ability, and learn about the species?
      I feel like a lot of protestors of the Van Aquarium aren't exactly considering the alternatives to taking in sick animals. They are rehabilitated (in most cases), and evaluated to see if they can be released back into the wild. If not, why should we make their lives even more miserable by either loading them with experimental birth control, or separating them from their species?

      I would love to see the decision made by VV overturned or at least debated with actual adults who will consider opinions of professionals and not go with their gut feelings.

      No breeding ban enacted, nothing has changed

      Oct 28, 2014 at 1:05pm

      It's a good letter, but Janos Maté must realize that Vision never enacted the cetacean breeding ban as a bylaw. It was promised in July and this hasn't happened. Nothing has changed.

      On the other hand, if you do want a real breeding ban and a phase-out of cetaceans at the Aquarium, then other municipal parties may be more receptive.

      The NPA and Vision are standing for the status quo - that is belugas and dolphins at the Aquarium. Their track record shows this too clearly.

      0 0Rating: 0

      Tommy Khang

      Oct 28, 2014 at 1:29pm

      So now the anti-captivity activists believe themselves to be a political force? Give me a break. Whales in captivity surely are of lesser concern to those who feel mal-aligned by the parks board heavy handed approach to community centres, parks et al.

      Also there are later polls by other groups that show that this is a much closer issue then Mate's data suggests: http://www.insightswest.com/news/british-columbians-split-on-whales-in-c...

      0 0Rating: 0

      Martin Dunphy

      Oct 28, 2014 at 2:33pm

      Readers should be aware that the "poll" linked to by the above reader was conducted online and was from an "in-house access panel offering on-demand samples".
      Also, tellingly, the company offers this disclaimer in the fine print at the bottom: "While statistical margins of error are arguably not applicable to online panels/online studies of this nature, we have assumed that the same margins of error apply as if it were a true unweighted random probability sample."

      It also did not state who commissioned the "poll".

      0 0Rating: 0

      Tommy Khang

      Oct 28, 2014 at 3:00pm

      @Martin Thanks for noting that - however based on my interpretation this is similar to the methodology chosen by the Justason Market Intelligence Inc poll referenced in the above commentary piece.

      Don't know what you are trying to imply but this "It also did not state who commissioned the "poll"."

      Janos Mate

      Oct 28, 2014 at 6:30pm

      Amy,

      Why do you assume that people who oppose cetacean captivity in the Aquarium are only speaking from their gut feeling. Not that there is anything wrong with speaking from a place of compassion for other sentient beings that are suffering in captivity. But check out the opinions of highly respected marine biologists like Dr. Naomi Rose
      (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAd5d253Ou4) or Dr. Paul Spong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxHM2UTawSA). And check out what Jane Goodall wrote to the Park Board. And there are others. There is no scientific justification for maintaining cetacean captivity programs. The main research conducted by the cetacean captive industry (and the Aquarium is part of that industry) is to breed these animals for a lifetime of captivity. The Vancouver Aquarium told the Park Board that they need to be part of the breeding network so that they can maintain their captive cetacean display for at least the next eighty years.
      And for the record, currently the Aquarium is warehousing beluga whale Aurora, who is around 27 years old, and was captured by teh Aquarium from the wild near Churchill, Manitoba in 1990. She gave birth to the second beluga at the aquarium, Qila, in 1995. Aurora has given birth to two other calves, who haven’t survived. In fact, four out of the five belugas born at the aquarium have all died.
      Finally, many jurisdictions in the world have banned cetacean captivity for the reason that these are sentient beings. The number of jurisdictions to ban cetacean captivity is steadily growing. Two weeks ago San Francisco made that decision.

      Martin Dunphy

      Oct 28, 2014 at 8:05pm

      Tommy Khang:

      They may be similar, but there is a big difference. The poll you cite questioned B.C. residents from all over the province. The poll linked in the above article questioned <em>Vancouver</em> residents, the only people who should have a say in the matter, given the nature of the relationship between the aquarium and the city.

      As for the implication you reference, that should be obvious.

      Tommy Khang

      Oct 29, 2014 at 8:52am

      @Martin but if the poll I linked asked all British Columbians the question on captivity, why would you think that the aquarium (which I assume you believe commissioned the Insights West poll) would ask for information from all British Columbians, when ultimately the only opinion that counts are residents of Vancouver (especially when it comes to elected officials).

      At the end of the day there are bigger problems on the Parks Board then the fate of the two whales currently at the aquarium. One should also remind themselves that the Park Board's jurisdiction legally ends at the edge of Stanley Park and that the same Parks Board is facing a judicial review from their earlier decision to enact a breeding ban (which likely is why no bylaw has or will be enacted prior to the Election).

      OMG

      Oct 29, 2014 at 12:09pm

      Regardless of the ridiculous arguments about temporal polls, or whether Vision will enact any bylaws, you can be assured that, sooner or later, Cetacean captivity for profit will disappear from Stanley Park. One look at the empty Polar Bear and monkey displays of the defunct Stanley Park Zoo will tell you all you need to know. The Aquarium doesn't have a moral leg to stand on and the main information that they are getting from their Cetacean research is how to keep them alive in captivity, and how to breed them more successfully. The work they do in pinniped rescue is awesome, but using that as an excuse to jail whales won't wash with the public forever.

      I don't know how long it will take - years, decades - but it will happen. I think that much of the resistance you see in these pages revolves around a hatred of Vision, so much so that Vision coming out against captivity has probably set the movement back somewhat. But this question goes much further than local politics and reverberates across Canada.

      0 0Rating: 0

      @OMG

      Oct 29, 2014 at 1:12pm

      but cetacean captivity for profit doesn't currently exist within the confines of Stanley Park, the Vancouver Aquarium is a registered non-for profit organization.