FILE PHOTO - Beluga whale Qila leaps out of the water at the Vancouver Aquarium in Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday, June 25, 2014.
Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
January 18, 2018 - 1:00 PM
VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Aquarium has announced that it will no longer display whales or dolphins.
Aquarium president John Nightingale says in a statement that the facility will focus instead on raising awareness of ocean issues impacting other marine animals.
He says an exception will be made for the aquarium's single remaining cetacean, a Pacific white-sided dolphin named Helen.
The decision follows the Vancouver Park Board's approval of a bylaw last May that banned the aquarium from bringing any new cetaceans to its facility in Stanley Park.
It also comes after the deaths of a number of cetaceans at the aquarium since 2016, including a young false killer whale, a harbour porpoise and two beluga whales.
The aquarium says in a release that it will continue to rescue and rehabilitate animals in need, including whales and dolphins, at its rescue centre.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2018