The Vancouver Park Board's first Green Party chair is vowing cooperation following his unexpected election win earlier this week.

Michael Wiebe was elected chair at the meeting on Monday after the NPA's Erin Shum decided to support him for the position.

The NPA also lost its majority on the board when Shum decided to sit as an independent and was elected vice chair of the board.

The rest of the board is made up of three NPA members, another Green, and one member of Vision Vancouver.

Wiebe told CBC's The Early Edition he's looking forward to working on improving parks and recreation in the city.

"We're all going to work together and we've got a lot of expertise around the table," he said. "The two past chairs have done a really good job setting it up for me."

One of the most contentious issues on the board's agenda will be whether cetaceans should be kept in captivity at the Vancouver Aquarium.

The Vancouver Aquarium's beluga whales Aurora (pictured here) and her calf Qila died within nine days of each in mid-November. (Vancouver Aquarium)

Opponents renewed calls to ban cetaceans in captivity after the recent deaths of two belugas at the aquarium.

Outgoing chair Sarah Kirby-Yung advocated for a plebiscite on the issue to coincide with the 2018 municipal election.

Wiebe said it will be a complicated issue.

"I had grown up with the aquarium and I had been there for some of the births," he said. "For me, it's been an interesting dynamic to see what's happened at the aquarium."

He said Green colleague Stuart Mackinnon, who is opposed to keeping cetaceans in captivity, has worked hard to advance the issue but said he hadn't seen enough materials to fully understand the issue.

Wiebe said the board will look at what their role is in relation to the Vancouver Aquarium and move forward from there.

With files from The Early Edition

To listen to the interview, click on the link labelled Michael Wiebe, the new chair of the Vancouver Park Board