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Following Ontario’s ban on the trade and breeding of orcas, a former Vancouver park commissioner is calling for similar action by the B.C. and federal governments.

“We need to do the same in Vancouver, but we need to expand it to whales and dolphins,” Sarah Blyth told the Straight in a phone interview today (June 4).

Blyth suggested that Victoria and Ottawa should consider related measures for marine mammals in general.

“Why are we not doing this in B.C.? We should do this in B.C. But we should also be doing it at the federal level,” she said.

On May 24, Hana, one of two Pacific white-sided dolphins held in captivity at the Vancouver Aquarium, died.

There are currently two beluga whales in the aquarium: Aurora and Qila. Qila is the daughter of Nanuq, a beluga loaned by the Vancouver Aquarium to SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, which died last February 19.

“It would be interesting to see how people vote in Vancouver because everybody is so quiet about the aquarium,” Blyth said, referring to elected provincial and federal politicians in the city.

In the lead up to the November 2014 election, Blyth and four other Vision park commissioners at the time approved a motion instructing staff to prepare a bylaw ending the breeding of whales and dolphins in the aquarium.

However, after the election, then Vision park commissioners Aaron Jasper and Trevor Loke balked. The two sided with Non-Partisan Association commissioners John Coupar (currently park board chair) and Melissa De Genova (now city councillor) to turn over to the incoming board a decision over cetacean breeding.

In May this year, Ontario passed a law prohibiting the buying, selling, and breeding of orcas or killer whales.

However, the bill did not cover Kiska, the lone killer whale held captive in Canada. Kiska is kept at Marineland, a tourist destination in Niagara Falls.

For Blyth, the Ontario legislation is a positive step overall.

“Ontario has just done it. You can see that provincial people are making moves, and the authority doesn’t necessarily lie with the [Vancouver] park board on this issue,” she said.

According to Blyth, other countries have also adopted measures against cetacean captivity.

She cited India, which banned the use of dolphins and other cetaceans like whales and porpoises for public entertainment in 2013. The country also prohibited the captivity of these animals.

A statement by India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests at the time described the highly-intelligent marine mammals as “non-human persons”. As such, they have rights, and it is “morally unacceptable to keep them captive for entertainment purpose”.

According to Blyth, dolphins and whales need to be treated with a “lot more respect than we do”.

Blyth added: “Creatures of the world deserve to have rights just as humans have the right to exist.”