VANCOUVER—Helen, the lone dolphin left at the Vancouver Aquarium, might be heading to Texas.

A spokesperson from SeaWorld confirmed Thursday the company has applied to federal authorities in the United States to acquire Helen for its facility in San Antonio.

In its application, SeaWorld states it plans to keep the Pacific white-sided dolphin for the purpose of public display.

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“This dolphin would join a pod of five other Pacific white-side dolphins, providing her with social opportunities that she does not currently have,” a SeaWorld spokesperson told the Star. SeaWorld owns and operates 12 theme parks across the U.S.

The news comes less than a year after the federal government banned keeping whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity. The so-called Free Willy bill, however, allowed aquariums to keep the cetaceans they already own.

In an August 2019 letter to NOAA, Lasse Gustavsson, the CEO of the Vancouver Aquarium, confirmed his support for Helen’s transfer.

The letter refers to the “import of one Pacific-white-sided dolphin ... for the purposes of public display.”

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Pacific white-sided dolphins at SeaWorld in Texas participate in “educational presentations” that include “demonstrations of trained husbandry, and enrichment behaviors as well as demonstrating natural behaviors,” the company’s application to NOAA reads.

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The Vancouver Aquarium has not responded to the Star’s request for comment.

Animal welfare advocates are concerned about what the move could mean for Helen.

The dolphin is 30 years old, making her a senior among her kind. The average lifespan of a Pacific white-sided dolphin is anywhere from 36 to 40 years, according to NOAA.

“In the latter years of her life, doesn’t she deserve to have a happy retirement, at least?” Victoria Shroff said.

Shroff is a Vancouver lawyer who specializes in animal welfare. She said she had hoped Helen would be able to live out her days in a whale sanctuary, such as the one being set up off the coast of Nova Scotia.

“Instead, she is going somewhere now to start over as an entertainer. I think that sounds really hard,” she said.

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NOAA confirmed Thursday it has not yet decided whether it will issue a permit for Helen’s transfer.

Helen is the only cetacean left at the Vancouver aquarium after the non-profit’s five other cetaceans died unexpectedly in 2016 and 2017.

The dramatic dieoff, including two belugas within days of each other, added fuel to the ongoing debate about whether keeping cetaceans — whales, dolphins and porpoises — in captivity was ethical. Helen’s most recent tankmate, a false killer whale named Chester, died in November 2017.

Helen has lived at the aquarium in Vancouver’s Stanley Park since 2005. Helen was rescued after becoming caught in a fishing net off the coast of Japan. Her injuries forced vets to partially amputate her pectoral flippers, according to the Vancouver Aquarium’s website, and she was deemed non-releasable into the wild.

Joseph Gaydos, a veterinarian with the SeaDoc Society in Seattle, met her in 2014 when the Vancouver Park Board hired him to review the Vancouver Aquarium’s handling of its animals. (The resulting report found the facility followed industry standards for animal care.)

“She’s a beautiful animal,” Gaydos said of Helen. “To see an animal like that, that has been traumatically injured in the wild, you’re just rooting for her to have the best life that she can have.”

And dolphins need social interaction. Wild Pacific white-sided dolphins are particularly “gregarious,” he said, sometimes travelling in huge groups of more than 100.

“Their preference is to be around others,” said Gaydos, who wrote about the ethics of treating animals in captivity and in the wild in the CRC Handbook of Marine Mammal Medicine.

He said Helen will likely live a better life in SeaWorld.

“Some people will say she is still in captivity, but the reality is she doesn’t have an alternative,” he said, referring to her non-releasable status. “It’s better for her to be with other dolphins of the same type.”

In February 2019, the aquarium’s incoming CEO, Gustavsson, told the Star one of his first decisions was to transfer Helen to a new facility.

“When I came here, I made that the top priority, to find a new home for her. This is not the best place for her to be. She should be with other animals,” he said at the time.

More than one year later, Helen remains at the aquarium.

The facility, meanwhile, is losing money — fast.

The aquarium said Thursday in a statement that it could be forced to file for bankruptcy by early summer if it does not receive “significant funding.” The aquarium relies largely on revenue from visitor entry fees to doll out the $1 million it costs every month to take care of 70,000 animals, including large marine mammals such as sea otters, walruses and Helen.

The aquarium, like many attractions in B.C., closed its doors to visitors amid coronavirus concerns in mid March. But the non-profit was already struggling with a decrease in visitors.

In 2017, ahead of the federal legislation, the Vancouver Park Board banned cetacean captivity, prompting a lawsuit last year from the aquarium, in which it cited lost revenue — $4 million in 2017 and 2018 — as a result of the decision.

The park board’s ban on cetaceans in captivity, like the federal ban, allows the aquarium to keep cetaceans it already owns, but prevented it from acquiring new ones.

The federal bill also bans the import or export of cetaceans, but it allows for exceptions if the sale is done for the purposes of “conducting scientific research” or if “it is in the best interests of the cetacean’s welfare.”

In a statement released on its website, the animal welfare advocacy group Animal Justice said it is likely in Helen’s best interest to be transferred to SeaWorld, calling the move the “least worst” option for the dolphin. But the group argued that any Canadian permit allowing Helen’s transfer should include conditions that she is not bred or used for performances.

According to SeaWorld’s application to NOAA, Canada has already granted the Vancouver Aquarium a permit to transfer Helen to Texas.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada declined to comment on the permit, citing privacy protection obligations.

Correction - April 19, 2020: A previous version of this story stated that in addition to applying to NOAA for a permit to import Helen, SeaWorld was also applying for a permit to put her on display for three years. In fact, no permit from NOAA is required to put cetaceans on public display.