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The Vancouver park board will vote tonight on a bylaw that would ban the importation and display of cetaceans at the Vancouver Aquarium.

Three cetaceans currently housed at the aquarium — Helen, a Pacific white-sided dolphin; Daisy, a harbour porpoise; and Chester, a false killer whale — would be given an exception and be allowed to stay. Under the proposed bylaw, however, the aquarium would no longer be able to use the animals in shows or performances.

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Here are five things you should know about the cetacean program at the Vancouver Aquarium.

FIRST WHALE ON DISPLAY

In 1964, Dr. Murray Newman, aquarium curator, announced his plan to harpoon and kill an orca to serve as a model for a life-size sculpture in the aquarium’s new $850,000 British Columbia Hall. Artist Samuel Burich, commissioned to sculpt the work, and fisherman Joe Bauer harpooned a 4.6-metre long, one-ton male near Saturna Island, but it didn’t die. Instead, Newman had the whale, which the aquarium named Moby Doll, brought back to Vancouver alive where it was put on display. Thousands flocked to catch a glimpse of the world’s first live captive killer whale. “I’d be perfectly happy to release her if it was in her interests. I don’t think it is,” Newman told The Province. ”She’s the only member of her species in captivity in the whole world and a wonderful prize.” Moby Doll, which was a ‘he’ and not ‘she’, managed to live in captivity for just 86 days — an autopsy revealed a fractured skull and a lung infection — but the excitement spawned an industry.