Article content

The Vancouver Aquarium will keep its captive whales and dolphins, but will no longer be allowed to breed them after a unanimous park board vote Thursday night.

The board’s recommendations also called for the creation of an oversight committee of animal welfare experts to ensure the wellbeing of the aquarium’s cetaceans, to explore alternatives to cetacean exhibition and to continue examining animal-care standards within the aquarium.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Vancouver Aquarium's future in jeopardy after city bans facility from breeding whales and dolphins Back to video

“I think this is the beginning of a broader conversation on this issue and on whales in captivity in Stanley Park,” said commissioner Sarah Blyth.

I’m astonished that none of them seem to grasp the connection between what the aquarium does and what we’re trying to do

Vancouver Aquarium CEO John Nightingale said he was disappointed by Thursday’s result, but said aquarium staff would sit down over the next week to take a closer look at how the park board’s recommendations would affect research and rescue operations.

“In some ways, I’m astonished that none of them seem to grasp the connection between what the aquarium does and what we’re trying to do,” Nightingale said following the meeting.