Sorg vs. Nightmare

THE BAD NEWS: The Vancouver Aquarium has successfully pressured the Vancouver Park Board to remove the "notice of motion" for the upcoming meeting on April 9th. This means that we will NOT go to Park Board on Monday. That opportunity to close the loophole in the dolphin bylaw is now lost.

Park Board Chairwoman Laura McDiarmid assured me today over the phone, that the Aquarium promised to not take advantage of the loopholes in the bylaw when they bring new dolphins. She also assured me that we will get plenty of time to look at the documentation identifying new dolphins.

After all these years, the Aquarium and the Park Board's promises mean nothing to me. But stay tuned, there's more to come ...

THE GOOD NEWS: Today, the Vancouver Sun newspaper published a nasty letter to the editor from John Nightingale of the Vancouver Aquarium (see letter below), who complains bitterly about me and calls me a liar. Let's hope I'm lying about the aquarium bringing new dolphins to Vancouver!

ACTION ALERT: Nightingale's nasty letter gives us an opportunity to get into the newspaper. Please write a letter to the editor NOW stating YOUR opinions of John Nightingale. Let's flood the newspaper with letters to send a clear message that NO NEW DOLPHINS should be imported into Vancouver.

Please send a short e-mail responding to Nightingale's letter to the editor. Include your name, address and phone number, since the paper needs to phone you to confirm you were the author of the letter.

E-MAIL: Vancouver Sun Editor <sunletters@pacpress.southam.ca>

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Vancouver Sun, April 2, 2001 - Letter to the Editor

AQUARIUM STANDS BY PLEDGES

Nicholas Read did not give the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre the opportunity to respond to claims by Annelise Sorg, of the Coalition for No Whales in Captivity, in the March 28 article, "Aquarium asked to not import more wild animals."

Anyone who is familiar with the aquarium and our mandate knows that we put our credibility first and foremost. We are not in the position of making wild and unsubstantiated claims, as Ms. Sorg so often does, without backing up our statements.

We firmly stand by our pledge not to capture any more cetaceans (whales and dolphins) from the wild.

Should the occasion arise that we do acquire any new cetaceans, we will honour our lease with the park board, a lease that we voluntarily brought before them in 1996. That agreement formally includes an oath not to bring in a whale or dolphin that was caught from the wild after 1996.

Ms. Sorg's claim that aquariums that manage marine mammals do so haphazardly is untrue. Dolphins that reside in aquariums are individually identifiable. If we could not identify them, how could we possibly take good care of them? Individual ID numbers, genetic records, care records (like those maintained by doctors for humans) and other individual forms of documentation are standard practice in accredited aquariums in North America and other countries around the world.

John Nightingale, Director Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre