Vancouver Aquarium dolphin import permit investigated

9 months after the Vancouver Aquarium imported a captive dolphin from Japan, it seems that Environment Canada has yet to receive and verify for compliance the CITES import permit. The matter is now under investigation.

Following below is a short "Backgrounder" and a newsarticle titled "Permit Investigated" published last week in Vancouver's Georgia Straight newspaper.

For more information, please contact:

Annelise Sorg, Director
Coalition For No Whales In Captivity
Box 461 - 1755 Robson Street 
Vancouver, BC Canada V6G 3B7 
Tel (604) 736-9514 
Fax (604) 264-0653 
E-mail <annelise@direct.ca> 
Website:  www.whaleprotection.org/cfnwic

BACKGROUNDER

September 1996: Vancouver park board enacts a By-law which partly restricts the importation of captive cetaceans into the aquarium in Stanley Park. March 2001: Coalition For No Whales In Captivity (Coalition) warns the park board commissioners that the aquarium is planning to import dolphins from Japan and that park staff will be unable to enforce the municipal By-law unless it is amended to ban all importation of dolphins.

July 2001: The aquarium imports a dolphin from Osaka, Japan. Later that day, the aquarium informs the park board and the media of the dolphin's arrival in a one-page fax. According to the media, the news catches the park commissioners by surprise.

September 2001: The Coalition asks the park board for a copy of the CITES dolphin import permit and is told to file a Freedom of Information request. The FOI reveals that the park board has not received from the aquarium a copy of the permit or any other relevant documentation for that matter.

November 2001: The Coalition contacts the regional Canadian Wildlife Service office for a copy of the CITES import permit and is told to file an access-to-information request with Environment Canada.

January 2002: Environment Canada replies that after a thorough search, no records were found concerning the import permit and suggests that the Coalition contact Customs Canada.

February 2002: Customs Canada replies that it doesn't have the CITES permit but that Environment Canada might.

April 2002: Environment Canada responds that maybe the regional Canadian Wildlife Service office might have a copy of the elusive permit. The Coalition supplies EC with a list of government agencies already contacted (including CWS). The federal government starts an official investigation.