CBC TV The National, July 22, 2003

Aquarium sticking to plans for more dolphins

VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Aquarium says it will ignore the request by the Park Board, to hold off bringing in any more dolphins for the time being.

Aquarium president John Nightingale says there's a five-year-old agreement in place - allowing the facility to bring in new dolphins taken into captivity before 1996.

"The marine mammals we have left are vital to our mission and we'll do everything we can to keep them," he says.

He thinks the aquarium's 16-year-old dolphin, Spinnaker, should have company. "We'd really like to have a group of three or four because that makes a really good social mix."

The aquarium already phased out killer whales two years ago. Now there's pressure from the group - Coalition for no Whales in Captivity - to phase out dolphins too.

"This is about the whole concept of the commercial trade in whales and dolphins in the whole world, and the Vancouver Aquarium is part of that problem not part of the solution," says coalition spokesperson Annelise Sorg.

Many of the Park Board commissioners who made the original deal in 1998 are gone now, and their replacements are wondering if they have to stick to the original plan.

"We've also asked our staff to send a letter to the aquarium asking them for a voluntary moratorium on bringing in any more dolphins until this issue has been dealt with," says Park Board commissioner Loretta Woodcock.

The Park Board is seeking legal advice, but won't make a final decision until the fall