Films / Movies / Films & Videos / MARINE MAMMAL PARKS

Vancouver Aquarium Uncovered – The Evidence is Clear Whales and Dolphins Do Not Belong in Captivity

by Jennie Richards · Published March 30, 2020 · Updated February 16, 2023

https://vimeo.com/135299621

“Is this really the educational message we want to send to our children, that it’s ok to keep sentient, socially complex, intelligent beings – in a bathtub?”

Vancouver Aquarium Uncovered

This powerful hour-long investigative documentary Vancouver Aquarium Uncovered exposes the concerns and truth about keeping and breeding cetaceans in captivity. After attending a meeting of the Vancouver Park Board regarding the aquarium prior to making the film, filmmaker Gary Charbonneau grew concerned about the aquarium’s false and inaccurate allegations about their claims to be performing research and conservation with their captive whales and dolphins. Sensing their claims to be false and misleading, Charbonneau embarked on a journey to seek the truth and the facts.

After the documentary aired publicly in 2016, the Vancouver Aquarium slapped a lawsuit on filmmaker Charbonneau for his undercover camera work depicting mistreated and suffering animals as well as content that was highly critical of the aquarium’s management, deceptive marketing and advertising, inhumane and cruel animal practices, and for-profit motive behind the aquarium’s purpose. The aquarium initially sought to remove the entire film from public websites along with the removing it from YouTube, and to silence the filmmaker’s exposure of the truth about the Vancouver Aquarium. But two years later, in March 2018, the aquarium filed a notice of discontinuance in the British Columbia Supreme Court in 2018, ending the lawsuit against Charbonneau and allowing the full film to remain in the public domain, with the exception of some of the photography.

In the years that followed the release of this documentary film, much progress has been made to protect marine mammals in Canada. The Vancouver Park Board imposed a ban on the aquarium bringing in cetaceans or exhibiting them for entertainment, which the aquarium has challenged, but the park board ultimately won. In addition, the aquarium decided unilaterally to stop confining dolphins and whales altogether. And Canadian laws have changed since as well.

Canadian Laws Have Changed

In May of 2019, Canada’s Parliament passed Bill S-203, legislation banning dolphins, whales and porpoises from being bred or held in captivity. Violations are punishable by fines of up to $200,000 Canadian dollars or about $150,000 U.S. dollars. The bill contains some exceptions including: marine mammals already being held will be allowed to remain in captivity. Animals that are being kept as a result of injury and are undergoing medical rehabilitation, or are being kept for scientific research purposes, can remain in captivity. Marineland and Vancouver Aquarium can hold the present cetaceans they have but can no longer bring in any new whales, dolphins or porpoises.

Film Length – 62 Minutes

Film Premier – January 2016

Watch the Full-Length Film

More Information About the Film

Visit: www.vancouveraquariumuncovered.com

About the Filmmaker: Gary Charbonneau

About the Aquarium’s marine deaths and lawsuit

Canada’s ban on keeping whales and dolphins in captivity

Sponsors of the film are: The Vancouver Humane Society, Animal Advocates Society, Earthrace Conservation and PETA.

Quotes from the Film

“The Vancouver Aquarium deceives and misleads the public. They did not do this alone. What you are about to watch is shameful and appalling.”

“The Georgia Aquarium submitted a permit to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to obtain 18 wild caught belugas from Russia.”

“During wild capture, many beluga whales drown while others die from stress and rope injuries.”

“The Vancouver Aquarium aided the Georgia Aquarium with getting their permit. Vancouver Aquarium helped them put together the permit application to acquire the beluga whales for the Georgia Aquarium.”

“Over the past several years the Vancouver Aquarium has acquired 100 million dollars through government and donor funding. But of that 100 million dollars donated, zero of the donations go to support the Rescue Center, which they claimed it has.”

“It’s now just a commercial whale circus, and really does not belong in this country.”

“The Vancouver Aquarium is a for-profit industry, an entertainment industry. They lie when they tell the public they are all about research and conservation, but zero dollars go to research and conservation. A blatant lie.”

“It is all set up for our viewing pleasure, it’s very uncomfortable for the marine mammals that are inside the aquarium.”

“The Vancouver Aquarium claimed revenues at 30 million in 2013. But only 12% in 2013 went to research and conservation.”

“But clearly, research and conservation by the Vancouver Aquarium is a very low priority – so they are blatantly lying to the public.”

“Generous raises are being given to several key executives from $100,000 to 300,000 per year.”

“Due to public concern about captivity, the Park Board Commissioners called a hearing on July 26, 2014. Park Board Commissioners understood there was no breeding program, but evidence was found that the Aquarium lied to the public. There’s nothing further from the truth.”

“The Vancouver Aquarium breeds beluga whales and sends them to SeaWorld Corporation.

They are turning all their animals into baby-making machines, breeding animals that are too young, and breeding them too often, it’s irresponsible.”

“Breeding programs only benefit the ‘captive’ industry. It is most appropriate and time to look at the end of the captive industry—not its perpetuation.”

“Nanuq is a whale that is flown around for 11,000 air miles used for breeding – manually stimulated over 40 times for semen. On February 19, 2015, Nanuq died at SeaWorld Orlando due to an altercation with another beluga whale. The truth is Nanuq was placed in a tank with a younger, aggressive male and should not have been. It is highly unnatural to be confined in very close quarters in a cement pool with other whales they do not choose to be with.”

“The breeding does not come naturally at the Vancouver Aquarium.”

“Frightening news about the standards and accreditations of zoos and aquariums. Those standards are 25-30 years old now.”

“Can we trust these accreditations? The chemicals used in the water are burning dolphins’ skin, and blinding seals and dolphins’ eyes, these animals won’t even eat because they are so sick – they have to have an appetite stimulant. There are four blind seals that were at the Vancouver Aquarium, sold to another.”

“In 2012, a baby beluga was hit, slammed and chased for hours by two male belugas until it died – it never should have been put in the same pool.”

“The lead accreditor that accredited Marineland Park (Niagara Falls in Canada) was John Nightingale.”

“There is a total conflict of interest – The President of CAZA (Canada Accredited Zoos and Aquariums) is also the V.P. of the Vancouver Aquarium. They are just accrediting themselves. It’s like a club. They have set up a system that benefits the aquarium. These industry accreditations are really a smokescreen to convince the public that they are good.”

“AZA (Accredited Zoos and Aquariums), CAZA, WAZA (World Accreditation of Zoo and Aquariums) – Are all just business trade associations, they are nothing more than the fox watching the hen house. They are not objective bodies, they are strictly to promote the aquarium business.”

“Qinu was removed from her mother at 2, far too early. Her mother died four months later at the age of 25.”

“Maris, barely a child, was moved to five different aquariums. She gave birth to two calves and lost both of them.”

“Separating moms and baby whales is one of the most repulsive things to me about oceanariums. I saw how the female whale I was studying did—she slammed her entire body into the concrete over and over again, till she was bleeding. Then she lay on the floor of the concrete tank for days, barely coming up for food. She was depressed for months.”

“Is this really the educational message we want to send to our children, that it’s ok to keep sentient, socially complex, intelligent beings – in a bathtub?”

“What you are doing, is just showing a child the ‘form’ of a whale or mammal, not the substance, not anything more.”

“It’s time to rid aquariums of cetaceans. The benefits have been had. It’s just not necessary any more.”

“There is not one shred of evidence that dolphin and whale displays are educational. Scientific evidence proves this.”

“Whether to keep whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity is an ethical question It is not difficult to answer. The bottom line is whales and dolphins to not belong in swimming pools.” (Senator Wilfred Moore, 2015)

“That’s crap to think keeping whales inside an aquarium helps them in the wild, or helps to understand them better, it’s simply not true. Their basic requirements are not met inside of a swimming pool. We cannot create the same conditions as in the wild.” (Biologist)

“There’s very little that comes out of any aquarium that helps in any kind of conservation efforts.” (Biologist)

“There is no evidence that any of the studies from the Vancouver Aquarium has ever led to saving a whale or dolphin in the wild.”

“They have had belugas in the Vancouver Aquarium for over 50 years, and not one single wild beluga whale has ever been helped by the captive belugas in concrete tanks.”

“The Vancouver Aquarium lied about rescuing and rehabilitating three dolphins. Instead, they bought these dolphins away from their bonds at other aquariums. They supported the Japanese in the bloody Taiji capture of dolphins.”

“Beluga whales we know live into their 60s, their 70s, and may even live into their 80s and older. But in the Vancouver Aquarium, none are over 35-40 years old, they all die prematurely.” (Biologist)

“The Vancouver Aquarium Calf Death Rate – There were a total of 10 births, and a 90% mortality rate, almost none have survived in the aquarium. All three orca calves have died.”

“So what’s killing these belugas and their babies? It’s captivity itself. Their innate needs are not being met in captivity. They feel stress, anxiety, misery, depression – they are not emotionally well.”

“It’s becoming very clear that these cetaceans are not happy, and are not healthy, and that the Vancouver Aquarium is misleading the public.”

“There is an ever growing body of scientific evidence and data, that dolphins and whales cannot lead healthy lives or thrive in entertainment parks. They lead more stressful lives, less healthy lives, and lead much shorter lives than in the wild. All of the evidence concentrates on one inescapable conclusion—that these mammals cannot lead healthy lives in captivity.”

“After years of researching these two whales in Los Angeles, I felt that I was studying two female whales who had actually gone insane from captivity. Their babies died, they could not nurse, it was very clear the amount of stress on these whales was enormous.”

“Another cause of death is from pennies and garbage being thrown into the aquarium at Vancouver. Nala died from pennies thrown into the aquarium, from poisoning.”

“Belugas are swimming in circles over and over again. With nowhere to go, nothing to do, no stimulation, and no pod—she does nothing but swim in circles all day. This is her life, repeating the same pattern every minute, every hour, and every day, until she is forced to do tricks for entertainment. The aquarium calls this education and conservation.”

“There is a critical need for sea-pen sanctuaries, for dolphins and whales. But they do not exist and they need to be built. In sea-pens, the animals can swim faster and greater distances. They can dive. They can hunt, and they can keep greater distances from each other.”

“Worldwide, many aquaria have closed their whale and dolphin shows and they continue to thrive. Over 12 countries have now banned cetaceans in captivity. In Canada, all have ended this practice except Marineland and the Vancouver Aquarium.”