To the editor:
Re: "Letter of the week," Sept. 28.
I am writing in response to the latest false statement made by the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Aquarium in your newspaper. "Our three Pacific whitesided dolphins did not come from the Japanese drive fishery nor were they purchased."
No Whales In Captivity is a Vancouver-based group that has been monitoring the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Aquarium's ongoing purchasing and selling of marine mammals for 20 years. We are aware that aquarium spokespeople regularly make statements that cannot go unchallenged.
For example, aquarium officials last week were busy telling the media that only three baby belugas had died in that display tank in Stanley Park, when the truth is that four baby belugas have died there. Tiqa, Nala and Tuvaq were only the latest baby belugas to die in captivity. The aquarium conveniently "forgot" to tell you the story of Tuaq, who was born in 1977 to Kavna after she was captured pregnant. Tuaq lived less than four months in that tank. So the truth is that Tuaq was the first baby beluga to die at the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Aquarium, and Tiqa was the fourth, not the third dead baby beluga. Now the aquarium is saying that the three performing dolphins in Stanley Park were not purchased. Whaleshit! We can refer to many old news reports that claim otherwise, but I'll just quote from one report published In the National Post on Aug. 1, 2001. It reads, "Mr. Nightingale would not say how much the aquarium paid for Whitewings' companion but he said staff visits to Japan, the dolphin's transport from Osaka to Vancouver, and the actual purchase totaled about $300,000."
By 2006, the aquarium had purchased two more dolphins from Japan. The beluga whale and dolphin exhibits should be phased out as well because cruelty should not be fun, even if it makes the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Aquarium a lot of money.
Annelise Sorg, Vancouver
