Vancouver Aquarium

The Vancouver Aquarium was started in 1956 in its current Stanley Park location. It began as a tiny operation with seven employees and gradually expanded into a 9,290 sq m (100,000 sq ft) facility with 385 staff. It is Canada’s largest aquarium and houses approximately 70,000 individual animals, ranging from invertebrates to whales.

In 2001, the Vancouver Aquaruium shipped Bjossa, their sole surviving orca, to Sea World, San Diego effectively ending their display of killer whales. However, the aquarium continues to display beluga whales, dolphins, pinnipeds and hundreds of other aquatic species.

The Vancouver Aquarium has generated considerable controversy for many years, particularly for its practice of keeping marine mammals (e.g., whales, dolphins) and for proposals to expand their footprint into additional areas of Stanley Park.

Zoocheck Canada has opposed the keeping of marine mammals at the aquarium, publicly expressed concerns over other aspects of the Vancouver Aquarium operation, actively opposed their expansion plans and will continue to do so in future.

Vancouver Aquarium Cetacean Inventory