Ten Worst Tanks for Dolphins and Whales in North America #9 - Vancouver Aquarium, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada For Being Beluga Breeding Mills On the surface, the Vancouver Aquarium appears to be a straightforward nonprofit organization. But it actually operates under a number of different identities and is responsible for some of the most objectionable treatment of beluga whales in North America. The nonprofit aquarium is a prominent beluga-breeding partner with for-profit commercial theme parks. Of Vancouver Aquarium’s seven beluga whales, two are currently held at Georgia Aquarium and four are at various SeaWorld locations. Vancouver Aquarium beluga Nanuq was at SeaWorld Orlando, Florida, when he fractured his jaw while “interacting” with others and died from the resulting infection, re-igniting opposition to captive cetacean breeding. Vancouver Aquarium belugas “on loan” to SeaWorld produced nine baby belugas between 2006 and 2015. Tragically, in those nine years, reportedly only two baby belugas survived. Vancouver Aquarium belugas “on loan” to SeaWorld can be subjected to artificial insemination, which typically occurs with workers manually collecting semen from males and artificially inducing ovulation in females with drugs. The females are eventually sedated, removed from the water and, while rendered helpless, are invasively impregnated via deep, intra-uterine artificial insemination. This industrialized breeding occurs with puppy-mill regularity, sometimes less than a year after giving birth. This highly invasive process can be especially hard on the females. Two beluga mothers, Whisper and Ruby, were reportedly forced to bear the physical and emotional impact of five infant deaths, some stillborn, within four years, one after another. Vancouver Aquarium is scheduled to complete a $100 million expansion by 2017 with a capacity to hold eight belugas. Yet even Dr. Jane Goodall has singled out Vancouver Aquarium’s breeding program as “no longer defensible by science. This is demonstrated by the high mortality rates evident in these breeding programs and by the ongoing use of these animals in interactive shows as entertainment.” We couldn’t agree more.